Carefully crafted copy
Brilliant Freelancer, the book I’ve been busy writing, is due out in May. But the website is alive today: www.brilliantfreelancer.com
Check out the website, and be sure to register – you’ll get a free chapter and the chance to win Brilliant Freelancer.
I’ll also be producing additional freelance advice, so if you are freelance, or thinking about making the leap, stay tuned!
Thanks to Mike Hadfield of Volicol for designing and building the Brilliant Freelancer website.
Brighton’s first content strategy meetup is happening on 23 February at iCrossing’s office in central Brighton.
Here’s the blurb from Charlie Peverett’s event page:
You are cordially invited to Brighton’s inaugural CS meetup! For strategists, web writers, editors, UX designers and IAs; from Brighton, London and beyond.
Starting with drinks and nibbles in the iCrossing canteen, we’ll kick things off with a group discussion around the theme (honouring the recent TedxBrighton)
Reasons to be cheerful (about the future of content)
If you’ve got a reason to be cheerful, please submit it (with URL if relevant) to charlie.peverett@icrossing.co.uk by 5pm on the day, and be ready to tell us all what it’s all about.
Thanks to Richard Ingram for the lovely diagram illustrating this post.
Do you write copy?
Kendall Copywriting, in partnership with The Copy House, is looking for talented and experienced freelance writers – especially those who ‘get’ the web.
You can see our job ad on WiredSussex, but here’s the summary:
As a copywriting and content agency based in the centre of Brighton, we devote ourselves to creating finely crafted copy and content for major brands all over the UK.
As well as being a team of writers, we work with brand language consultants, content strategists and user experience specialists to make sure each piece of writing we produce is strategically sound, creatively endearing and forms a healthy part of the bigger picture.
Some of our end clients include YMCA Training, Fitness First, NHS, The Film Council and Unison Trade Union, as well as several London and Brighton design agencies.
Job description:
To build up our portfolio of writers for several upcoming projects in association with Kendallcopywriting.co.uk, we’re on the lookout for a set of exceptional individuals who have:
Over 3 years experience
Skills Range:
We’re looking for:
I was lucky enough to get a ticket for TEDx Brighton, the conference that aimed to deliver a few “reasons to be cheerful”.
The conference was fantastic – a phenomenal experience considering none of the attendees paid a penny to attend. Tom Bailey, the organiser, has a lot to be proud of. It was also a pleasure to watch two familiar locals, Anthony Mayfield and Will McInnes, deliver excellent talks.
However, my favourite bit of one big awesome day was hearing about Sally Kettle’s adventure’s in rowing the Atlantic. Sally told us a tale that sounded somewhat like a peculiar daydream, rather than something a person actually did. A spur of the moment decision to row the Atlantic ended when her partner pulled out sick, so Sally called on her long-estranged mum. They then spent the next four months rowing together, across the actual Atlantic.
During the arduous voyage Sally would sometimes complain, “I hope the current changes direction” or “I hope the weather holds out for us” or “I hope we reach land soon”. Eventually Sally’s mum snapped, “Stop hoping for things. Hope does nothing to change anything. Hope is not an action plan. If you want to reach land sooner, row harder. There’s no hope on the boat.”
I love this idea. When Sally first mentioned her catchphrase, it sounded very bleak. “No hope” – doesn’t sound great, does it? But the meaning is incredibly positive, because it’s a call to arms. It’s an encitement to take charge, to take control and to stop waiting for things to happen.
So if you ever catch yourself hoping, or praying, for things to change, stop. Less hope, more rowing.
Should web copy look the same on similar pages of a website?
For example, if you have ten product pages, should the copy look consistent across those ten pages? Should the copy use the same formatting and follow exactly the same pattern (eg opening question, list of benefits, explantory paragraph, call to action)?
While it might seem desirable to use a consistent approach, this does bring problems.
Firstly, you can quickly find yourself trying to force content into a shape that doesn’t work.
The other problem, I believe, is that your ten pages (or whatever) all look the same. And they may even read the same, or have echoes of each other. Kinda boring, no?
What do you think?
I saw this van in Hove recently. So, ‘Hove Paints’… what do they do?
They probably don’t do painting, although they could do painting.
They probably sell paint. But what kind of paint? Is it paint for artists? Or paint for children? Is it paint for your living room? Or paint for factories? Do they sell to ordinary people? Or are they just a trade supplier?
If you’re going to create a mobile advert by painting your van, why not be clear about what you do, and who you do it for?
Love this example of an error message in real life. It’s a 404 page in the real world.
We accidentally put some glass beer bottles (some rather excellent Belgians if you’re interested), in amongst all the paper and plastic, so the curbside recycling collectors put some message tape over our recycling box, making us aware of the problem.
The nice thing is that it’s light-hearted. My wife and I spend ages cleaning, sorting and saving recyclables, so I appreciate the council not berating us for getting something wrong. Instead of making us feel stupid, we get a gentle reminder on the correct system:
I received an email from someone selling speed networking events. Noticing a few flaws in the copy, I thought it would be a useful exercise to publicly review the content, and suggest improvements. I’m not an email marketing expert, nor do I know much about speed networking events, but there are a few universal principles for writing effective copy, so here are my thoughts on this particular copywriting challenge…
maximiser
Giving an email such a short, uncommunicative and unpunctuated subject isn’t wise. You need to give people reasons to open an email, not confuse them with a single, meaningless word. What does ‘maximiser’ even mean? It’s not a well known brand, nor is it a key feature of their service – and it definitely doesn’t explain what the email is offering. Why the hell did I even open this email?
A better alternative?
Speed networking for faster business – join the crowd next week
Speed Networking xxxx bring Business People together, our events are an extremely cost efficient use of your time, energy and money.
Companies constantly cry out for quick and easy ways to find and develop new customers, so If you like meeting people, want to develop more business, also wish to build a large network of important business contacts and connections, then this is the perfect meeting forum for you.
This paragraph contains all kinds of little problems, including run-on sentences, errant capitals and a list that might do better with bullet points, but the main problem is that this email begins without any clear message. No headline. No title. No focal point.
A better alternative?
Speed networking is back in your town: join the crowds of people benefitting from lively, friendly networking that works.
Why should you attend?
- Just imagine pitching your business to a different person every 3minutes.
- We give you the opportunity to explore the possibilities of doing business with other similar minded business people in a positive business working environment.
- You can expect to have a one2one mini business meeting with everyone in the room.
- In business there is no substitute for meeting people face2face, there’s a much greater chance of creating new business than relying on cold calling.
The first point fails because to some it might sound more like a drawback than a benefit. Yes, just imaging pitching your business to a different person every 3 minutes! Does that sound like fun? Or does it sound like some kind of corporate torture? This point is insensitive to many people’s feelings about networking – it’s unlikely to persuade the doubters (assuming they ever opened the email).
The second point is a big tangle of a sentence, and needs editing.
The third point includes the peculiar construction “one2one” – which is not hip, or professional.
The fourth point includes another oddity: “face2face”. It feels like this email was temporarily hijacked by a teenager using SMS.
A better alternative?
Why are people flocking to speed networking?
- You get to meet lots of interesting people in a short space of time
- You’re guaranteed an effective business opportunity
- Everyone is welcomed in a friendly, low-pressure environment
* I won’t reveal the close of this email because it reveals too much information about the sender, and my purpose is to help people trying to write better emails, not chastise a business for trying. 
But here, in the dying embers of the email, we discover the meaning of the mysterious ‘maximiser’! Now, at long last, we learn that the ‘maximiser’ is an option to lower the cost of speed networking by paying for several sessions at once. Was the email marketer so wrapped up in their own business that they forgot that, while this maximiser deal is important to them, nobody else knows about it? The email drips to an ending, offering a link to book your desired speed networking sessions – a link which probably should have come a little bit sooner.
I’ve been busy. Really busy. Busier than a bee on crack. In between a packed schedule of web copywriting jobs I’ve been writing a book on freelancing. Here’s what I’ve learnt about writing books:
1. Books take longer to write than you think. I thought it would take a couple of weeks, but I hadn’t factored in the time required for research and interviews.
2. Books are fairly easy to write if you have a cast-iron deadline. I’m staring down the barrel of my publisher’s deadline. I dare not disappoint them.
3. Books require planning. The spreadsheet has been my friend. With everything planned from the very beginning, I’ve been able to pace the production. The spreadsheet doesn’t write the book, but it does give you a blueprint.
4. Books demand a long, steady effort. You can’t just vomit up a book. They take time. And a persistent effort. It’s not always easy to keep a book chugging along, especially when you hit the sections that don’t ignite your passions.
5. The last long lap is the hardest. Nearly there!
So there aren’t really any sorrows – not with this book at least. Not yet.
One of my co-werkers here at The Werks, web designer Jay Alvarez, recently launched her new web agency: Root Interactive.
The new website is delightfully different, with the pages leading off down a series of bean stalks (you must try it yourself), but the most delicious detail of her brand is the unusual approach she took for business cards – or beansniss cards (sorry) – which she printed on butter beans.
One of her business cards is currently growing in our office.
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