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Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?

Written by: Shel Horowitz

Article Overview: Honest copy is more effective than "hype copy" if it treats the reader as intelligent. Readers will believe honesty but see through hype. And yet, a good honest marketing piece can be just as captivating as hype, with none of the negative baggage.

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Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?

I confess--I'm a marketing heretic! I've built my career on breaking all the rules--and one of the rules I break is that I don't hype.

Do I put the best possible "spin" on the truth? Of course! But I refuse to deceive my readers into action.

What are some of the common copywriter tricks that I *leave on the table?*

Here are a few to start:
* If you order in the next 24 hours, you get... (face it. If you come back
tomorrow, the offer will almost always still hold)
* Get all these bonuses, valued at $999, for FREE with your $100 order
(yeah, right! And who set the value of these gifts? And are they for sale,
anywhere, on the open market at these prices?)
*Here's the information you requested (a GREAT statement--IF it's true--
but I get five or six a day in my e-box, from companies I've never heard
of)
* Hi there, long-lost friend (and you sent it BCC?)

So why don't I like the copywriter's lies? And how do I write copy without resorting to these deceits?

Well, first of all, I believe that if I want my words to sell a product, that product should be strong enough to do so without tricking the buyer. I know that if I trick someone, I may make a sale--but I've lost a customer for life! Whereas if I show the merits, back up my claims, and focus on the way this product solves a problem, eases a hurt or fear, or satisfies a need, I will build that lifetime relationship.

Oh, and one more thing. I like to look in the mirror and see someone who is doing good for the world--and I don't think lies and trickery will accomplish that. I happen to have a gift for writing, and I use that gift to make the world better. That includes being honest with my self and with my readers.

Much of the work I do is in the publishing industry. And here, the competition is fierce. Roughly 175,000 new books are published in the U.S. each year. Most of them will fail. My job is to help my clients' books stand out in this dense crowd.

Example: I wrote a press release for a book on electronic privacy issues. Here's my headline and lead. (Another rule I broke--never use the headline as the lead sentence. It's the only time I've ever done it that way, but in this case, I think the repetition made the point stronger. Names have been changed to protect the author's privacy.)

It's 10 O'Clock--Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?

HIBBING, MN: It's 10 O'clock--Do you know where your credit history is? How about your employment records? Your confidential medical information?

How would you feel if you found out this sensitive and should-be-private material is "vacationing" in computer databanks around the world--accessible to corporate interests who can afford to track down and purchase it, but not necessarily open to your own inspection.

According to electronic privacy journalist and technology consultant Mortimer Gaines, this scenario is all-too-common...

No falsehoods, no hype--but a whole lot more captivating than the usual "New Book on Electronic Privacy Released by Publisher."

Without tricking people, I want to capture interest...move the reader to action...and still feel good about myself in the morning.

Yes, it can be done! I do it for clients every day, and have done so for more than 20 years.

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Home > Marketing > Shel Horowitz > Can Honest Copywriting Succeed
Article Tags: breaking all the rules, copywriter, crowd, electronic pr, fear, heretic, hype, job, lifetime relationship, marketing, merits, mirror, new books, press release, trickery, truth

About the Author: Shel Horowitz
RSS for Shel's articles - Visit Shel's website

Shel Horowitz, internationally known marketing consultant, copywriter, and speaker, specializes in affordable, effective marketing (including social media) for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits--and helping unpublished writers become published authors. The award-winning author of Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, and four other books, he is the founder of the international Business Ethics Pledge campaign. If you'd like to discuss your next marketing project with Shel, please visit his site or contact him at 413-586-2388.

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Green & Profitable
More from Shel Horowitz
Set Your Press Release Apart From the Other 350 The Editor Got That Day
To Thine Own Self Be True Its Better for Business What Arthur Andersen Would Say to His Company
The Eyeballs You Already Have
Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information
What NOT to Do When Marketing With Email


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Re: Books for Business Owners Re: Books for Business Owners - Hi DougSchadle, Thanks for sharing your favorite business book with us! A good book I'm reading now is "Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed" by Brian Tracy as it was a birthday gift from a friend. Tracy's book is helpful in identifying what's important in your life and then setting an action plan to achieve it.
Re: Invoicing Re: Invoicing - [quote="bennyboy7":1vdzkyim][quote:1vdzkyim]Honest small business owners will do a good job, while honest clients will honor their commitment to pay their invoices on time [/quote:1vdzkyim] True words indeed, 9 times out of 10, All my clients seem to pay up, its sometimes the ones that Im more friendly with take a while! How would you go about setting something like this up? Do you know if there are any examples online? Or just create a simple T & C s contract? Not sure how to do this but as Im getting more and more clients on board I maybe should cover myself?[/quote:1vdzkyim] In the past - I've included a blurb at the bottom of each invoice that states the interest rate due on any unpaid balance and a notation that a $25 late fee can be assessed on the account. This puts the info in front of the person and it is simply a part of your business policy. Shri
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.


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