Copywriting is any series of words that promotes a product or service for sale. It may be in print, or in audio form as in radio or video format.



Two major kinds of copywriting are available.

The first we can call ad agency copywriting. It is used to promote brand awareness. It's the type of advertising you see most often on television: the commercials that may be mildly entertaining but which have no direct call to action.

Direct response copywriting is the second type. It asks the individual to make a choice based on the advertisement it has read, viewed, or listened to. Many television commercials ask you directly to pick up the phone and order the product.

Infomercials are a great example of this. They repeatedly ask the viewer to act by calling and ordering.

Though ad agency copywriting has it's place, what we recommend most of the time is direct response copywriting.

There are a few reasons for this.

First, for the small business owner, you simply can't afford the Madison Avenue campaigns.

Secondly, it's almost impossible to know just how effective an ad agency copywriting advertisement is, if at all. for instance, it is often that television viewers remember the commercial, but not the brand.

Third, direct response advertising and copywriting can be tracked, and therefore optimized and improved.

Copywriting is best when the writer puts himself or herself in your shoes of the prospect. The really good copywriters emphasize this continually, and you may as well get used to it. That, by the way, is why niche marketing is so powerful. The tighter the niche, the more likely you can hone in on what is really important to the customer.

For example, compare the subject of natural medicine with natural medicine for diabetics. With the latter, there's a whole host of common concerns that may not be true of someone without that particular problem. Diabetics have specific needs and worries that they alone share, that run the gamut from diet to medications.

Also, consider the subject of pro football versus someone's favorite pro football team. Many teams have a whole subculture built around them, with their own individualities and history. Specific team's fans have much more in common than pro football enthusiasts in general.

A copywriter can provide many services, including:

Advertisements, Advertorials, Annual Reports, Billboards, Brochures, Bumper Stickers, Business Cards, Catalogs, Coupon, Instructional Courses, Ezines, Flyers, Fundraisers, Greeting cards, Instructional Manual, Journal or Trade Publications, Restaurant Menus, Marketing Material, Newsletters, Postcards, Press Releases, Promotional Materials, Point-of-Purchase Material, Posters, Presentations, Publicity Campaign, Sales Letter, Scripts for commercial advertising on television and radio, Seminars, Shopping Cart, Songs or Lyrics for commercial use, Website Copy, Yellow Pages. (Some of the above items were adapted from the list at http://thedabblingmum.com/writing/webwriting/copywriterjobs.htm).