Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

Well, here's my list:

1. www.NationalVO.com (expensive)

2. www.simon.com/mall/shop.aspx (all ranges)

3. www.marvel.com/flash.htm (average)

4. www.macromedia.com (average/expensive)

5. https://www.canadadrugstop.com/ (cheap)

I have tons of other examples but these are perhaps what I consider worthy of praise.

Interesting angle! Thanks for the brain candy!

https://www.rolls-royce.com (expensive)
https://www.rayban.com (average/expensive)
https://www.nike.com (average/expensive)
https://www.bbc.co.uk (average)
https://www.coors.com (average)
https://www.umbro.co.uk (average)
https://www.metcheck.com (cheap)

Thanks to everyone who responded. My first glance at the suggested sites confused me, because I didn't see much copy on them at all. I'll look at the suggested sites in more detail tonight, and then award the points for the question.

Plus I'll go buy a copy of Nat Enq and look for copy. However, I'm concerned that studying the Nat Enq for examples of good copy writing may result in the wrong flavor. Myself and my clients are not targeting the type of person who reads the Nat Enq, just as Saks is not targeting a Wal Mart shopper. But it will be fun to have a drink and read about aliens taking over the Internet.

how about:
- https://www.tesco.com/help/ ... great tone, and very clear... and help text is tough to get right
- https://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/ ... home page has short, punchy copy - drilling down into product descriptions get you to similarly punchy detailed product info
-< class="resplink" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.audi.co.uk/newcars/newA6/addresssearch.jsp?theWizardStep=0> gives a nice balance between Advertising splash copy & text detail
- https://new.blogger.com/ in a 'does what it says on the tin' kind of way

hth

Will Rowan

The Fifth P raises a great point in that all copy (no matter what media used), should talk on the same level as who is reading it. So on a generic level its Person to Person, but you do also need to delve deeper into who your 'reader' actually is:

Technical Purchaser
Financial Director
User
Adult
Child
Literate
Illiterate!
etc etc

Once you know who your audience is, you can write for them :-)

This has turned out to be much harder than I had anticipated.

I'm sorry, but most of the links that were posted here were pointed to a website, not a specific webpage. I just didn't have the time to dig into each website, trying to find a page with great content on it. For the links that went to an actual page, I felt that the content on that page was not very inspiring.

After looking at all the links, I feel even more confused about what makes good copy.

I'm splitting the points among :

The Fifth P (Cameron Moll) - for the link to NickUsborne.com, and Cameron's own site which has great content from a human;

Cristian - for the link to an actual page (gasp!) at the MarketingSherpa.com. Even though I cringe at the thought of long run-on copy, that page is broken up well into many sections throuhg the use of bold text headlines that scream benefits of purchasing the product;

Sean - for the link to his pdf which is a good starting point when faced with a blank screen;

Furthermore, I 'd like to comment on the second posting by AndrewS (2/2/04), for pointing out that your content should speak to the type of person your target is considered. I've seen many of the larger sites (Citrix.com) try to divide their content into profile-based needs, depending on what the visitor is responsible for. But for a small scale site, which would be overwhelmed by the numerous versions of content, the concept is good. I believe that if you can write your content so that it solves the problem of your targeted visitor, in a way that they understand, then you've done a great job on the content.

An article from today's (2/05/04) USAToday https://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2004-02-04-google-cover_x.htm caused one of my clients to call me, mouth watering, to buy ad space on Google.com. That was an example of great copy without being an advertisement. It follows the latest trend that if you can disguise your copy as an editorial or news story, it comes off as being more sincere and believeable. I thought that was an example of great copy.

Thanks everybody for your responses.