Butterfly Copywriting Blog


Writing copy for other audiences

September 22nd, 2011

Like most people who work freelance, I get my share of work from clients in other countries.

Compared to a lot of languages, English is pretty standard among native speakers – sure, there are different accents, and some words are different, and the spelling varies – but the differences between, say, New Zealand English and American English aren’t as pronounced as some versions of languages such as German.

But it is important to get it right when you’re copywriting for audiences other than your own. The last thing you want is for the business you’re writing for to come across as being not quite up with the play among their own target market.

British English is easy for me. New Zealand English is often a bit of a hybrid between British and American (the spelling is the same as British, but American words have a tendency to creep in), but is closest to British in terms of spelling and most grammar. As well, I was brought up by British parents, with a British extended family, and have lived in England twice, so that makes it easy for me!

As for working for US-based clients, that’s a bit more challenging. I have to be careful with spelling words like colour/color, and choosing words like sidewalk/pavement and holiday/vacation. But it’s not that hard. Set the spell checker to US English and that takes care of most of the spelling; as for the tone, I read it through (silently) in an American accent to check that nothing feels wrong. An American copywriter once asked me what my internal American accent sounded like; I think he was imagining a cowboy-style drawl. It’s not as interesting as that, just the standard American accent that’s typically used in movies and the rest of the media.

That said, I’ve found that US-based clients are pretty understanding about the odd little mistake, given that they know full well they’re working with a Kiwi.

And if in doubt, I’ll pull up a competitor’s website from the same country to make sure it doesn’t sound just plain wrong.

What your copywriter wants to know

September 14th, 2011

Imagine you’re a designer and your client says, “I want a cool font and I want my site/business card/logo to stand out.” It’s not a lot to go on, right? You’ll want to know all kinds of other things: what their competitors are doing so you can make it stand out from theirs, what the general expectation of the industry is like (no good having a super-friendly, chatty site when potential customers are looking for super-professional), and what’s going to hook in their potential clients.

Copywriting is similar. I can’t count the number of times someone’s said to me that they want a website/brochure and then made me guess what they want by reading my draft and saying something like, “it’s not bad but it still needs more zing.” All that achieves is that I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job by them, they don’t get what they want (usually because they don’t know what they want “but I’ll know when I see it”), and if they’ve chosen an hourly rate, it costs them more.

I decided some time ago that there had to be a better way. So now I send a briefing form, which covers everything I want to know. It’s also great for forcing the potential client to have a think about what they’re trying to achieve, which makes the process go much more smoothly and vastly improves the end result.

These are some of the things I like to know:

- What’s your objective? What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to get sales, get business leads, provide information, or something else? What do you want them to do?
- Who’s your audience? You can’t just say ‘anyone’ – nobody is all things to all people. Is it men, women, business owners, mothers, health food fanatics, wealthy labradoodle owners in Michigan, who?
- What are your unique selling points? Why should they buy from you above all others?
- What’s your brand personality? Here’s where I like to see existing material, such as brochures and newsletters you’ve already used. That way I can get a handle on how you already present your business.
- Why might people not want to buy from you? Is your product in a new niche? Is it expensive? It’s important to know what people’s buying objections might be so you can allay their worries.

These are all things to think about before you call in a copywriter. The more your copywriter knows, the better response you’ll get from your market.

Great marketing idea, shame about the execution

August 4th, 2011

The other day, a direct mail letter arrived in our mailbox for ‘the householder’. It was for a storage company who, having somehow got wind of the real estate agent’s sign on our fence, were pitching their facility and packaging services. Maybe they go through the ‘for sale’ ads, I don’t know, but it was a good idea – though I think I could have done a better job on the sales letter.

Trouble is, it’s actually our neighbours who are selling. It’s easy to see how the mistake happened; we’re number 7 and our neighbours are 7A, the property having been subdivided sometime in the ’80s. But if you’re going to market directly to those who are likely to need your services sometime in the near future – and if not, then why? – it’s worth double-checking to make sure it’s going to the right potential customer.

Otherwise, it might instead end up with someone who just writes a blog post mocking your mistake.

This is what I keep telling people

July 20th, 2011

My dad likes to send me news articles. Often they’re about strange studies on dog behaviour. Others are about (the disturbingly frequent) remakes of TV shows from my childhood. The latest one he sent me was this, a BBC News article that suggests poor spelling costs businesses revenue.

I’ve said this for years. Poor writing and spelling detracts from the overall professionalism and credibility of your site, and no matter how good the design, how snazzy the HTML5, how clever the SEO, you will be judged on the site’s copy. Because that’s what people engage with the most, what they use to guide them around the site and make that all-important decision to book an appointment or draw out their credit card. Even if they don’t realise it.

Which is why people like me are around. Rule number one: if you don’t trust yourself more than your spellchecker (and you shouldn’t trust the spellchecker), look for a copywriter.

365 Photos – an update

July 1st, 2011

I’ve been doing my Project 356 photo challenge for six months now. I’m pleasantly surprised by how I’m going, and have scattered some of my favourites through here.

When I first started the challenge on 1 January, I was sure I’d get bored and give up sometime around March at the latest. But I’ve made it halfway through now, and not only have I not missed a day (though there have been a few close calls!), I’m having more fun with it than when I started, and I’m seeing the improvement in my photography skills.

At the start, I was very much a point-and-shoot, centre-your-subject ‘oh, that’ll do’ photographer. Slowly, though, I’m learning some of the rules of composition and how to look at things in a more interesting way. I expected to take a whole lot of photos of my cat: there have probably been more than I’d like, but of the last 180 days only four have been of him (and only five more are of other furry mammals). I’m also slowly getting to grips with Lightroom and Photoshop, which has been a bigger challenge than taking the photos themselves – the photos are the easy part.

It is a pain in the butt some days, especially because I work from home so often have days where I don’t go anywhere, and it’s pretty obvious which ones are of the oh-crap-I-forgot variety. That’s something I’ve learned: you get better results if you take your time and consider it carefully rather than quickly get it done because you’re out of time, which equally applies to copywriting (and just about anything else).

I’m keen to see how I go for the second half. It helps that my partner has upgraded his camera so I have full use of a Nikon DSLR, a big upgrade from my Fujifilm point-and-shoot, and a whole new learning curve.

Sometimes I think we expect to be great at something immediately. I know I do. This is a good reminder that that doesn’t usually happen, but incremental improvement will happen if you keep at it, and it’s nice to have visual proof of that.

Why a change really is as good as a break

May 27th, 2011

We just spent the weekend rearranging our office space. Not my favourite way to spend a weekend, but in the last couple of weeks we’ve both found that we’ve been really unproductive: we’ve been working in a mess of coffee cups and scrap paper, and with the weather getting colder, it’s not conducive to getting anything useful done.

Sure, we could have just cleaned up the office. But with the state it was in, it was just as easy to take out almost all the furniture and start again. And it means:
- The scanner and the printer aren’t a dumping ground for notes and papers I plan to deal with later: my filing boxes are right next to me
- We no longer have to point the stereo remote under the desk to get at the other table it was on
- We have wall space for a whiteboard
- If I need to scoot round to look at something on Matt’s monitor, I can get my chair round without it getting stuck
- I’m tucked away in a nice little corner, which I love
- The floor is no longer littered with receipts and general detritus
- I don’t have to sweep stuff out of the way to put my coffee cup down
- I don’t get the glare of the window behind me because I’ve moved over half a metre
- Thanks to the glorious invention that is the cable tidy, I don’t have cables covering my workspace
- The room itself feels bigger and less cramped.

The upshot of this is that this week I’ve come back to work with a bit more motivation. It’s like having had a break and coming back with renewed vigour, and having made more efficient use of our space means that I feel more able and inclined to make more efficient use of my time.

The best part: we managed to keep our cat’s favourite sleeping spot intact. So it’s win-win for everyone – though he’s still looking askance at the new space and I don’t think he agrees.

Write Copy, Make Money by Andy Maslen

May 23rd, 2011

This has to be one of the best no-nonsense titles I’ve ever seen. A reader picks it up and thinks, what do I want to do? Write copy and make (more) money. Maybe this will help?

It will.

I’ve been wanting to check this book out for a while now; Write to Sell was the first book about copywriting I read, and I’ve subsequently bought The Copywriting Sourcebook as well, which I’ll probably review next time I’m short of a topic for a blog post. I like Maslen as a writer: he’s accessible and easy to read, without coming across as condescending. There are even a few chuckles. That can be hard to pull off in these types of books.

As you’ll read elsewhere, this isn’t a book about the art/science of copywriting. It assumes you’re already a copywriter, either with your own business or looking to go it alone. This is a book about how to make money from doing it.

As in any of these books, some parts are more useful than others. It’s very much aimed at the real beginner business owners, and some parts, such as the section on sole trading versus limited liability companies, I was able to skim having made my choice more than two years ago. That said, I side with Maslen on which is better, so I’d say it’s sound advice.

Perhaps the thing I like most about this book is that it doesn’t pretend that the freelance copywriting biz is an easy road. I’m seriously sick of hearing tales about people who quit their job to go freelance, and just a few months later were not only earning more than ever before, they were only working three hours a day.  (Usually they’re just a bit vague on the details of how they got there.) I was also pleased to see him impressing on the reader the importance of time off – I also get a bit sick of these freelance writing zealots who claim that they work from 4am to 10pm and that’s the only way you’ll get ahead. (You certainly won’t get much else in life done.)

The chapter on winning your first copywriting job is one of the best, and one I wish I’d had when I started. Would it have changed my approach? Possibly not. Would it have helped my confidence? Probably. The section on pricing is also a good one to read: the number one question I see online, and occasionally get asked, is whether charging by the hour or by the project is better, and here you’ll find nice, reasoned arguments with actual ballpark figures to think about.

It does have its weak points. The section at the end that includes interviews with other copywriters was one I found myself skimming. That said, when I did make more of an effort to read it, I realised that there are so many ways to go about the business of copywriting, and that one person’s word is never necessarily gospel. Conversely, there are some things that are a pretty common experience to us all. And I think that was probably the point Maslen was trying to make.

Write Copy, Make Money: a good read for the seasoned pro and the beginner. Just don’t expect all the answers without having to do some thinking for yourself. (And if you don’t want to think for yourself, what are you doing in business?)

http://cache0.bookdepository.com/assets/images/book/medium/9789/8143/9789814302586.jpg

Perfect Italiano’s Perfect Man – my perfect ad

May 19th, 2011

Image: Perfect Man Facebook page

Since I became a copywriter, I’ve had to train myself to pay more attention to advertising. Ads in magazines and newspapers don’t tend to be a problem, and nor do billboards, but thanks to current technology allowing me to skip ahead whole minutes when I’ve recorded something, I don’t often watch ads on the telly.

Until TVNZ wised up to that and started putting on a short ad after the promos that usually herald the end of the ad break.

Anyway, for the last year or so I’ve been very taken with the Perfect Italiano ‘Perfect Man’ ads. If you haven’t seen them, the protagonist is a very earnest and sterotypically attractive (pseudo?) Italian guy who loves to cook and listen to the problems of your friends while painting and practicing his listening face. They’re quite hilarious – and they’re that rare type of ad that I don’t seem to tire of.

This is why I think they work:
1) They’re intentionally silly. It’s very humanising when a company doesn’t take itself so seriously.

2) They do a good job of appealing to the target demographic: women. It may sound sexist, but by and large, women are still the ones who are often in charge of the cooking and shopping (where are those hunter-gatherers?). This guy is the polar opposite of what most women expect of their partners: and things are usually funnier when they lean towards the extreme.

3) They have a character. Having a character is nothing new in ads; two examples that spring to mind are the American banker Goldstein from the ASB ads, and the Anchor family from the early 90s. But people are more inclined to buy when they can associate a person with a brand – that’s why I have a photo of myself on my homepage – and this guy is especially memorable.

4) They do social media. Because these ads give me a good giggle, I follow the Perfect Man on both Facebook and Twitter. Then I get to see new gems outside the TV ads, like this: “Today I put a cast on a kitten to mend his broken leg. He was brave like a tiny lion.” Show me a woman, or even a man, who won’t laugh at that. The best thing about the Facebook and Twitter feeds is that they’re so beautifully in character; you can hear the Perfect Man’s voice when you read them. That’s damn hard to do.

Do you have a favourite ad? And what is it that you like about it?

Stitching up my writing

March 3rd, 2011

I’ve just started learning to sew. I got a cheap-secondhand-but-extremely-good-quality sewing machine, and harbour dreams of one day having a wardrobe full of fantastic clothes that I made all by myself. I have a long way to go.

But – and yes, this is one of those blog posts where you relate your topic to something apparently unrelated – I started thinking about ways in which writing, especially copywriting, is like sewing. Some of my thoughts:

- The preparation takes longer than the project. Like the rigmarole of washing fabric, pressing it, cutting out your pieces, and pinning or basting them together before you stitch them, there’s so much to be done before you start writing. Research, planning, brainstorming – but do it right, without cutting corners, and that’s how you do a good job.

- There’s a lot to learn at the start, then it’s just building on what you know. Once you know about seams, grains, tensions, fabric types, interfacing, and machine feet, it’s just a matter of practice. Copywriting is a different beast from other types of writing – but once you learn about target audiences, the power of persuasion, how to think like your reader, and what’s most appropriate for the job at hand, all you need to do is use those skills until they’re second nature, and never stop learning.

- You’ll start paying attention to examples everywhere. These days, I can’t look at a top someone’s wearing without taking note of the seaming, dart placement, and tailoring. I also can’t read a billboard or sales letter without looking at how they’ve phrased their sentences, and figuring out why. And I’ve learned a lot by doing that; it’s perversely fun to find an example of poor writing and pick holes in why I wouldn’t do it like that.

- The finishing touches are very important. You can’t just stitch up some bits of fabric and start wearing it. Seams need to be pressed and finished, and threads need to be clipped. Likewise writing – you can’t just stop typing and find it finished. It needs reading thoroughly, replacing words that don’t work, refining sentences that could be that much snappier. Then it’s done.

- You finish one project, you’re itching for the next. Enough said, really.

The proof is in the editing

February 21st, 2011

One of the things that people don’t take long to learn about me is that I’m really big on proofreading and editing properly. I yell at the TV when there’s an errant apostrophe in an ad, get very annoyed about typos in online news articles (but not people’s blogs – I hate when people comment just to point out a misspelling) and I love predictive text for the amount of time I save in writing messages properly.

It’s almost ruined my day before to discover a typo in something I wrote, so I’m very careful to do my proofing and editing properly.

This is how I do it:

- I try and make sure it’s right first time. Not as far as word choice and sentence structure goes, but just the words themselves. I’m lucky in that I don’t have a problem with how to spell words, or remembering which witch is which, but my typing skills are sometimes less than exceptional. I tend to take the slow and methodical approach to writing anyway, so it doesn’t really slow things down or interrrupt the flow. And the red underlines in Word distract me more than correcting typos does.

- Wherever possible, I leave a decent amount of time between finishing a piece and deadline so I can sit on it for a couple of days. Then I can come back to it with fresh eyes and edit to my heart’s content, and because it’s had a day or two out of my mind I’m not sick of the sight of it. And it’s a good way to come up with new ideas you wouldn’t have had a couple of days before.

- When I’m done with the writing, I read it again slo-o-owly. Sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. Often something will jump out at me and I’ll wonder how missed it (and be pleased because I caught it!). Then I repeat as often as I think is necessary.

- I try not to get obsessive about it. There are only so many times you can re-read your own work without going crazy. Usually, once I’ve made a pass through it without finding anything new, I consider it done and will send it off. While I try very hard to not let anything squeak through, it’s ultimately the client’s responsibility to double-check it. I remind myself I’m only human.

There are some good tips for proofing out there. One I want to try is reading backwards – I can see how that would work but haven’t given it a go yet.

Any other suggestions?

A new year, a new challenge

December 31st, 2010

As if everything else I do wasn’t enough of a challenge, this year I’ve decided to set myself an extra one: starting 1 January 2011, I am going to undertake the 365 Project photo challenge. I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple of months but decided to wait till the new year to make it a nice clean start.

Taking one photo every day for a year is a daunting proposition for me. I have next to no photography skills (though I can always spot other people’s mistakes!), and quite honestly, learning about apertures and f-stops and Lightroom and Photoshop fills me with something that’s not quite horror, but doesn’t feel good. But I want photography skills. I want to look at an awesome photo and think, I took that. I love looking at photos and am always amazed at the creative ways photographers look at the world. I want to see a world like that.

So, that’s my challenge. I’m blogging about it, I guess, to set out my reasons for doing it so that I have something to remind me why I’m doing it when it gets hard sometime around, oh, 16 January.

But it’ll be cool to look through the photos in a year and see what I did and be proud of my new mad skills.

So, if you’re interested in following my challenge, this is what you should know. 1. I won’t necessarily upload every day. I’ll do what I can but some days it won’t happen; but I will upload all the photos eventually. 2. Expect to see a lot of pictures of my cat, especially at the start of the challenge when I get to 10pm and realise I haven’t taken a photo that day. 3. Comments are welcome, nay, encouraged. It’s more fun that way.

I’ve set up a set on Flickr, if you care to see what I get up to this year :-)

Networking and vintage clothes shopping: I like ‘em both

November 3rd, 2010

Unlike many self-employed people, I like networking events. I see it as being a bit like something else I enjoy: vintage clothes shopping. Yeah, it’s girly, but hear me out.

Image: Flickr user Rex Roof

Picture this: you’re in a shop that’s a mess of muddled clothes racks, shoes, hats and bags scattered around. Where do you start? You pick a likely-looking rack and start picking through it. Nothing for you. You pick another rack, flick through it. Nothing. Undeterred, because there’s always something interesting (hey, wow, a garish tie-dyed leather jacket! A fuchsia 1980s bridesmaid’s dress!), you keep picking through rack after rack, and you hit paydirt. Maybe it’s something you’ve always hoped to find. Or maybe it’s something you immediately fall in love with and know you’ll have a long happy life together.

Now picture this: you’re in a conference hall, groups of people milling everywhere. Where do you start? You pick a circle of friendly-looking chatting people, say hello, and butt in. They’re talking about the session on jQuery, which you didn’t attend and know nothing about, but you politely stay for a few minutes. Maybe you quietly move on then, picking your way through more groups, maybe you stay when the topic changes to something you know about, maybe you strike up a one-on-one conversation with someone there that leads to the exchange of business cards.

See some similarities? If you try to just relax and go with the flow, networking can be fun. Don’t put pressure on yourself; that’s how you go all shy and become the wallflower who neither gets nor gives business cards. Don’t go in there with the expectation that you’ve GOT to get new clients there; you’ll come off as being desperate. I’ve chatted with people at events about all kinds of things, from copywriting to travelling to dog training. Almost all of them have been extremely nice, and it’s a good buzz when they seem genuinely interested in what you do and ask for a business card.

Okay, there’s an element of luck – just happening to start talking to someone who’s interested in working with you – that a lot of people don’t like, and I get that; but I’d argue that many things in life are a question of right place, right time. And in this age of words on a screen, what’s not to like about a little face-to-face contact?

When bad words aren’t so bad

October 21st, 2010

I’m not a puritan when it comes to language. I know there’s the argument that if you can’t make your point without using a swear word then it proves you have both limited intelligence and vocabulary (my grandmother is fond of that one), but sometimes there’s nothing that gets your point across, or vents your frustration, as effectively as a good cursing.

It’s all about context. And sure, you have to judge your audience, but a well-placed swear word is almost like a secret handshake; it lets all parties know that they’re equals, there’s no standing on ceremony, and they’re comfortable with each other.

Which is why I was surprised to read today that complaints were made about the use of a certain word that refers to a part of the female anatomy on the TV show Outrageous Fortune (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10680627)

For those not from New Zealand, Outrageous Fortune is about a family of white-trash petty criminals whose mother decides they’re going straight after dad is banged up. It’s a comedy-drama that’s realistically full of sex and bad language. It’s also historically been on at 9.30pm on Tuesday nights, though this season (its last) for some reason is on an hour earlier.

Admittedly, it’s mostly the right-wing ‘protect the fabric of society’ groups who are gnashing their teeth over this. The thing is, it seems a pointless complaint. The show is in its final few weeks now, and they’ve had six years to complain about it. I don’t even think it’s a valid argument to say that the offending word was said too early, at 8.42, because by now everyone knows how Outrageous Fortune rolls, and if parents are dumb enough to consider it suitable viewing for their kids because of the time it’s on, the kids hearing a few dirty words are probably the least of their worries.

Because I see words as just being forms of expression, rather than entities of their own, it takes a lot to horrify me when it comes to their use. I’ve heard some beautifully creative combinations of swear words, and rather than make me gasp and clutch my pearls, it sometimes inspires me to come up with my own. I’m not above using naughty words myself on occasion, but only among friends, and there are certain ones I would never, ever use because of how offensive they are to others. And those are also the ones that aren’t that much fun to use anyway.

End note: I managed to write 440 words about swear words without actually using one. My grandmother would be proud.

How to sneak keywords into copy

October 15th, 2010

We all know that, when you’re planning a new or redesigned website, you need to think about relevant keywords to show search engines that you’re worth ranking.


Photo by Flickr user chrissy575

While it’s not the only thing you need to worry about when it comes to search engine optimisation, you do need to ensure that your copy contains a good chunk of keywords. That’s not the problem; the problem is when it starts sounding spammy:

Happy Husky dog kennels are the best dog kennels your dog could ever want! Lots of dog kennels are cold and draughty dog kennels, but your dog shouldn’t have to sleep in a dog kennel like that – our dog kennels are warm and dry and your dog will love sleeping in our dog kennels!

Sounds stupid, right? The sad thing is, I’ve seen copy like this on a lot of sites (and I bet you have, too). What often gets forgotten is the end user; the person who’s come to the site looking for information. Search engines actually don’t need as much keyword density as you might think; conventional wisdom suggests 5-10%. The above (made up) example shows the keyword ‘dog’ makes up 18% of the words, and ‘dog kennels’ makes up 10%. Sure, it’s a really brief passage (55 words), and that skews the figures, but it shows how easy it is to shove keywords into copy, to the detriment of its credibility and readability.

The trick is not to go overboard. Sure, if you can work in a keyword instead of ‘it’ or ‘our product’, do it, but don’t write slavishly for search engines. If you think about it in the right way, you’ll get your keywords but your copy won’t read like your copy/paste button vomited on the screen.

All dogs deserve a warm, dry dog kennel, and yours is no exception. Happy Husky builds premium dog kennels with your dog’s comfort in mind. Forget those damp and cold dog kennels at the bottom of the garden – for a happy, comfortable dog the best choice you can make is a Happy Husky dog kennel.

This is still a little more exaggerated than I’d normally like, but the ‘dog’ keyword is down to 12% and ‘dog kennels’ down to 7%. They’re still there, but they don’t jar nearly as much. And the best part is that you leave more room for persuasion – now readers know that Happy Husky makes premium dog kennels, and that their dog deserves to be happy and comfortable. (Well, I hope they knew that already, but it never hurts to remind them, right?)

Winter viruses: none shall pass!

June 18th, 2010

Flickr user: (matt)

One of the joys of self-employment is that when you first feel the niggle of a winter malady coming on, you can launch a pre-emptive strike to ward it off, employing tactics that would be completely inappropriate for a public workplace.

Need to stay warm? Ditch the nice clothes, and stay in your pajamas, or better still, a onesie. Feel like you need a nap? Get a hot water bottle, and snuggle up in bed for an hour. And you can eat foods that have huge benefits for keeping your immune system humming, but which should never enter a public area. I’m talking, of course, about raw garlic.

Yesterday I started feeling a bit more grumpy than usual, my nose started running, and I wasn’t happy with the way the back of my throat was feeling. It’s vital that I stay healthy, because I’m off to a wedding in a week that will involve a plane trip and a holiday. Last time I flew with a cold I was almost in tears from the pain on descent, and nobody wants to be the person coughing all through the ceremony.

So I did some research into what I could do to nip it in the bud fast, but which didn’t involve drugs. I’ve been a fan of lemon and honey in the past, and ginger and garlic, but I was interested to read a bit more about garlic. Anecdotally, it’s been used for centuries for its antibacterial and antiviral properties, and is best used crushed because that releases allicin, thought to be the active compound. More information can be found here.

After an initial dose of two cloves, I’ll take another one tomorrow, and for a couple more mornings before we leave. Hopefully by then I’ll have results that will enable me to stay healthy. And as for my partner, with whom I share the office? Well, he’ll have to put up with me being all garlicky for a couple of days, but better him than an office full of workmates!