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Brett recently delivered our copywriting workshop, Copy Savvy to a posse from the Brotherhood of St Laurence. Few were formally trained in copywriting or communications but all wanted to be better writers as they write as part of their job for audiences internal and external.
Cosmo writes good copy and utilises the first-guinea pig style.
At one point Brett excitedly declared: “You see – it’s not hard to dramatically improve your copywriting. Not hard.” Let’s see – here’s some of his advice for anyone wanting to simply improve their copywriting;
- make it shorter;
- make it more specific – resist the temptation to cover multiple topics;
- use precise examples such as exactly how you will spend donations;
- add a headline or make the existing headline more attention-grabbing;
- add explanatory and interesting sub-headings to increase readability;
- use bullet points for the same reason;
- add images; perhaps more than one;
- add images that are a little cryptic and explain them with a caption;
- add captions to images and use them to inject personality / levity;
- add a quote and add it early;
- ensure all quotes sound real and add humanity or punch – if they could just as easily be read outside of quotation marks as general text and still make sense, the quote is boring and robotic;
- write in the first person;
- consider writing in the first person as something non-human;
- consider whether you can swap words for an infographic;
- reduce the number of people who can opinionate / offer feedback.
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You don’t need to be a crack writer to implement any of these points so go forth and write good copy. If you think this can help anyone, please share it. Now go book yourself a place at Copy Savvy or book one for your whole team – anywhere, anytime.