After all, that’s what each piece of marketing copy is: a salesperson in print (or in pixels).
Because the purpose of marketing copy is to sell. Whether you’re selling a product, a service or an idea, the goal of your copy is to motivate a desired response.
That response might be an order, it might be a click-thru, it might be a sign-up to your list. But whatever the desired response, your copy has to sell it.
Now, you might hear some people say that good, hard-selling copy can make your prospects give you your desired response.
Nonsense.
Your marketing copy can’t make your prospects do anything (except turn away in disgust!).
What good copy can do is to help your prospects see the value in your product. Good copy explains why your prospects need your product. Good copy helps your prospects understand why your product is worth more to them than the money they’ll part with to get it.
And in the end, good copy helps to forge a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship between your company and your prospects.
“A Copywriter is a Salesperson Behind a Typewriter”
That’s the very first line in Robert Bly’s excellent book The Copywriter’s Handbook. It’s a quote from Judith Charles, and it’s a pretty good definition of a copywriter (though nowadays I guess we’d substitute ‘keyboard’ for ‘typewriter’).
Each piece of marketing copy must do the job of a salesperson. It must:
- Get and hold your prospects’ attention
- Communicate the value of your product or service, and in some cases, make your prospects aware of their need for your product
- Persuade your prospects to take action
That’s a tall order, even for a live salesperson having a face-to-face conversation with a prospect. But that’s the job your marketing copy faces. And it’s my job to make sure that your copy is up to the task.
Assuming, of course, that you’ll do me the honor of giving me the opportunity!