Is direct response copywriting a science or an art?

[Alex Cohen]

Is direct response copywriting a science or an art?

It's both.

Science, because there are certain elements EVERY direct response sales piece MUST HAVE for maximum impact:

1. Believability
2. Benefits touch driving emotions
3. Clarity
4. Urgency
5. Call to action

Can you sell without these five elements? Sure, but not very well.

Art, because there are a multitude of ways a copywriter can string words together to create a pitch.

Alex

[copyassassin]

here's a great thread that goes into detail about this topic:

Copywriting — 10% Art and 90% Science?

[EricMN]

When I first decided to dive into copy I sort of laughed at the idea of it being a science. I had come off an honours degree in psychology, neuroscience and behaviour. . . How could writing copy be a science?

By the time I was knee deep in copy I couldn't believe how wrong I was. There is a lot of science in copywriting and the process of creating good copy is very scientific. Although Alex put out some points, I'd like to highlight others that solidify it as such. . .

1. Testing

In science, everything is an experiment. You start with a hypothesis, you craft a procedure to test that hypothesis, you obtain data and you get results. From those results you make conclusions.

Sound familiar?

If you aren't familiar with copywriting and reading this, this is what everyone is referring to when they go on about "testing". Would X improve sales? Let's implement X. What data did we obtain? Tweak accordingly to maximize results.

2. Copy is a game of psychology which is, itself, a science!

For anyone who thinks these are just words strung together to make a sale, think again. All one has to do is look at Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational to see the profound impact of psychology on our decisions. There are countless other books, many of which have taken these mechanisms and focused them towards copy.

These aren't crackpot idealogies, these are empirically tested behaviours that influence our decisions and ultimately whether we buy or not.

So we are then scientists (and I would argue, technologists) of the psyche.

As an art?

Art starts as science only to become science again.

Scientists hold the strategy; artists hold the style. Find me a great copywriter who doesn't have both in spades.

[Suellen Reitz]

Being a writer, I have to say, it's mostly art. Yes, there are specific points which must be made to be a legit sales page... but if not written in such a way that draws the reader into the body of the page... wanting to know more... seeing themselves with their new "product X"... it's just words. People have to be brought into a state of emotion to want to buy... and that... takes the art of a skillfull writer.

[Ken_Caudill]

Sonnets are science, too, I guess.

They have to have a specific meter, an exact number of lines, a strict rhyme scheme.

Some people like certain sonnets better than other sonnets, so testing is appropriate to see what the public likes.

Sonnets evoke emotional responses just like sales copy.

Just think... If Will Shakespeare had done sonnet seminars, there would have been an explosion of Elizabethan would-be poets inundating the British public with vapid re-writes beginning with shall I compare thee to a Summer's day. Smart entrepreneurs would've hawked hypnotic sonnets that that would have a damsel out of her drawers in 30 seconds flat.

Scary, ain't it?

I don't even want to start with haiku.

[Ken Strong]

Originally Posted by Ken_Caudill

I don't even want to start with haiku.

Science Haiku

[Ken_Caudill]

Heh. Loved the Schroedinger haiku.

I have a thing for semi-dead cats.

[Cam Connor]

It's funny how often those 2 seemingly contradictory concepts coincide. But yes, I would agree, it's both an art and a science.