WORDS MAKETH THE MESSAGE

A WORD (OR TWO) TO THE WISE

What’s the difference between good and great copy? Paaaaahlenty is the short answer!

Great copy flows.  It engages the audience with a gentle kiss to the nape of the neck, and then holds its attention as though cuffed to a table, though there is of course, no struggle to escape its clutches.

Great copy isn’t a patchwork quilt, which is to say, that it can’t be cobbled together in a discordant fashion akin to Frankenstein’s monster, incompatible sentences jarring against each other like closely moored boats in a swell.

And equally, bad copy can’t hide.  We see, hear or read it and immediately think “why?” - a negative reaction, often instantaneous, washes over one and the seedling of doubt is then sown.  

Bad communication equals poor effort, disinterest or a lackadaisical approach from the brand.  It shows a lack of respect to the audience and it doesn’t bode well when a business’ website, for example, has errors.  If it can’t be bothered getting the littlethings right, surely (and justifiably) the public perception of the brand will be; “what hope do I have if I’m not happy with the product or service and need to bring it to management’s attention?”  What hope indeed!

Despite howls of protest from the accountants and graphic designers out there, languageis our most important asset.  The ability to sell depends upon one’s ability to communicate the benefits (and to a lesser extent, features) of a particular product or service.  Numbers and/or images may play a part in the pitch – and often do – but, the heavy-lifting is performed by the copy.

Words capture the essence of a product, service or brand. They tell a story, evoke emotions and build interest.  Used correctly, brilliant copy creates compelling magic and puts lightning in jars!  Don’t be misled.  A picture is open to all kinds of interpretations.  A thousand words tells (is) a thousand words; but a well crafted sentence – just a handful of words – can become the most forcibly persuasive Call To Action/ motivator/explanation/driver a business can hope to harness.

Where does great copy come from?  Well, there’s an old saying, that if you send a pig’s ear around the world on a first class ticket, it will still return a pig’s ear. You wouldn’t let a plumber perform a colonoscopy on you, even though he or she understands pipes and may have a good bedside manner, and it’s also my contention that you wouldn’t get one of the wonderful men or women working the checkout at your local supermarket to do your tax returns, even though they’re generally pretty good with numbers.  You know where I’m going with this don’t you?  Of course you do, because this is great copy J  It’s now, apparently, a rhetorical question.  Great copy comes from great copywriters and in my experience, they’re as common as unicorns.

When NIKE unveiled its ‘Just Do It’ tagline, the company wasn’t talking about doing your own copy!  Red Bull might ‘Give you wings’ and Gillette may well make you feel ‘the best a man can get’ but even in combination, unless you’re a passionate wordsmith who makes a living fashioning copy from your grammatically attune and vocab-laden mind, then you should really leave it to those of us who love doing it.  It is after all, your most important sales tool.

Ask yourself this; would you try to sell your product or service in silence, without any printed, digital or aural materials of any kind to assist you?  No passing notes either by the way!  I thought not.  Who would? And if you would, you’ve read too far and I have wasted your time…sorry.

The ability to sell, vests in one’s ability to communicate; generally ‘effectively’ and ‘authentically’ and with ‘integrity’ – but always with words.  International accounting firm KPMG uses a tagline made up of words (not numbers) and the real irony lies in what it actually says; “It’s time for clarity”.  Try telling people that with numbers or in binary code!   

If you want to say something to an(y) audience, let's have a chat.

Thanks for your time,

Nic Karandonis