Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

Dear Word.magic,

Ever had a dog? Or a cat? Ever been attached to a warm, fluffy animal that's suffered in some way? I have. Brutal.

Scamps though they might be, dogs and cats and so on love their people without condition and no matter what trouble they get into, regardless of what they destroy or chew or vomit on, all they have to do is look at us with those big brown eyes and our hearts melt.

And this even applies to crusty old gits like me.

Don't believe me? Plonk your arse on the sofa with a big box of Kleenex and watch the movie "Marley and Me" without shedding a tear. Not possible old chap. Can't be done.

Dogs and cats have an almost magnetic hold over us. I don't think the same can be said for lizards and tarantulas and snakes. But there's something about those bundles of fluffy cuteness that makes us happy. I defy you not to smile as Fido rolls on the floor after an endless game of fetch, all puppy belly pink and tongue lolling.

Again. Not possible.

The comedian Steven Wright says he couldn't have a dog because it's just renting heartbreak. The pain of this kind of heartbreak CANNOT be made up. You've got to FEEL it. And the ONLY way you get to feel stuff like this is by LIVING it.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

So, how can you personalize a long sales letter? Dear chap, you
do this the same way you'd personalize ANYTHING. You take the reader by the hand and you make the tale real by telling a story.

A story based on FEELINGS and EMOTION. A story based on EXPERIENCE. And experience based on SIGNIFICANCE.

And you do this by telling a true story.

"Ohhh!" whines the novice copywriter "MUST it be true?". To which the answer is do you want to be BELIEVED? Or do you just want to come across a word slinging schmuck?

To be believed you must tell the truth.

To tell the truth you must base your story on actual events. To know actual events, you must have been there. To have been there you need to have been around. And to have been around, you must be prepared to go somewhere and to take note of the things you saw.

Way too many people drift through life with their eyes shut. Great copywriters see EVERYTHING and they take notes, even if those notes are merely mental notes.

I've been writing copy for a long time. My first ad won an award. The trouble is that the award is way too big to fit on my mantle piece. I watched someone read my ad from beginning to end.
My "award" was that I then witnessed the reader take action.

Copy that's written with the intention of deception is unethical and there's no payoff for the reader—or for the writer. But copy that's written based on experience is powerful, powerful stuff.

Why? BECAUSE IT CONNECTS!

DO NOT make your story up. So alas, this means your fictional pet owner is out. I've no idea how old you are, where you live or anything like this, but THINK.

You must have some memory or experience connected with some kind of pet somewhere in your past. A friend's dog or cat? THINK!

You've been asked to write on behalf of a vet doc? The old "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" thing has been done to death and NO ONE BELIEVES IT!

So step aboard your time machine and go back to your past and find a story and tell it as if you were there. Connect and weave those threads into the fabric of the reader's reality.

Make your reader "see" what you saw; make them "feel" what you felt; make your loss and pain their loss and pain. Give your reader's something to invest in and to relate to because of the empathy you build.

But don't sell.

Whatever it is you are "selling" cannot be part of the a pitch because if it is, your tale won't ring true. You must offer a set of connected reasons to believe, to invest, and to connect your tale to your letter.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA