Is copywriting critically ill? Warning: Long Post

6 replies
Is copywriting becoming extinct?

We all hear or read WF posts (titles) about 'Cold Calling no longer works' or 'Direct Mail is dead' and similar blanket assertions from people with little marketing experience.

But here's the reason why I'm wondering about copywriting. 30 years ago, everybody in your neighborhood subscribed to the daily newspaper, delivered direct to your front step (or somewhere within 200 feet). It's only been in the past ten years especially that the way we communicate with each other has undergone gut wrenching changes, not once or twice, but multiple times. When's the last time you subscribed to a daily newspaper to read in-depth analysis of news that happened...all the way back...yesterday?

Consider that around 2006 email and the internet were adopted by a vast majority of people, Facebook was going mainstream, and writing letters and postcards to other family members and friends disappeared.

During 2006-2008 downloading music, online bill payment became status quo on the internet, and major news outlets began publishing live streams of news happening in real time. The US post office nearly went bankrupt, fully 40% of US newspapers went out of business. And I had a radio executive tell me, "Tom when my audience now has their own choices of listening to what they want when they want, why are they going to listen to me?"

Communications stooped to a new low during 2008-2009 with the wide adoption of text messaging and its broad use of cryptic acronyms and our meaningful use of the English language dropped still further.

Twitter started way back in 2006, but really didn't become part of the popular landscape until roughly 2011-2012, and the English language, and communications between humans hit a new low.

Fast forward to today, and recent news articles about kids communicating with their parents using emoticons and emoji's. It's sadly been reduced to the point that language isn't a necessary ingredient for communicating. Do you understand emoji??

Yes, this is all a problem, a big problem. And let me tell you why.

First, as a professional marketer, communicating specific ideas, offers and opportunities on behalf of our clients is our personal means of survival and success. We're not only fine-tuning the messages we need to distribute, but now we have to adapt to new channels of communication where language is suppressed or absent.

The second concern I have, is the impact this absence of communication is having on our culture and society in general. Let me explain.

One of my 'test lab' business ventures creates specialized gift boxes. Recently I was cruising through Facebook and I began noticing stories and posts on different pages about people who were down on their luck or really struggling with tragedy, health problems etc..

So what I did was create a Facebook post on our company FB page with the headline, "Help me to help you make someone's day", and I explained the idea about nominating people that could really use a morale boost; our intention was to pick deserving people and send them a coupon for a free gift box.

It was an intensely popular offer that went viral. The problem was, we gave away exactly two units. Why? Because from the comments and the responses we received, it was abundantly clear that the text in our original post that people actually did read would have filled 1/3 of a twitter message. "I want it", "Give me 1",

Is copyrighting dead when we've trained our audience to communicate in 140 characters or less (including the link)? Or by using acronyms such as IMO or BRB? or using smiley face's?

I'm waiting for the emoticon that universally communicates to any audience that you need to buy whatever I'm selling right now!

Or an emoticon that says the US will invade Canada in the next 24 hours unless...

Talltom
#copywriting #critically #long #post #warning
  • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
    Originally Posted by Talltom1 View Post


    Is copywriting dead when

    we've trained our audience to communicate in 140 characters or less (including the link)?

    Talltom
    The fault lies with the marketer, does it not, for training his audience to communicate in such a manner?

    The other point, if your market does communicate this way, then one should stay up to date, and not give history lessons and bemoan the good old days.

    First rule of copywriting, communicate in a way the audience wants to communicate, not the way you want to do it.

    I think copywriting is alive and well and if my audience wants my stuff for free, then I've done a poor job with my communication.

    gjabiz
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10555417].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Originally Posted by Talltom1 View Post

    It was an intensely popular offer that went viral. The problem was, we gave away exactly two units. Why? Because from the comments and the responses we received, it was abundantly clear that the text in our original post that people actually did read would have filled 1/3 of a twitter message. "I want it", "Give me 1",

    Is copyrighting dead when we've trained our audience to communicate in 140 characters or less (including the link)? Or by using acronyms such as IMO or BRB? or using smiley face's?

    I'm waiting for the emoticon that universally communicates to any audience that you need to buy whatever I'm selling right now!

    Or an emoticon that says the US will invade Canada in the next 24 hours unless...

    Talltom
    Tom; Copywriting isn't dead. How a customer (or anyone) communicates with you, isn't copywriing. How you communicate with them is copywriting.

    We are still the same people, with the same drives, ambitions, dreams, and, needs.

    Asking your prospects to say more than "I want this" is not a profitable request. If they send an Emoji, that's fine. But it won't sell anything. You build desire to participate/join/buy with a compelling offer, and the right language.

    And...you were dealing with the Masses. And expecting anything above a flat lining brain scan is dreaming. Picture Peter Griffin on Family Guy. That's the "market to the masses" prospect.

    One great thing about you and me...we are old. by the time really changing our language and mode of response is necessary...we'll be retired or dead.
    Signature
    One Call Closing book https://www.amazon.com/One-Call-Clos...=1527788418&sr

    What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10555484].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author eccj
    You think Twitter is bad? Twitter is for the literates.

    Someone figured out that reading 140 characters is too hard for most people and Instagram was born.
    I don't know the numbers but I'm sure there are a lot more people on Instagram than Twitter.

    A very intelligent man taught me to remember MPAI: Most People Are Idiots.

    Never think that you are the world. That is solipsism and not a virtue. I think it was Samuel Johnson who said "clear your mind of cant." Don't resent or hate or think yourself better than the average rube. Give him grace and compassion because you could have been like him. Enjoy doing stupid things every so often, but "clear your mind of cant."

    Most people do not have the ability to think outside of themselves. Most people will fall to the lowest common denominator given the chance.

    I love to hear sales managers and business owners complain about their employees. Many of them think the kid they are paying $8 an hour should perform up to the level of the boss without training, coaching, or watching.

    Nope. It ain't gonna happen.

    Or the guy who won't spend any money on advertising or learn how to sell because "none that stuff works on me."

    John Carlton said that as marketers we do not have the luxury of seeing the world as we think it should be but rather, we have to look at the world as it is.

    If you are marketing on FB you are marketing to idiots. Maybe some have a high IQ but they are functionally idiots if they are spending much time on FB.

    So no copy writing isn't dead. We just have a lot more ways to advertise to the idiots than we did before and it is harder to reach the readers among us than before.

    I would decide if I want to market to the Peter Griffith masses. If yes then make that a part of your self image and be ok with it. If not, then find a different market.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10555969].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    No. The copywriting market has become beyond saturated with low-talent, know-nothing non-professionals, who are churning out garbage product based on a template they bought from one of a handful of "experts."

    A story from my home town, training kung fu: some guy is bragging, and winds up with, "and I've been training hard for six months!"

    ...

    ...

    ...that's great, kid.

    'Course, I was a kid at the time also, having trained about two years at that point, but I kept my mouth shut about it.

    Same as these so-called writers today. No talent, no skill, no experience...but think they're worth the big bucks because they'll a) do something other people don't want to do, and b) bought a template from someone who purports to be an expert.

    Bleah.

    There's a well-known group I hardly go into anymore because it's so bad. It's a microcosm of what's happening overall: poseur writers are driving the results, pay, and quality level of projects down, down, down...I have no wish to associate with, or contribute to, or compete with that.

    In Vancouver, in the mid-2000s, there was a building boom. Everybody and his dog who had had a lick of construction experience suddenly slapped a "Master Builder" mag sticker on their truck.

    Yeah, right.

    The market will even out. It's going through a spasm of growth, where we've reached The End Of The Beginning, and correction will begin. Those writers with real talent and experience (do you remember fax blasts? Hell, telex?) will pop up like champagne bubbles to be noticed and rewarded. The dilution of talent and pay that has been going on the past few years will reverse.

    It's a symptom of an overall thing I've seen: people shout, "Money!" (or "Blood in the water!" or whatever), and the herd dumbly jumps in. Plenty of people who should never have been there in the first place try to pass themselves off as the bona fide item. Some buyers are taken in. But in the long run, smart people figure it out. And the legit service providers, who were there before the gold rush started, are there long after the poseurs have moved on.

    Will there be a segment for low talent, low budget, low result copywriters? Sure. Just like there is for content marketing. But the high end also exists, and you can't walk up there from the low end. You'll get bounced out for sure. Any newbie copywriter cocking about and yelping, "I'm gonna CRUSH IT!!!" will see the exit stairs very quickly--that language instantly reveals the imposter. A client in the big ticket corporate financial sector was just talking with me about this today: he literally ended calls with other writers because they quickly demonstrated they didn't have the horsepower for the job.

    Anyway, "This is a job for...Positioning Man!!"
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10556008].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    Reminds me of some quotes from Marshall McLuhan (okay, I only knew the first, most famous one and Google was my friend for the second):

    "The medium is the message."

    "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us."

    What he says here can be adapted to Twitter and such:


    -----

    I do think reading might be dying.

    My younger employees (20 somethings) can't or don't read the list of things to do
    for the housekeeping work.

    My younger customers (20 somethings) don't seem to read the reservation confirmation
    and hotel policy emails. To the point I am going to change how we message them.

    Ross Hamilton runs a real estate investing forum and training company. I got an email
    from him that announces the first fully animated course in real estate investing.
    From his email:

    "If you’ve been trying to invest in real estate - but haven’t done at least 5 deals, it’s not your fault. You probably didn't learn how to do it right. Most real estate training is a stale combination of CD’s or DVD’s and some dry reading.


    Is that how you learn best?


    Probably not. Personally, I need hands on training and education that's easy to absorb. "

    ----

    I'm also reminded of Anthony Blake, who ran/runs? the BlakeForum, a marketing forum.
    Years ago he wrote about doing copywriting for a female product. He learned how to write
    for women. He figured out (sign of a good copywriter) way back then that their language
    is significantly different.

    Dan
    Signature

    "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10559023].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dgaunn4114
      Maybe copywriting skill is ill.

      But, as long as people communicate with each other
      there will be more effective ways to do so and
      less effective ways to do so.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10577680].message }}

Trending Topics