These Two Types of Copywriters Can’t Sell Your Product — But the Third is a Selling Machine

What’s the purpose of advertising? SALES!

As I look at the ads piling into my mailbox, the newspaper, the latest edition of the ESPN magazine, or, worst of all, my email, I’m blown away by the usage of extremes. One has no bite, the next one will take off your arm (and sometimes a leg). This one only talks about the latest discount (which always seems to end that night), that one gives you the impression they’re not even selling a product.

What do these artists of the extremes have in common? They’re not selling your product.

The underlying issue is that many copywriters don’t identify what transforms a window shopper into a buyer. They’re stuck on their own process and not on the customer. The process should include the customer’s wants, needs, hopes, and fears. It should also build trust, create urgency, and answer potential objections. Great copy creates needs and leads!

Pointing out the issues with these methods of copy is simple, but how do you get your copywriter to refocus and get back to selling your products?

Copywriter Types

The Spartan

Taking as little as is necessary, the Spartan copywriter goes straight for the sale, writing process be darned. He lives a minimalist writing style, leaving the benefits of the product to the imagination of the reader, hoping the offer is enough to make the sale. The issue is that hope is a bad business plan. This writer isn’t selling; he’s telling.

The Spartan copy is a pretty easy fix. Just tell the customer about the product! Why should they buy your product? What benefits will it bring to their lives? Why choose you over a host of competitors? SELL THEM! Customers want to be sold by the right company. If your company sells a great product, stands behind it, and takes a customer-first approach to business, sell them! They want to do business with you, not some shady company who has to change its name and contact information every two years.

The Hopeless Creative

The other extreme, the hopelessly creative, are the tougher crowd to correct. Excessive pride in their creative talents can turn them away from the primary purpose of their copy, (say it with me) selling your product. Creativity is great, but, when removed from a method or procedure, it will negatively impact your bottom line and company’s image.

Advertising legend, David Ogilvy, says in Ogilvy on Advertising, “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”

Beware the copywriter who sacrifices your sales for his own creative self-gratification. Flip through any magazine or newspaper that’s lying around your home or office. Do the advertisements grab your attention? Do you remember any of the ads you saw yesterday? Off the top of my head, I remember seeing an ad for an alpaca supply store with a gift shop (my wife loves llamas) and one promoting a raised garden bed. I could tell you exactly which companies sold those products and how much the gardening equipment cost.

Now, contrast that information with the ads I don’t remember. Some of the pictures and placement formulas come to mind, but they’re so generic and uninformative that I can’t remember what companies dished out the money for the display or what products they were selling.

The Warrior Poet

On their own, The Spartan and Hopeless Creative miss the mark. They are signs of strengths pushed to extremes, sacrificing balance, comprehensiveness, and your sales. Copywriters must have a little of both; they’re warriors to move your product and poets to grab the customer’s attention. The Warrior Poet will grab the reader’s attention, keep it by framing the reader’s problem, dramatize the issue, and then emerge as the long-awaited hero, selling the benefits of your product and solving the customer’s dilemma.

Former Coca-Cola marketing head Sergio Zyman addressed this issue in his book, The End of Advertising as We Know It, saying, "advertisers are basically being stripped bare by ad agencies whose ads aren't doing what they're supposed to do: Sell more stuff to more people more often and for more money." That last line is blunt and powerful. Is your copy achieving that end?

So what’s the point?

When your company advertises, is your objective to blend in with a host of bland, uninformative smatterings masquerading as an advertisement or are you looking to increase your revenue through sales and lead generation?

If it’s that first objective, we need to talk, PRONTO! If you’re in that second group, you’re on the right track. Advertising is an investment. It must create a sense of longing in the prospective customer because you’ve made them aware of a gaping hole in their lives, one that can only be filled by your product.

Ben Gay III, in The Closers Part 2, says, “You must develop the ability to create problems that didn’t exist at all (until you arrived, created them, pointed them out, dramatized them, and then—and only then—provided the solutions to these new potential catastrophes in their lives).

Copy’s persuasiveness comes through creating a problem, providing the solution, and developing a sense of urgency. When your business or product launched, it was in answer to a problem. You are a professional provider of solutions, a fact that should be reflected in your copywriting. Are your advertisements selling the benefits of your products or services to prospective clients? Are they targeting the right audience? According to a 2017 HubSpot study, prospecting is the most difficult part of the sales process for salespeople. Is your copy working in tandem with the sales department? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, isn’t it time to make a commitment to your company, as well as yourself, that you’re not going to sacrifice quality in copy?

Copy as a Pre-close

In most cases, companies can use advertising to directly sell their product. However, some require an appointment with a salesperson. If your company falls into the second category, the advertisement will not directly sell the customer, but your copy must accomplish two things: 1) generate a lead and 2) pre-close the customer.

Only 29% of people want to talk to a salesperson to learn more about a product, while 62% will consult a search engine (HubSpot study in 2016). Your copy has to give them a reason to make the appointment and commit part of their day to a meeting with a total stranger. Trust is key. Before they ever pick up the phone to schedule an appointment, they must know that they 1) desperately need your product to fix this massive problem they’ve just discovered and 2) that your company is worthy of their trust. They need to know that they’re not just a sale. That you will improve their quality of life, stand behind your product, and have their best interest at heart. Take care of your customers and they will take care of you.

Go back and look at the ads in your local newspaper or the last magazine to pop into your mailbox. Did they build trust? Are the company’s values clear in their writing? Would you call to set up an appointment a salesperson from that company?

The skilled copywriter has the ability to take a step back, put himself in the shoes of the customer and give honest answers to these questions. Raising objections and answering them in the copy, before it hits the press, separates the copywriters from the dreamers, the Spartans and Hopeless Creatives from the Warrior Poets. Compelling copy will unlock an incredible amount of new business for your company and keep repeat customers coming back to you. Is your copywriter cutting it?

Open and honest feedback is greatly appreciated, as is your contribution to furthering this discussion. Comment below to join the conversation.