Don't Get Mad, Get Creative.

You might recall a recent post in which, as Greg Swann put it, I "kvetched" over the poor copy associated with most public listing descriptions. I'm very passionate about this issue because I think it is one of the most overlooked opportunities to generate quality leads. Always on the lookout for great resources for my readers and clients, I came across an outstanding blog dubbed, CopyBlogger. Written by a young man named Brian Clark, this blog should be an RSS feed that is read daily by anyone that is selling anything to anyone. Effective copy is a marketing activity that is a) one of the most difficult to master and b) one of the single most important ingredients in the marketing mix.

Visiting the site for the first time today, I was presented with a post entitled "3 Coercive Copywriting Techniques". It immediately piqued my interest because I've never believed one has to be coercive to sell. I fully expected to read a post that was probably going to piss me off or at best, turn out to be cheesy advice from someone with a method of extracting money from people who are struggling with their marketing efforts and willing to pony up in a desperate attempt to get a quick fix to their sales woes. After reading just a few sentences, I realized that Brian used his talents most effectively by writing that headline. He used it to grab my attention and in the very first sentence referenced two words, manipulation and lies, words that cause a reader to sit upright and slide a little forward in their chair to find out more. Brilliant.

As I devoured the rest of the post, it became apparent to me that Brian really gets it.

Online, this rampant cynicism is the motivation for a new movement some call Marketing 2.0. More authenticity, transparency, dialogue, proof, and education are the only way to overcome heavy skepticism according to this “new” school of thought.

I remember my early efforts in 1996 selling web solutions to clients who had to go through a tremendous learning curve. It was when we were able to effectively communicate the power of the accountability inherent in web marketing, that we were able to accelerate the sales process. We realized that those we were selling to usually subscribed to the old William Wrigley theory that half of their advertising budget was a complete waste of money, they just didn't know which half. When we created compelling, succinct copy that drove home the accountability factor, we were able to cut the selling cycle considerably.

Here's an example of copy that turned into a great opportunity. In the fall of 1997 I was at the helm of a small, but fast growing ISP that also provided web services, early web advertising buys etc. Southwestern Bell had finally come to the realization that a) The web was now important to businesses of all size and b) Small and nimble local ISP's were landing business that went beyond the scope of backbone access. SBC launched a big print campaign in several newspapers and business journals that took a sarcastic attitude toward their competition. They wanted to portray us as young turks with absolutely no business acumen at all. There were different ads that featured several different copy headlines, the one I remember, (not verbatim) was superimposed over a 20 something kid at a laptop and said "He thinks NASDAQ is a Car Racing Circuit". Another one featured an unkempt slacker type and said, ""He keeps up on the latest Internet encryption. He tracks click-through for your company's Web site. He thinks just-in-time delivery is when his pizza arrives before kickoff." We were amused at the first few ads, but they seemed to get a little more ridiculous with each release, so we decided to strike back. I hired a photographer and she brought in a model, (her backyard neighbor a big scruffy guy). I had her put him in a hard hat with a telephone lineman's tool belt sitting at computer with weight pulling on the belt to show just enough butt crack to keep it in good humor. We had him staring at the bottom of a computer mouse with a confused look on his face. What was our copy? "He thinks Active-X is an adult video and Java is the reason they invented the thermos."

Along with some additonal creative copy we ran the ad one time in the same business journal as SBC. It garnered national media attention from News.Com to large newspapers and web portals who couldn't get enough of the David Vs. Goliath metaphor. The SBC campaign stopped soon after. It wasn't our intention to get SBC to stop their campaign, in fact I didn't think for a second that they would. Maybe it had nothing do with our effort, (althought they were reported as saying they were not amused by our ad). We just leveraged a situation, sprinkled it with great copy and the rest was history.

I think it makes a great case study for the power of good copy writing. How about you?

P.S. If enough people request it, I'll dig up the ad, give it a scan and post it here at a later date.