Nothing can turn strong copy into a 97-pound weakling faster than a flawed review process. The result is severely handicapped marketing efforts and, alas, fewer sales.

How can you avoid this dire marketing situation?

By having a smart and consistent review process that preserves the selling power of your marketing communications. Following are 7 essential tips for reviewing and approving copy.

1. Review the copy from the customers’ perspective.

On the first pass, read the copy (all of it) without your red pen in hand or editing hat on. That’s how your customers or audience will read it. Now, what do you think? Does the concept work? Did the headline grab your attention? How was the tone? Does the copy flow? If you begin by editing the first sentence or sweating the details, you will do your clients or customers a disservice.

2. Don’t get hung up on grammar and usage.

If you think the copywriter broke a writing rule, 9 times out of 10 there was an excellent reason. Copywriters are sales people in print, so if we take liberty with the English language, it’s for effect. Plus, be aware that copywriters (and proofreaders) review and correct the copy before you see it. For example, I consider spelling, grammar, style issues, trademark usage, and more to ensure the quality control of every piece of copy I write.

3. Avoid copy by committee.

There’s that old joke that says if you want to kill an idea or project, start a committee. Copy by committee is no different. Conflicting and misguided comments put the copywriter and creative team in the awkward position of trying to please everyone except who matters most — the intended audience. One way around this is to circulate informational copies to people who would like to see the copy. They can make comments without being part of the formal approval process.

4. Minimize the rounds.

Provide complete feedback on the first round, forwarding all your comments, suggestions, and changes to the copywriter. That way the copywriter can consider everything when he or she rewrites the copy and you can shorten the review cycle. Copy is typically stronger when it’s created in three or fewer rounds.

5. Provide specific comments.

When you provide specific comments, the chances of succeeding on the rewrite improve dramatically. For example, instead of saying, “This isn’t strong enough,” say, “The tone needs to be more authoritative” or “These are additional benefits the copy should cover.” Often times putting your comments in writing will help you be more specific than if you just provide them orally.

6. Let the copywriter rewrite the copy.

Instead of trying to “write” the changes yourself to be incorporated, tell the copywriter your concerns and let him or her address them. The copy will benefit when the copywriter does the rewriting.

7. Judge the copy based upon your objectives.

In the end, the copy was written with particular objectives in mind: to build your brand, generate leads or sales, inform about your company, products, or services, and so on. Make sure the copy is technically accurate and factually correct. Then critique the copy based upon what you want it to accomplish, not on the number of superlatives, your competitor’s latest ad campaign, or how it compares to your previous brochure.

(c) 2005 Neil Sagebiel

The foundation for creating advertising copy that floods your newly designed website’s copy with cash-in-hand ready-to-buy customers is forged from the interview process between you and your copywriter. Subsequent research and the creation of a dynamite promotion all stems from the critical information gathered about your business, your product and service, your customers and your competition. The answers to the questions below are crucial to the effective and successful completion of the website writing portion of your project.

1. What are all the product’s benefits?
2. What are all the product features?

3. How is the product different and better than the competition?

4. What does the buyer expect when he spends his money for this product? Do we deliver?

5. What methods, approaches and sales techniques is the competition using?

6. How does the audience for the product differ from the general public?

7. How much can the buyer reasonably expect to pay?

8. Does your average buyer have a credit card or checking account?

9. Will the product be purchased for business or personal use?

10. Can you expect to get multiple sales from your buyer?

11. What is the logical ‘back end’ product to sell someone after he has purchased your product? [‘Back end’ refers to other products in your product line you can offer to someone who has bought the primary product featured in your ad]

12. Will I need to show your product in color?

13. What is the total number of potential customers for this product?

14. Who will buy your product, i.e. teens or seniors, men or women, executives or blue-collar workers?

15. Is there a market for overseas sales?

16. Should I offer time payments?

17. Will the product be a good gift item?

18. Should my copy be long or short?

19. What should the tone of my copy be?

20. Should I test the price?

21. Should I test copy approaches?

22. Is there a seasonal market for the product and are you taking advantage of it?

23. Are testimonials available from satisfied customers?

24. Do I need photographs or illustrations?

25. Which appeals have worked in the past for this product?

26. What objections might arise from a prospective customer? How can I overcome these objections?

27. Should I use a premium?

28. Should I offer a money-back guarantee?

29. Is this item also sold by retail? Are there price advantages I can stress for buying direct from the ad?

30. Should I consider a celebrity testimonial?

31. Can I tie in my copy to sonic news event?

32. Can I tie my copy to some holiday or seasonal event?

33. Does the product sell better in a particular region or climate?

34. Should I consider using a sweepstakes?

35. Can the product be sold through a two-step advertising campaign? [Ads generating queries rather than direct sales]

36. What must I do to convince the reader to buy your product now?

37. Can I use scientific evidence in my sales approach?

38. Have I allowed enough time to write, design and produce my copy?

39. Can I get the customer to order by phone?

40. What approaches used to sell this product have been unsuccessful?

41. Can I get powerful ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures?

42. Assuming the ad is successful, is the client prepared with orders?

Copyright Alan Richardson

Within this article today we will look at what copywriting as a job has to offer.

There is a great deal of benefits if you have copywriting as a job. The salary for a copy writer is much higher than the average wage in the United States. According to the magazine Advertising Age, the average salary for a copywriter in the United States is right around $60,000 when you include bonuses and that was for the year 2005. You can imagine that the income will be higher now, given that there has been inflation in the last two years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics comes up with a similar but slightly lower number, right around $57,000 for a copywriter.

Copywriting does have a great deal more flexibility than many jobs. You do not need to worry about keeping set hours usually because the focus is upon you writing good copy. This could allow you to live a full life in some ways because you can plan some events around the fact that you can make up more time in hours on certain days if something comes up. This is something that many jobs such as banks or restaurants are not able to do.

Copywriting as a job also offers a great workplace environment. Many copywriters work within an advertising agency, which can be a great place to work. You often have many other creative people and there you can bounce ideas off of one another and these people often have high energy which you can feed off of. This can be a great group of people to work with because you will often find that you are challenged due to the intelligence and creativity of this group of people. There are many different sizes of advertising agencies see you could decide to work for a smaller advertising agency if you like a close-knit group of people or you could work for a larger advertising agency if you want more competition. This could be structured according to how your mindset and makeup are. There is a great deal of flexibility within your workplace environment as demonstrated here.

Writing good copy can be very challenging so you will find that this job will never grow boring. If you work at an advertising agency, you often will have many different types of clients so the work that you do every day can change. This is good because you’ll get a great variety of different things they would never get bored.

Copywriting as a job offers great benefits to you no matter how you look at it. You are able to make very good money, considering that the average wage is right around $60,000. If you are able to establish yourself as a master copywriter, you can obviously earn a great deal more money than the average salary. The workplace environment often will be crackling with creative energy and the flexibility that you will have from the job is more than most other jobs can offer.