Contestants

Simon Cowell – Stuck to traditional marketing methods based on years of business experience.

Tracy Morter – A photographer from Essex with no marketing experience in the music industry at all.

This week, both people went head to head.

Weapons?

Simon Cowell – TV Show – The X Factor, one of the most popular audience participation tv shows in the country. The X factor has produced Christmas number one after Christmas number one! The transit method was once the most popular media device in the world.

Tracy Morter – Networking – Facebook. Has never produced a Christmas number one or any song for that matter.

The Product

Simon Cowell – Young attractive face, the face recognised by millions across the country singing in an amazing voice a song of hope and dreams.

Tracy Morter – A 1992 rock band singing shouting a rebellious song containing more swear words than the radio would care to filter.

The Result

The Christmas number one slot has been the place of heros. The Beatles held it three years running from 63-65. Queen has also taken the spot, Pink Floyd, Band Aid, Cliff Richard and many more. This year, the official Christmas number one is ‘Rage Against the Machine’ with ‘Killing in the name of’

“**** you I won’t do what you tell me”

Power to the people! Network marketing has beaten TV marketing in an amazing fight. Joe deserved the spot but for the ultimate test of a new society.

Social media is and will continue changing the world.

(and Joe, we know you’re number one really. RATM was just to prove a point. Good luck in your new career)

This video was brought to my attention by Richard Perry and I think it paints a wonderful ideal which the 21st century has trouble addressing. It does not talk about copy and redistribution which is unquestionably illegal but about adapting other’s works to make it different for non-commercial purposes. The ability to do so is available on nearly every home computer and exercised by millions of technologically savvy people worldwide in the form of musical remixes, video collages and even the simple act of putting music to one’s own photo gallery or video. Youtube is full of them, should it be ok to do so? Under broadcast/copyright law, it is illegal.

With the way the internet works currently, we have already made a copy of anything we view, watch and listen to whether we intend to or not. Images are stored in our computer cache directory, videos are buffered onto the hard drive. Should common sense intervene and revolt? How far should it change? Should we be allowed to use a popular song on a commercial website? Provided of course we have purchased the music in the first place. Or should broadcast licences be simplified and more accessible to the general public?

Here’s the full video, listen to what Larry Lessig has to say on the matter. It is 20 minutes long but time well spent.

Sometimes there’s a better way to communicate certain information than text and pictures. Video has been creeping online since flash first reared it’s head but unless you’re a professional (or pay lots of money to a professional), the results have always looked very amateur. Youtube arrived and gave people the chance to upload… anything… and they did. (The Onion reported a youtube contest for people to upload something which was actually ‘good’)

Well now, a website landed on my desk which could change everything, at least for a small proportion of users and businesses; Animoto. Animoto is a video generator, and it’s free to use for short clips with small charges for upgrades. It allows you to upload images, add a little text and music either by uploading or selecting from their library. Once you hit the generate button, it gets to work.

It’s uses are limited but at the same time can be used for a wide variety of presentations and video shorts. These can include holiday snaps, graphic portfolios, photography, illustrations etc etc… 

Zakomedia portfolio made with Animoto:

Now I think that’s pretty impressive for a freebie. I didn’t have to fiddle about with transitions or other effects… it did everything for me!

Go try Animoto now, upload a few pictures and see if it can help you.

Q: What is ‘me-marketing’?

A: Anything that is writer-centred and shouts ‘Look at me, aren’t I wonderful!’

Frankly, I couldn’t careless and neither could your reader.

Normally when I see sales flyers I throw them straight in the bin. But when one landed on my mat the other day I took a quick peek. It was very colourful and had several nice images dotted here and there to break up the text. It was quite pleasing to the eye so I thought I’d have a read – I believe it was a conservatory company.

I learned all about how long they had been in business, the wonderful calibre of their sales team, the fact that they used special glass and wonderful weather resistant frames. They had also won a local award or something…as you can tell, I was beginning to flag by this point.

They had made one fatal mistake – they had forgotten who the flyer was going to.

At no point did they tell me how their company’s product would benefit me.

They completely missed the point. OK, you could argue that I am intelligent enough to work that one out for myself. But because the flyer was all about them my reaction to it was ‘so what?’ Why should I spend my time and money contacting a company that paid so little attention to the needs of its potential customers?

If they had hired themselves a good freelance marketing copywriter their flyer would have been customer centred. It would have told me how their windows would benefit me: their energy saving qualities, reduced heating bills etc.

The moral therefore is no matter what medium you are writing for, your copywriting must be centred on the reader and the benefits they will get from your product.

Sally Ormond

Briar Copywriting – freelance copywriting services

1. Use broken lists – everyone likes lists. If you promise 3 things it is human nature to read all 3. Why not split your list over two paragraphs to keep them reading? They’ll be compelled to read the second paragraph.
2. Teasers – add things like ‘But that’s not all…’ or ‘And here’s why…’ or even ‘So why subscribe?’
3. End pages mid-sentence – humans have a great need for completion. If your sales letter goes over the page, by ensuring your page ends mid-sentence will render your reader helpless and they’ll just have to turn over to continue reading.
4. The promise of more to come – this is great for long copy. For example ‘In a moment, I will reveal to you the five most important conversion techniques to increase your sales. But first…’ It is just like dangling a carrot in front of them.

Are you getting the idea? Just so long as you deliver what you promise your reader will become putty in your hands, hanging on every word. Satisfy their curiosity and you will have them hooked.

OK, you’ve waited long enough. Below are the six magic words that will help you cast your spell over your reader:

1. Easy – we are all inherently lazy. Give your readers an easy option and they’ll love you for it.
2. Quick – not only are your readers lazy but they are impatient too. Enough said.
3. Free – this is very powerful so long as you don’t murder it by adding ‘absolutely!’
4. Now – it can be used to show something is new when used in a headline, it is highly effective in the CTA, or it can be seen as turning a problem into a solution in the body text.
5. Please – didn’t your mum always ask you what the magic word was when you were after a biscuit?
6. Guarantee – immediately allays fears and uncertainty.

Follow these simple tips and you will be able to weave your very own brand of magic through all your sales writing. Go on, try it out and hook yourself some readers.

Sally Ormond is a professional website copywriter, SEO copywriter and advertising copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C copywriting markets. She can be contacted at +44(0)1449 779605 or sally@briarcopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have or for a complimentary webcopy analysis.