Much of today's accepted copywriting wisdom comes from old books written for a different, quieter world.For most of
twentieth century, widely promoting a successful message was expensive and difficult, requiring control of significant resources and substantial time commitments. Though general public was more trusting and open to suggestion, more effort was required to reach them. Until mid-nineties, marketing was generally a money game: whoever could afford loudest message often sold most product.
The information age - and Internet in particular - changed all that.
Today, your competitors aren't other businesses providing similar services: they are millions of voices screaming at top of their lungs, desperate for attention. They are vast seas of noise - four billion websites that are of no interest to your prospects, commercials that don't relate to them, telemarketing calls that still interrupt their dinner despite new laws. Your competitors are everyone and everything that pushes general public into apathy, desensitized by information overload.
Creative and pushy techniques don't work when a million other people are doing same thing. The battle today is not to make people listen, but to convince them that you are worth listening to. While authenticity has always been a good strategy, now it is entire game.
To write truly effective marketing copy, you must go beyond buzzwords, slogans and pitches, to get to secrets that make your business unique and credible:
Challenge your own assumptions about your clients and their needs. It is easy to fall into trap of limiting your market with faulty assumptions. Take a hard look at your current marketing efforts - who do you think your clients are, and why do you think that? Gather as much information about your clients as possible and challenge any beliefs you hold that are not based on solid evidence. Never assume that common wisdom is actually true - it often isn't.
