How to stand out in a crowd - advice for cw's and marketers

Leah,

That's interesting...

But are you seriously suggesting
that "tried and tested" copywriting
and marketing methods should be
abandoned in favor of telling the
reader all about yourself first?

This CW I just found actually weaves in her experience with the benefits but the bulk of her opening lines (header) and paragraphs is about her experience and credentials.

(as you noted me own copy, use of the word 'I' is not seen in her copy, clever lady )

Copywriter | Award-winning copywriter and copywriting services, 20 years experience

This bloke (and I don't like him much but he does rather well in the world of cw)
http://www.orangebeetle.com/

Talks about nothing but himself for quite a long time and does indeed use the word 'I'

And his style is much more in your face.

But the common thread is they both do talk about themselves, their experience and their successes first and these are very successful cw's.

I think it is important to test, try the "tried and tested" way and try other new creative ways to write your pitch and see what works best for you.

It's true that proof and a USP
are essential, but they too are
part of the tried and tested
marketing arsenal.

That's just marketing 101.

The bottom line is, with stuff
like marketing, if something's
being done a certain way by
so many people, chances are
it's working.

Sure, some originality and
variations can work wonders,
but if you start messing with
the fundamentals and you don't
had a solid grasp of them, it's
probably not going to end well.

As for the 2 UK copywriters,
I didn't think either site was
great. I'm sure they're
successful, but from the text
on their sites I'm not convinced
either of them could write
their way out of a paper bag.

My first instinct, as somebody who occasionally hires copywriters, upon viewing those two suggested copywriters' webpages:

1 - The orange guy would probably make the first cut, based on the fact that he got my attention, and clearly knows how to create an ad that does the same. I'd worry about picking apart his style later, when I was making a final decision.

Quick glance to me looks like he's angling to a niche...jaded entrepreneurs who've been burned by freelancers with their heads stuck up their arses, and are now ready to spend a little more to get a real pro.

That'll either connect with you, or it won't...which isn't a bad way to construct copy. I imagine he's got a nice enough conversion rate when someone who was burned chasing a $47 sales letter comes across his pitch.

Ultimately, he probably doesn't get my dollar because I'm not sure his pitch is focused enough. Looks like he's trying to play up the rock-star, rebel, in-your-face angle at the same time as the "I'm the solution if you're tired of messing around with amateurs" angle, and I'm not sure how compatible the two are. But he gets some props for having an angle and going for it.

2 - The woman who started by telling me HER experience rather than how she could address MY need? I never would've gotten to the first sentence of her pitch.

From that header she clearly spent a lot of time and effort on, it looks to me like she does banner ads. Which in turn look to me like the sort of ads I ought to consider running ONLY if I'm a fortune 500 company more worried about my image and my branding than about selling product. And then, I shouldn't really be wasting my time with banner ads anyway; I should be doing media buys.

The web is a direct response world, and this looks an advertising house copywriter who lost her way. Nothing I see there would convert worth a damn, and any of it would be crushed h2h against a simple black and white sales letter. Can she even write a headline?

Who knows? Maybe she could do the job. But she'd never get to find out with my dollars, because everything there from the pitch, to the structure, to the focus, to the layout...I just don't see how any of it manages to grab anybody.

When the first three sentences I see are: "I'm experienced," "I'm experienced," and "Here's some name dropping for you," I'm thinking that this woman doesn't know how to pitch, AND she's going to charge me an arm and a leg. Run away!

Anyway, the bigger point is this:

I think this is terrible advice.

The "same old tired routine" has copywriters jaded a bit, but it still works like gangbusters in the world at large. The bold, attention-grabbing headline, and the bullet point benefits filled with sense-popping imagery DO still get responses in a world filled with milquetoast offers like our friend the lady copywriter.

We see John Carlton-esque headlines all the time, so they tend to slide off our backs a bit. But the average person sees Yellow Pages ads, TV commercials, and whatever kind of shlock they put in Cosmo a hell of a lot more than they see a screaming, bold-faced headline that seems to have been plucked straight out of their own brain, and custom designed to get them into the pitch. Copy like that still shocks, impresses, and converts.

Good old reliable D.R. methodology is still the exception in this world, not the rule. And that's why it still works when done well.