Why can’t you write copy like Durex?

Experienced copywriters all know that teaching others how to write good copy is much easier than writing good copy yourself.

What insights, positioning, disassembly, cut the crap, stand from the perspective of consumers;

Such as contrast method, intimidation method, emotional appeal, rational appeal, X copy, Y copy and so on.

There are too many routines, too many principles, too many theories, and too many techniques.

But what is the reality?

Most of us,

I have heard countless truths but still cannot live a good life.

I have tried countless tricks but still cannot write good copy.

This is normal because we are all too young but eager to become experienced.

New learners are unwilling to ponder and accumulate knowledge slowly, but instead spend all their energy searching for martial arts secrets that can lead to overnight success;

The old-timers in copywriting, on the other hand, understand that it is better to teach well than to write well. They all like to be a teacher. They have obviously never written any amazing works, but they can make up a lot of theories as if they are hardcore masters.

But we must understand that no matter how many skills we have learned, if we do not have the correct experience accumulation and thinking mode, it is like practicing external skills but not having solid internal strength. It is just fancy moves and will not allow us to stand out in this fiercely competitive arena.

Therefore, we need to train and improve our copywriting skills.

The first priority is not to learn those specific "skills" and " dry goods ".

Instead, you should first consciously accumulate life experience and train your thinking ability.

I remember six years ago, when I first started my internship at McCann-Erickson, the ECD at McCann said to us, “In advertising, 30% depends on hard work, and 70% depends on talent.”

I still agree with this statement. If you don't have a natural feel for advertising, creativity, and copywriting, if you are not a person who is impulsive about words and creativity, if you never shed tears for a touching copywriting, never laugh at a joke, and never applaud for an awesome advertising copywriting, then no matter how many skills you learn, it will be useless.

Of course, if you think you have a feel for copywriting. So, in order to make your efforts more effective and unleash your talents, let's do the following 5 things together. This is not a specific copywriting skill, but some suggestions on how to accumulate life experience and train thinking ability. It is also my immature little suggestion.

1. Becoming a schizophrenic

Good copywriting is written from the perspective of the target consumers.

That is to say, "Speak the truth to people and lies to ghosts."

There is no doubt about this, and countless copywriting techniques mention this point.

But the problem is, I am a editor with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan. How can I write advertising copy for luxury goods to be sold to people who earn a million yuan a year?

This requires you to have what is called insight.

What do millionaires think? What books are they reading? What dramas are they following? What topics do they talk about when they get together?

What are they anxious about? How do they usually spend their money?

If you can’t answer any of them, that’s okay.

At this time, you need to conduct research, check information, and conduct interviews to form a research report on people with an annual income of one million.

Then, use your wisdom to condense this thick material into a sentence or a paragraph.

I won’t go into details about methods of research, research, and interviews; these are just standard actions that can be acquired through learning.

The key lies in how to "use wisdom to condense the copy you want."

I have no idea.

It’s no use even if you’ve seen countless techniques. It’s easier said than done.

The best way is to accumulate slowly, train your empathy and your ability to generalize.

When you encounter a new product, quickly make yourself a die-hard user of this product, and then quickly write down what you want to say most.

How to train specifically? Here are four small suggestions:

• Starting today, when you talk to anyone, please make a conscious effort to write down your conversation. You can remember the general idea in your head or use a recorder. Then, when you have time, analyze your conversation carefully, especially, why does the other party say such things and what is his/her purpose in saying such things? Does his words have anything to do with his identity and background?

Although it's a bit perverted, it's still very useful for improving empathy.

• Interested in analyzing people. What is an analyst? It's just like Sherlock Holmes. For example, when your boss scolds you today, but if the scolding is particularly harsh and has never happened before, then you should analyze it carefully: What happened to him? Was he heartbroken? Did they have a fight? Was he also scolded by his boss? What happened to him in the past two days? Ok, you can just use your imagination.
• Keep a diary and write 300 words every day. Use 200 words to record what happened today and 100 words to record your thoughts. It can train your empathy with yourself (talking to yourself) and also train your ability to generalize.
• Try to summarize the core ideas of any article or book you read every day. For example, even if you read an article of poisonous chicken soup by Mimi Meng , which has a total of 3,868 words, you should try to summarize it in 300 words? Keep training once a day for three months and you will see progress.

2. True masters are all unique

Although the copywriter is "speaking the same thing to different people and lying to different people".

But it does not mean that the copywriting has no personal style at all.

On the contrary, the great copywriter, while "speaking to people in a human way and to ghosts in a ghost way",

It can also let people know instantly who said this human or ghost word.

You know Xu Shunying.

A figure that cannot be avoided in the history of Chinese advertising copywriting.

Her writing style is so outstanding that it is called the "ideological" school.

At that time, her copywriting established the cultural status of Zhongxing Department Store and Eslite Bookstore.

She wrote, "Clothes are a kind of sophisticated politics, and politics are a kind of sophisticated clothes."

She is fascinated by philosophy, Western art, experimental drama, film , etc.

This gives her an ability to structure and reconstruct beyond that of mortals.

If you are interested, you can read her book "Massive Outflow".

You know James Wong.

He was once the most famous copywriter in Hong Kong, and later became a famous lyricist, host and singer.

Faced with a bottle of wine that has poor sales but is full of French petty-bourgeois style.

He wrote, "When Remy Martin opens, good luck comes naturally."

As a result, all the petty-bourgeois pretentiousness was swept away, which helped Remy Martin to open up the market in China and become a high-end red wine in the hearts of the Chinese people.

Huang Zhan’s ability to write such grand copy is inseparable from the books he reads and the friends he makes on a daily basis.

He is fanatically obsessed with martial arts and is a close friend of Jin Yong.

Later he wrote the widely circulated "A Laugh in the Ocean".

Be realistic. You know Dong Dong Qiang, the senior creative director of Ogilvy, who is obsessed with crosstalk and folk art every day. Crosstalk has given him countless inspirations and laid the foundation for his copywriting style. You know Liang Weifeng, the executive creative director of BBDO, who is also a music enthusiast. He has written lyrics and music for countless singers, and music has established his copywriting style.

What do these examples teach us?

Now, you can summarize it yourself.

It can also be regarded as a kind of training of "generalization ability".

3. Creativity is just new wine in old bottles

Many people say, "Oh, my creativity is not good, my imagination is too narrow, what should I do?"

In fact, creativity is something that is both simple and difficult.

The reason is simple: creativity can be trained;

The difficulty is that the training process may be long and painful.

Let’s first take a quick look at what creativity is:

Example: Xiaomi, the artistic journey of a piece of steel plate.

You might say, wow, that’s really creative, describing a mobile phone as an artistic journey of steel plates, that’s really creative, I never thought of it.

Can you really not imagine it?

When you get a mobile phone, have you never thought about or discussed with your friends what the phone is made of? Have you never told your friends whether your phone looks good or not? Have you never associated your phone with anything else?

You should have.

It is very likely that you have thought of the words steel plate, art, and travel when you were idle and observing your mobile phone, but the thought flashed by and you simply forgot it.

Therefore, creativity is nothing more than, when faced with an object, you extract some elements of the object itself, then use associations to derive several new elements, and then combine these elements together. That's creativity.

Good creativity does not mean how many new elements you can think of or how strange they are, but that they are just right.

So, how to train creativity? Based on the above analysis, write 3 points:

• Associative training. I once took an exam for a 4A company, and the first question was "Talk about 50 ways to use chopsticks." This is the association training method, consciously thinking about the multiple ways to use an object and the multiple solutions to a problem.
• Record all the time. Make full use of your phone's memo feature. When you encounter any inspiration, when you associate the things in front of you with anything interesting, write it down quickly in the following format: "See XXX - think of XXX - think of XXX again". Then, before going to bed every night, look at what you have gained today. This will be your own memory maze.
• Training combination. Association is the derivation of a new element only from an old one. And combination is to combine several new elements with old elements. How to combine? Do you know the Chinese dragon? That is the combination of new and old elements such as horse head, snake body, fish scales, chicken feet, etc. The same is true for the thinking training we need to do:

For example, you can find ten pieces of paper and write the name of an object or person on each piece of paper. Pick three cards at random and make up a story. This kind of training can be done by one person or as a game among friends at a party. It is fun and helps train your thinking.

4. Learn from hip-hop and freestyle

What is an important factor in judging whether a hip-hop lyric is good or not?

Rhythm and rhyme.

The same is true for copywriting.

Even if you have seen a lot of techniques, good insights, and good creativity,

But if what you write doesn't even have basic rhythm,

Then you are not a copywriter at all.

After all, copywriting is a craft, and controlling rhythm is our craft.

What is the rhythm of copywriting?

For example, the translation of the advertising slogan of IPhone7 .

The original English version is "This is 7".

Taiwanese version translation: This is iPhone 7.

That's true, but it's just ordinary.

Translation of the mainland version: 7, here.

It has a martial arts flavor.

For example, the copy of iPhone6P is “Bigger than bigger”.

Mainland China translation: "Bigger than bigger."

That's true, but it doesn't make any sense.

Hong Kong version translation: "More than just great."

Well, good copywriting that is concise, to the point and has rhythm.

For example, I won’t accept any gifts this year, and if I do, I’ll accept Melatonin.

It is simply a model of rhythm in copywriting. Although these two sentences are not completely elegant, they use the method of toponymism and the tones are relatively flat, which is very conducive to transmission. If you write "I can't accept gifts during the Chinese New Year, the only thing I can accept is Melatonin." That would probably cut sales in half.

Some people even say "If you are afraid of getting a sore throat, drink Wanglaoji ." It also sounds quite rhythmic when read, just like the sentences commonly used in Yuefu poetry, and is easy to remember.

OK, so how do you develop a sense of rhythm? There is no trick, just read more. What to read? There are three:

• Classical Chinese and poetry. Take out "Three Hundred Tang Poems", "One Hundred Song Poems" and "The Best of Ancient Chinese Prose" and read them over and over again.
• lyrics. When listening to a song, don’t just listen to the music, but also read the lyrics. Especially the classic Cantonese lyrics, the rhythm is unmatched.
• Novels from the Republic of China period. For example, Lao She, Qian Zhongshu, Lu Xun, Mao Dun, etc., read them carefully and slowly, not asking for a lot, just asking for a good appreciation.

5. If you don’t make any progress within three years, leave as soon as possible.

I won’t explain this in detail. Let me give you a simple example.

I have a friend who studied science and engineering, but insisted on doing advertising and marketing .

I switched careers and entered the marketing circle three years ago, but the company I worked for was very small and I needed to write a lot of copy myself.

But the copy he wrote was almost always terrible.

So he signed up for many so-called training camps.

I also read a lot of books, such as "Copywriting Fever", "Copywriting Complete Training Manual", "Story", etc.

I also insist on writing 1,000 words on Jianshu every day.

He persisted for two years, but it was still bad.

What is written is like a diary, straightforward and without any highlights or climax.

I asked him to train his thinking well and not just read theoretical books but also read literature.

But he said that he could no longer read literary novels, or rather, he could not learn the ability to use words and sentences from literature.

To date, he has written 1 million words on Jianshu, but has only 20 followers and 100 likes.

So I advised him not to do copywriting anymore.

You can change your career to do management, planning, research, media placement, or sales.

When it comes to writing, it really is 70% dependent on the support of your mentor and 30% on your own efforts.

You tried hard enough, but it just wasn’t for you.

In fact, when it comes to writing, whether you write well or badly is really not worthy of praise.

I don't expect to gain wealth or status through writing.

I don’t want to teach others how to write when my own writing is crap.

"Many of us who write copy have spent our entire lives writing, just to be able to proudly and nonchalantly say to others one day, 'I wrote this.'"

The author of this article is @Shirley.xu and it is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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