Marketing Copywriting Forecast 2008 - How Five Predictions Can Improve Your Copy in the New Year
Is copy still king in 2008? What tips will help you stay ahead in the competitive copywriting game this year? Here are five New Year predictions that can help marketing copywriters keep strategic skills honed: Prediction # 1: You'll join Facebook or another social network--even if you're forty-something.
Can't fit your big toe into a pair of Forever 21 low rise jeans? Don't listen to Ben Kweller? Sorry, those excuses don't exempt you from social networking: As a marketer you need to build online community and stay on top of emerging marketing and copywriting opportunities.
So ignore your disgusted teenager's cutting comments--"Oh.
My.
God.
Mom.
Old people on Facebook are losers!!"--and create a simple social network profile.
Confession: I am a loser.
In the last few months only two people "friended" me on Facebook-- my husband and another mom.
Don't tell my daughter.
Prediction #2: Your print materials will start to look more like online content.
Time-pressed customers increasingly read print the way they read web text.
They scan pages quickly to decide whether or not your carefully crafted copy is worth a closer read.
So use informative--not arch or clever--subheads.
Make scanning easier with bullets and lists along with short words, sentences and paragraphs.
I'm a fan of Future Now's [http://www.
futurenowinc.
com/personas.
htm] brilliant Persuasive Online Copywriting and use their persona-targeted tips for print as well as web content.
Prediction # 3: Fifteen minutes of fame--and more--can be yours through the magic of video.
Free video blogging services like Utterz [http://www.
utterz.
com/] make it easy--okay, easier--for us tech-challenged incompetents to create, post and share videos.
Do you really need to become an auteur? No.
We're not talking DreamWorks production values.
With little more than a webcam and your brilliant ideas you can create very effective audio and video pieces that support or even supplant some of your print materials.
People are desperate for edited, relevant content in varied formats.
Spoken and viewed articles, newsletters, tip sheets and blog posts are a welcome relief for many busy customers.
Still not a believer? Check out 2007's must-watch video, Shift Happens, to learn about the current data barrage.
One example: More "unique new information" will be generated in the next 12 months than was created in the last 5,000 years.
Prediction #4: Green will be the new black for sophisticated customers.
Be sure to tout your company's environmental efforts--whether you actually purvey green products and services or adopt earth-friendly practices.
Seems like a no-brainer, right? But some makers--Cut-Rite and their terrific wax paper sandwich bags come to mind--seem oblivious to the double impact of brand equity and environmental friendliness.
Let people know about your association with organics, locally grown and made products, less or no packaging, green energy alternatives, environmentally-friendly building materials and low-carbon or reduced waste manufacturing and transporting policies.
Note that your savviest customers now turn a jaundiced eye on easy-fix-let's-switch-light-bulbs-and-save-the-planet-promises.
Skepticism and economic concerns--for mass market customers--are challenges to pre-empt with thoughtful copy.
Prediction #5: Snail mail will make a comeback.
Today more and more marketers and executives filter or delete unopened email.
An increasing number follow Tim Ferriss--author of "The 4-Hour Work Week"--and adopt a "Low-Information Diet," checking email only a couple of times a day and answering it even less frequently.
When you need a decision-maker's attention, send a hand-written note delivered by ye olde mail carrier.
Heavy, premium stationery and a fountain-penned cursive hand are hard to ignore.
Can't fit your big toe into a pair of Forever 21 low rise jeans? Don't listen to Ben Kweller? Sorry, those excuses don't exempt you from social networking: As a marketer you need to build online community and stay on top of emerging marketing and copywriting opportunities.
So ignore your disgusted teenager's cutting comments--"Oh.
My.
God.
Mom.
Old people on Facebook are losers!!"--and create a simple social network profile.
Confession: I am a loser.
In the last few months only two people "friended" me on Facebook-- my husband and another mom.
Don't tell my daughter.
Prediction #2: Your print materials will start to look more like online content.
Time-pressed customers increasingly read print the way they read web text.
They scan pages quickly to decide whether or not your carefully crafted copy is worth a closer read.
So use informative--not arch or clever--subheads.
Make scanning easier with bullets and lists along with short words, sentences and paragraphs.
I'm a fan of Future Now's [http://www.
futurenowinc.
com/personas.
htm] brilliant Persuasive Online Copywriting and use their persona-targeted tips for print as well as web content.
Prediction # 3: Fifteen minutes of fame--and more--can be yours through the magic of video.
Free video blogging services like Utterz [http://www.
utterz.
com/] make it easy--okay, easier--for us tech-challenged incompetents to create, post and share videos.
Do you really need to become an auteur? No.
We're not talking DreamWorks production values.
With little more than a webcam and your brilliant ideas you can create very effective audio and video pieces that support or even supplant some of your print materials.
People are desperate for edited, relevant content in varied formats.
Spoken and viewed articles, newsletters, tip sheets and blog posts are a welcome relief for many busy customers.
Still not a believer? Check out 2007's must-watch video, Shift Happens, to learn about the current data barrage.
One example: More "unique new information" will be generated in the next 12 months than was created in the last 5,000 years.
Prediction #4: Green will be the new black for sophisticated customers.
Be sure to tout your company's environmental efforts--whether you actually purvey green products and services or adopt earth-friendly practices.
Seems like a no-brainer, right? But some makers--Cut-Rite and their terrific wax paper sandwich bags come to mind--seem oblivious to the double impact of brand equity and environmental friendliness.
Let people know about your association with organics, locally grown and made products, less or no packaging, green energy alternatives, environmentally-friendly building materials and low-carbon or reduced waste manufacturing and transporting policies.
Note that your savviest customers now turn a jaundiced eye on easy-fix-let's-switch-light-bulbs-and-save-the-planet-promises.
Skepticism and economic concerns--for mass market customers--are challenges to pre-empt with thoughtful copy.
Prediction #5: Snail mail will make a comeback.
Today more and more marketers and executives filter or delete unopened email.
An increasing number follow Tim Ferriss--author of "The 4-Hour Work Week"--and adopt a "Low-Information Diet," checking email only a couple of times a day and answering it even less frequently.
When you need a decision-maker's attention, send a hand-written note delivered by ye olde mail carrier.
Heavy, premium stationery and a fountain-penned cursive hand are hard to ignore.
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