Whether we’re old hands at copywriting with years of dogged experience or fresh-faced rookies, improving our writing skills is an ongoing pursuit.
Reading is integral to this improvement. Finding myself on the lookout for good – and bad – copy in everything I pick up, I scan the pages of newspapers and magazines to see how writers think and write.
Old Speckled Henry
Adverts are another quick and easy way to see the good, the bad, and the ugly in an easily digestible format. We’ve all seen them and we all comment on them, whether publicly or privately – usually both.
One series of ads that really stands out for me is for Old Speckled Hen beer. Often seen inside the pages of Saturday’s Guardian, these examples of long copy certainly aren’t afraid of being overly wordy.
Engage your audience
These aren’t your usual flashy adverts. While visually understated, they’re written with a fairly niche tone of voice which can be read and enjoyed by anyone. But they appeal to new and existing customers alike.
Composed as a standalone short story, almost anecdotal in style, each one is based around topical events. And because they load up on wit and razor-sharp comments, they keep things interesting – and keep us reading.
It’s the ‘funny story’ format that makes the all-important emotional connection and fully engages the reader. If it keeps us reading, chances are we’ll eventually end up buying, which of course, is the whole point.
Actually, it’s not the whole point; it’s only part of the point. From a copywriter’s viewpoint, the point is to make sure the reader has an emotional connection to the copy. What the product is, is almost irrelevant.
If you write copy that gives people an emotional connection to invest their time, you’ve pretty much done your job. End with a subtle – or obvious – call to action and it’s a win-win – just like Old Speckled Hen successfully achieves.
Onwards and upwards
There are copywriters who are specialists in this style of long form copywriting. But there are some good books out there on the subject allowing the rest of us to get up to speed. For me, trying to soak up all of this information sometimes feels like an impossible task, but it’s this constant learning curve that makes us better copywriters. Read, read, read, then write, write, and write some more.
Footnote: I don’t even like beers and ales, but I love these spectacular ads enough to make me want to try Old Speckled Hen for myself. Now, that’s good copywriting!
Keep an eye out for the adverts and check out Speckled Henry on Twitter!
(Also published on the Professional Copywriters Network blog page)
