VersaQuill

This article follows “Inspiration: Laying Out the Welcome Mat.” For other articles in this series, see Important Posts.

Ogilvy said, “Big ideas come from the unconscious.” How can you feed your unconscious so it has the raw material for such ideas? Try the following.

Inspiration Tip #1: Do your homework

Gather information on the product or service you’re writing about. Think about what categories it falls into—the obvious ones and the unexpected ones.

Consider your target audience: who they are, what they want, how they feel.

The worksheets in Part 1 of the VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook are geared toward making it easier to do your homework. Writing down the information on the worksheets helps fix it firmly in your mind, so your subconscious will be able to find it and juggle it.

Tip #2. Look at other ads

Flip through Ogilvy on Advertising, Cone’s Steal These Ideas!, or another illustrated work on copywriting. Go through your swipe file. Do some Google searches. Look not only ads that sell products similar to the one you’re working on, but at some that were developed for categories that are only distantly related.

Tip #3. Consider the approach

Think about the approaches you might use to promote the product, based on your target audience. Are you presenting news? Offering facts? Rousing curiosity? Telling a story? Promising immediate results? Focusing on a visual? Blasting the competition? (This is an abbreviated version of the list in Chapter 7 of the Workbook—suggestions for additions always welcome.)

Tip #4. Digest

Give your subconscious time to digest all this information and sort out what’s particularly important or interesting. While it’s fresh in your mind, this mass of information may be confusing rather than helpful. For me, overnight is the minimum digestion time. I often work late gathering information, just so that I can sleep on it. If you can’t wait overnight, at least break for lunch.

Tip #5. Commit to writing

Commit to setting ideas down on paper for 10-15 minutes. It doesn’t have to be a draft of an ad: you can start with possible hooks, headlines, or approaches. If 10-15 minutes sounds unbearably long, promise yourself to get at least 5 ideas down on paper.

Why? Because it takes time for ideas to start bobbing up from your subconscious. Caples said, “The human brain is like an automobile engine. It works best when it is hot. When you sit down to write an advertisement, your brain is cold.” (Tested Advertising Methods, 5th ed., p. 95)

I like Ayn Rand’s formulation even more:

In steelmaking, a blast furnace must be heated for weeks before it is hot enough to forge steel. A writer getting himself into the writing mood is like that furnace. Nobody likes to get into that state, though once you are in it you want no other, and would probably snap at anyone who interrupted you. (Art of Nonfiction, p. 69)

It is indeed a difficult state to come by. It’s also what gives most of us the strength to keep writing.

But what do you do if you have writer’s block? What if you start writing, and find you’re stuck? That’s an upcoming post.

Other articles in this series:  see Important Posts.

What’s the difference between seeking inspiration and overcoming writer’s block? Writer’s block is an obstacle—a thinking problem to be overcome. Inspiration is a solution, delightful but unpredictable. You can lay out the welcome mat, but you can’t say exactly when inspiration will arrive.

What is inspiration?

When you feel inspired, it’s not that you suddenly possess facts and wisdom that you didn’t have before. It’s that you’ve made a connection you hadn’t made before. “The secret of all effective originality in advertising,” said Leo Burnett, “is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.” Inspiration is your subconscious mind putting order into material that your conscious mind was too cluttered, distracted, or anxious to sort out.

Tidy up your desktop

Making connections is all about tidying up your mind. I talked in Positioning, Concepts, and Copywriting about how concepts help organize what’s in your conscious mind. Using them is the equivalent of stacking the papers on your desk into tidy piles by subject. You group things into categories and divide them into subcategories. You regroup depending on your current context and purpose.

For example: if your job is to write an ad for Mary’s Net Café, you can think of it as a coffe-shop with wireless access, or a French pastry shop where you can email your best friend, or a café whose La-Z-Boy recliners have laptop desks. Which category and subcategory you choose to emphasize in the ad depends on what Mary’s customers want most, and what Mary’s competitors are offering.

Keep your mental filing cabinets in order

This sorting and identification process is also crucial for your subconscious mind. It’s the equivalent of putting legible, logical labels on your mental file folders, so that when they drop from your conscious to your subconscious mind—from your desk into your filing cabinet—you can still find them. (And they will drop: see Crows and Copywriters.)

How can you keep track of all the useful knowledge and experience you’ve accumulated over the years in your filing cabinets? That depends mostly on how much effort you originally put into filing the stuff. Suppose you see Miller’s classic ad, “Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less.” If you only go as far as thinking, “Hah! funny,” perhaps you’ll remember Miller Lite the next time you’re buying beer.

Suppose, however, that you put into words what makes that ad stand out: use of paradox, use of macho men to sell a low-cal product, use of celebrity testimonials. Then the ad will get stashed under the right categories in your mental filing cabinets. That makes it more likely to turn up when you’re trying to promote a deodorant that makes men smell nice, or a sweetener that has half the calories of sugar but all the taste.

Beyond keeping your filing cabinets in order, how can you help inspiration along? David Ogilvy puts it very clearly:

Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process. (Ogilvy on Advertising, p. 16)

How can you stuff your consciousness? See the next post.

NOTE: This post was inspired by a recent post on Copyblogger, 10 Pathways to Inspired Writing. The author and the commentors offered a wealth of ideas, some of which were for seeking inspiration, some of which were for overcoming writer’s block.

Recommended Reading

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed by now that I’m a fan of Ayn Rand—and not just of her bestselling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. This blog is about thinking for copywriters, and it’s Ayn Rand’s ideas–as explained in her nonfiction works–that have allowed me to think clearly about copywriting and many other topics.

Looking at the paperback editions of Rand’s nonfiction recently, it occurred to me that their blurbs break a couple copywriting commandments. The blurbs stress features rather than benefits, and they speak in language that isn’t shared by the target audience. Here are some comments that seem more to the point, which I’ll be posting presently as an Amazon review.

Ayn Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Rev. ed.

I was a straight-A student in high school and college, but I didn’t learn to think until I read Ayn Rand. Her philosophy (specifically her epistemology, which deals with how you know what you know) answers those thorny but important questions that put my philosophy professors in a tizzy. Does the fact that a pencil in water looks broken mean you can’t trust anything your senses tell you? Do words (concepts) correspond to something to reality, or can you use them as politicians do, to mean anything you want? Can you know anything for certain?

Of Ayn Rand’s nonfiction books, this one was definitely the most challenging to get through: I had to rethink so much of what I “knew.” In the long run, though, it was the most worthwhile. Her demonstration of how to think showed me how to use reason to deal with people and the world. Because of her theories, I see the world as a place that I can understand, and where I can not only survive but ultimately achieve my own happiness. If you’ve read Atlas, think of the scene where the heroine wakes up in a sunlit valley, smiles, and asks, “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?” The ideas in ITOE are the foundation for that kind of smile.

Download free worksheet on positioning.

Positioning is crucial in promoting a product or service—the tough part is figuring out a niche in which the product both fits in and stands out. The answer: step back and look at the product in terms of concepts.

Concepts and copywriting

Concepts are the way humans deal with the fact that we can only hold a small number of items in our conscious minds. (See “Crows and Copywriting.”) We mentally gather similar items into a group or category (the genus). Then, by looking for differences within that group, we divide the items into subcategories (species).

The beauty of this mental “filing system” is that although the items we’re looking at remain the same, we can change how we categorize them, based on our context and purpose. In office records you might sort clients by last name, date of purchase, or item purchased. They’re still the same clients. In the same way, as a copywriter you can search out different categories and subcategories until you find one in which a particular product excels.

For example: suppose you’re writing an ad for Mary’s Net Café. The obvious concept is café (the genus) with wireless access (the species). But if you focus on that, the ad will literally be “generic”—which comes from the word “genus.” The generic ad will promote not only Mary’s, but all the Net cafes competing with her.

How can you change the category and/or subcategory to make Mary’s Net Café stand out? Some options:

1. Position by changing the subcategory

Treat “Net café” as a category of its own, and create a new subcategory using distinctive features and benefits such as location, hours, food, price, or amenities. Is it the only Net café on Main Street? Is it the only one open 24/7? Is it the only one where you can get a bottomless cup of coffee for $10? Is it the only one with La-Z-Boy recliners, or with an on-staff masseuse for people who hunch over their laptops too long? Is it the only Net café that appeals to certain senses (smells delicious, plays New Age music), or that makes you feel a certain way (happy, calm, businesslike)?

If you’ve got lists of the benefits of the product and the characteristics of the target audience, that’s the place to start the search for subcategories you can own. If you don’t have such lists, work through the VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook, Worksheets 1.1, 2.1, and 2.2.

2. Position by changing the category

Put the product into a different category (genus) altogether. Is it the only pastry shop that offers wireless access? Is it the only café with a terrific view that offers wireless access?

3. Trumpet the category the product is not in.

This works especially well for hot-button, highly emotional issues. Is Mary’s the only Net café that has a cell-phone-free room? Is it the only one far from the town’s main drag, so it has little traffic noise? Is it eco-friendly or trans-fat free? Does it reject (or welcome) smokers, pets, kids, alcohol?

USPs, DSIs, and branding

Thinking in concepts leads to great USPs. A Unique Selling Proposition makes a promise that the competition can’t or doesn’t offer, and that can move hundreds or millions to buy. Choose the right concept—the right category and subcategory—and you’ve got the USP. You’ve also got what Schley calls a DSI, or dominant selling idea: “Our company is the #1 choice for [a particular specialty] because our product has [reason why].” And having a USP and/or DSI means you’ve got the core of your branding. To fine-tune it, see the VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook Chapter 4 (on USPs and DSIs, and branding).

Download a free worksheet on positioning from the VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook. If you make a suggestion that I incorporate into the next version of the Workbook, I’ll send you a free PDF of Part 1 of the Workbook (a $30 value).

Recommended reading

• Ries, Al, and Jack Trout. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. McGraw Hill, 2001. The classic text on creating a memorable position for your product in the public mind.
• Reeves, Rosser. Reality in Advertising. Alfred A. Knopf, 1961. Brief but excellent. Reeves pioneered the USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
• Schley, Bill, and Carl Nichols, Jr. Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea. Portfolio, 2005. How to build a brand, in a logical sequence.
• Graham, Gordon. “How to Create Killer Blurbs That Sell Software.” An interview with Marcia Yudkin, giving advice that can easily be adapted to other products.  http://www.namedatlast.com/naming7.htm
• Fortin, Michel. The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning. Magical Marketing Strategies for Creating an Endless Stream of New, Repeat, and Referral Business. 3rd ed. (v. 3.5), 2008. http://www.michelfortin.com/the-10-commandments-of-power-positioning/
• If the theory behind concepts intrigues you or if you’ve ever sat with glazed eyes while a college philosophy professor told you there was no way for you to know if the “real world” exists, try Ayn Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. More on ITOE at the end of Inspiration: Laying Out the Welcome Mat.

The following books are the best references I’ve found for anyone who’s just learning copywriting or who wants a review of the basics.

Warning: If you try to write with all their advice in mind, you’ll go nuts. MyVersaQuill Copywriting Workbook aims to cure that problem by summarizing copywriting principles into worksheets and checklists that help you gather the necessary facts and check your copy against accepted “best practices.” When the mundane details are under control, you have more time and energy to think up creative ways to describe your products and services.

Samples from the Workbook are available here. The list of the sources consulted for the Workbook (including all the works below and many more) is available as a free PDF.

BOOKS ON COPYWRITING

I suggest reading these books in this order: basics first, then elaboration and reinforcement.

BLY, Robert W. The Copywriter’s Handbook, A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells. 3rd ed. Holt, 2005. One of the most thorough books out there, covering all aspects of copywriting. No illustrations, which is why it’s useful to read Ogilvy and Cone (below).

OGILVY, David. Ogilvy on Advertising. Vintage, 1985. A elegantly written classic by one of the masters of advertising: thoughtful comments, great advice, invaluable illustrations.

HOPKINS, Claude. Scientific Advertising. Bell Publishing, 1920. The beauty of Hopkins’s book is that it sets out clearly (90 years ago!) many of the copywriting principles that are still accepted as best practices today. Available for free download at Google books: http://tinyurl.com/yac87bo

SCHWAB, Victor O. How to Write a Good Advertisement. A Short Course in Copywriting . Wilshire Book Company, 1962. A classic text, including in Chapter 1 “100 Good Headlines and Why They Were So Profitable.”

SCHLEY, Bill, and Carl Nichols, Jr. Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea. Portfolio, 2005. How to build a brand, in a logical sequence with lots of examples. This made the cut because of its emphasis on identifying and publicizing the product’s most notable benefits.

CONE, Steve. Steal These Ideas! Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star. Bloomberg Press, 2005. This one made the list because of its illustrations of print ads; it’s also an easy read and offers useful tips.

BOOKS ON WRITING

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well. The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction.25th anniversary edition. Quill / Harper Resource, 2001. Read it, or read it again.

MOST USEFUL WEBSITES AND BLOGS

Forde, John. http://copywritersroundtable.com/

Fortin, Michel  www.MichelFortin.com

Godin, Seth  http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Halbert, Gary  http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/

Starek, Yaro  www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Yudkin, Marcia  www.yudkin.com

Off you run to the grocery store, chanting to yourself the seven ingredients you need for spaghetti sauce. But the display of Super Bowl snacks distracts you, and then Mary calls about the PTA meeting. You check out with five ingredients, a bag of chocolates, and a box of Kleenex.

Ayn Rand dubbed the fact that people can’t remember long, random lists “the crow epistemology,” or “the crow.” The name refers to an experiment to find out how much birds can remember. A flock of crows watched a man with a rifle enter the woods. They hid until he left. Two men entered the woods; the crows hid until both left. When three men entered and only two left, the crows waited until the third left. But if five men entered and only four left, the crows came out of hiding. Crow-counting goes “one, two, three, lots.” (Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, rev. ed., p. 62. For more about ITOE, see Inspiration: Laying Out the Welcome Mat.)

Rand told this story introduce the point that humans, too, can juggle only a limited number of random, separate items in their conscious minds. The number of items may be 6 or 7 for humans rather than 3 or 4 for crows—but it’s still a very limited number. And any new item will tend to displace something that’s already there. So those 7 items on your grocery list are difficult to remember and easily forgotten.

The crow and your potential customers

How does this relate to copywriting?

The crow epistemology is why every single book on copywriting tells you to focus on 1 or 2 important benefits. If you present the case for your product as a bunch of 10 random points (yes, dears, even bulleted points) … caw, caw, caw. Your potential customers will quickly lose track of the points and lose interest in your copy. And you can’t inspire them with a desperate desire to purchase your product if they’re not listening.

The crow is also why every book on copywriting tells you to persuade your potential customer to act now. No matter how brilliant your copy, it’s going to get bumped from the reader’s mind when the phone rings or the snacks are served.

The solution to the crow is to reduce the number of ideas you’re asking your potential customers to grasp and remember. How?

Conquering the crow: reduce the number of points

Jingles, brands, USPs, and taglines work brilliantly when they meld the product’s name and its promise into an inseparable unit in the customer’s mind. Need to make your eyes look less bloodshot? Visine gets the red out. Want a quick snack that won’t leave tell-tale smudges on your fingers? M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hands. But if the ad says, “M&Ms come in pretty colors, have a crunchy outer coating, don’t melt on your fingers, and are easy to share” … Caw, caw, caw.

Conquering the crow: organize your points

Stories are great sales tools because they reduce the amount a reader or listener has to remember. A story is an organized sequence. A logical sequence “reads” like one item. It’s easier for a reader to follow and remember a story than a bulleted list.

Conquering the crow: motivate your potential customer

The other option for getting past your reader’s crow is to increase his motivation to listen to your message. More on that in a future post. (If you’ve heard of Ayn Rand’s book on ethics, The Virtue of Selfishness, you can guess where I’ll go with this one.)

The crow and you as a copywriter

Your brain has the same limitations as those of your readers. If you have five brilliant ideas and the phone rings, several of the brilliant ideas will vaporize. Write now, edit later.

The crow is why I created worksheets and checklists to use on my own copywriting projects. If I see ideas on paper, I can compare and consolidate them, and ultimately write more forceful copy. Are there days when I don’t feel like bothering to go through this step-by-step process? Oh, yes. But I never regret doing it once I get started—and I never fail to find at least one valuable idea that had not occurred to me when I was letting the visions roam wild and free inside my head.

Try this for yourself with a sample page on analyzing the competition from the VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook.

What questions would you add? Give me a good suggestion and I’ll send you a free copy of the Workbook—a $60 value. Why? Because the Workbook is good, and I want to make it even better.