SUBJECT: Lesson #1 - Understanding Copywriting

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To master copywriting, you first need to understand exactly how
it differs from regular writing.

Copywriting is the use of words as promotional tools. They can
promote a person, a business, a product, an opinion or idea, and
they can appear on TV, radio, websites, in direct mailings,
brochures, press releases, catalogs, on flyers, billboards or
via any other kind of advertising material. 

A copywriter’s job is to persuade the reader, listener or viewer
to take action, which usually means parting with some money in
exchange for a product or service. Alternatively, it may be used
to promote a certain opinion, or to dissuade people from
subscribing to a certain point of view. 

The Unique Selling Point (or USP / Proposition) is a well-known
marketing ploy, although there is really nothing spectacularly
clever about it. In fact, the need to establish a USP is common
sense. Would you go for a job interview without any planned
response to the question of why the company should employ you
over the next candidate? That’s your USP. In truth, it may not
be that unique, but you should still be able to define a special
talent for yourself. 

Similarly, copywriters shouldn’t beat themselves up over their
inability to find a truly unique selling point for a product,
especially if it leads to a bending of the truth. In the world
of marketing, there really is very little new under the sun.
Most times, a new ad campaign is simply a redux of one already
used to good effect in the past.

When the brief does not directly indicate the USP it wants to
push, you as a copywriter must try to locate one. The idea is to
set the product apart from, and above, the competition. What is
it that your product does better than the rest? Whatever the
client tells you about this, research it some more. Find out all
you can about the market so that you can write your copy with
confidence. 

To Your Success,
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