Copy Tip 4 : But I Love to Write Copy

We will soon be returning from the social and business purgatory of the last year, so I'd like to share some ideas on changing your client's message. Each Thursday I will try to bring a new copy tip your way. This is the next in a series of those tips.

If you wish to talk about individual issues regarding copy and creative, please find my contact information on my profile. Thank you.

Face it - almost everyone in radio sales has, at one time or another, had to write their own copy for ads. Maybe your station was too small to hire a creative person or staff. Maybe your cluster had their staff cut because of budget or COVID issues. Maybe management feels it's part of your job. The reason is unimportant - most of us have had to do it. Some end up eventually getting help and move away from the day to day need. Others have to stay with it.

Well, this isn't about changing minds or begging anyone to hire us (I save that for seminars). This is about making the best of what you do because there are a few hard facts about what you write and what airs for your client.

Most people are not trained in the formal art of creative writing,. Some take a class or two throughout their life when they're in school and others write for fun. But most never understand the basics of creative copywriting, let alone how to truly measure the results of what those ads do or do NOT produce.

The hard facts are, we write what we know, or what we've heard. Here's what I mean.

We write what we've heard. If you're taxed with writing a multi-voice radio ad, most people start with what they've heard before, in multiple voice radio ads. That's why so many of them seem so staged or schmaltzy - because they're created by people who are just recreating ads that they've heard. And those ads, in most cases, were created in the same way. And so on and so on and so on all the way back to 1965. So the same system and structure just keeps getting replicated again and again.

We write what we know. When we write an ad, no matter the content or length, we write what's in our head. We've heard hundred of ads in our lives and again, since we have no formal training, we write what we know. So if a client has a laundry list, we do what's been done thousands of times before. If a client has menu items or specials, we just write it the way it's always been done. If a client has 10 bullet points, we do our best to stuff them in or at least as many as we can handle in the time they've bought. Clients approve, they like the fact that their details are mentioned - we're happy. That's the prime reason all the ads sound like carbon copies of each other. It's also the same reason 90% of them do NOT achieve the results they set out to. But we don't have the training to do something else, so we write what we know.

I can't change your patterns in a simple article like this - that takes time peeling back a few layers to get you to understand more about the creative / sales interaction and process. But I can help you with ways to start your creative search, in the hopes of finding a good 'hook' for your spot - in other words, maybe a new spin on an old idea. There are some great places to look. Here's just a few suggestions.

Supermarket tabloids - the creative idea starters here are priceless. The key to them, that you need to take away is - how did they get your attention? With the headline. So, remind yourself that spots need to catch people's attention immediately - and the tabloids offer a amazing number of different ideas each week in how to do that.

Reality TV - again, a great source of the absurd and over the top. Everything in these is bigger than life - which is the key to helping you to promote your client or their product. There are so many of these that writers HAVE TO come up with new and inventive ways to get you to watch. But even the title of the shows give you a great creative trove from which to start. 'Bride in 90 Days', 'Storage Wars', 'The Worst Cook in America' - the list just goes on.

The Onion (theonion.com) - I DO NOT BELIEVE that this is a subscription website, so feel free to drop over and see the latest and greatest ideas from satire writers who make their bones doing this. Fun stuff, and it could lead you to a great way to take a different angle on something you're stuck in a rut with.

LET ME BE CLEAR - this is not a suggestion that you go to these sources and rip off ideas word for word. Uh-uh. These are IDEA STARTERS, and should be treated as such. They are ways to stimulate and motivate that part of your writing brain that's become soft and pudgy. BUT DO NOT RIP OFF THEIR IDEAS WORD FOR WORD. BAD IDEA.

The creative process is never easy and there are no guarantees any one idea will be successful but again, you have to constantly change and improve, otherwise you get stale and so does the ad sound. And, I might ad, clients who do not see results are not going to help you build your revenue base.

So STOP writing what you know. STOP writing what you've heard. START expanding your creative horizons and resources. START learning how a solid, powerful radio ad is written.

And remember, BENMARadio is here to help. No brag, just fact.