Super practical dry goods: the universal formula for quickly creating good copywriting

When I was in college, my major was Chinese Language and Literature (Advertising), with a concentration in copywriting planning. This was the first year that the Chinese Department launched a new major, alongside the journalism major. It was a hybrid of literature and copywriting, and I was treated like a rookie.

After graduation, I was determined to join a big advertising company, but the interviewer said that I was too literary; I wanted to become a Chinese teacher, but the principal said that my major was not suitable, so I was in a dilemma.

With the ideal of becoming a copywriter, I started working in sales and fell into the Amway method of Chen Anzhi, Yuan Yiping and Hopkins, trying hard to erase all traces of a literary youth in me. Later, I worked as a handyman in a small advertising company, took over some soft copywriting, edited street books, and had copywriting training for a period of time.

It was not until it entered the Internet industry that hybrid rice saw the light of day again and began to grow.

In Internet companies, operational copywriting has become a well-known profession. Users are in short supply of attention resources. How to stimulate desire through copywriting and spread the word virally has become the magic pursued by operators

For example, fans will skim through the list of pictures and texts pushed by WeChat in one second, and the deciding factor whether to click or not is the title ; EDM, SMS and APP Push are the three most criticized means of harassment in the industry. If the copywriting level is average, users may complain, cancel their accounts, uninstall the APP, and even cause negative word of mouth; SEM copywriting is closely related to marketing costs. When doing SEM, many people always regard clicks as the top priority, often using some crooked ideas, and end up introducing wrong users, resulting in huge cost waste; whether H5 sharing can achieve a screen-sweeping effect depends largely on the strength of the copywriting...

I have been involved in soft articles, SEM, EDM, text messages, app notifications, product process guidance, promotion landing pages, WeChat content, advertising design, H5, etc. I have stumbled along the way and had both successes and failures.

This article will present some of my experiences and career journey.

// A good leader must be a good copywriter

The best management must be a good copywriter. Why do you say that? Let me give you two examples:

My leader often uses the method of appreciation to encourage me to produce high performance. For example, if I wrote an operation plan and my leader said, “That’s great.” I feel very excited, just like the east wind blowing thousands of flowers in the night; if the leader says "pretty good" or "not bad", I feel heavy in my heart.

I came up with a really cool idea. "You are so amazing and talented," the leader said excitedly after listening. The copywriting directly hits my life motto: to be a talented person. The copywriting matches my life pursuit, which is very heartfelt. I was willing to work overtime several times.

The big boss's copywriting skills are even better. He is very frugal with words and rarely talks about copywriting in the WeChat group . Just a "like" is enough to make my heart flutter. If there was another @韩利 in front of my thumbs up, I would reach for the moon.

The big boss sometimes gives two thumbs up, and sometimes it’s a whole screen of thumbs up.

Later I thought about it, it seems that the copywriting of Big Boss is not just for appreciation and encouragement, it should have a deeper meaning. Later I finally understood: one thumbs up means praising you for your current job well, and two thumbs up not only means praising you for your excellent work, but also means: I believe in you, and doubling your KPI is no problem. This is the goal set by my leader for me. Three thumbs up means doubling the KPI. After getting this information, I broke into a sweat, because unknowingly, I had been trapped by my boss's copywriting. My boss found out that I was a vain person, and the copywriting prescribed the right remedy, trying to get me to climb up the social ladder.

From this perspective, among the four great classics, the copywriter with the highest level of writing skills belongs to Song Jiang.

Song Jiang "is generous and charitable, and bullies Zhuo Mao; he recruits talents better than Tian Wen". With his fame in the martial arts world, let's see how he uses his magical copywriting to operate his core users, the 108 generals.

Open Source → If my stronghold gets this man, it will be another powerful general; I asked you to invite him here, who asked you to come here tied up; a petty official has offended the general’s might; I am willing to give up the position of stronghold leader…

Promote activity → What do you think, military advisor? What does the military advisor think? The military advisor is right, so let's follow his advice...

Therefore, copywriting is what we say. Advanced copywriting has hidden meanings in words, and top copywriting speaks differently to different people. In addition, there is another type of copywriting that is at the ghostly and godly level. Do you know who the best copywriters in the industry are? Doctor in the hospital. When a person is sick, the consolation from relatives may not be as reassuring as a word from a doctor. If you don’t believe it, go to the hospital and see what the doctors are saying to their patients. The copywriting of doctors or nurses is always from the heart, which is the strategic nature of the copywriting. Of course, sincerity cannot be determined by just one or two sentences.

//Good copywriting requires heart

Speaking of being sincere, there is a lot to learn. What is being sincere? It's something that touches your emotions.

One word from your opposite-sex friend: Get lost! You will immediately feel dizzy. In this scenario, "go away" is good copy because it makes you sad.

You bastard, why don’t you come back for dinner! I was playing cards when my wife called and threw a copy of the manuscript to me. You felt warm and angry at the same time, right?

When you are on a blind date, facing a beautiful young girl, she hasn't said a word, but you are already secretly happy. Her figure and appearance are the copy. Who says that copy must be expressed in Chinese characters? The old saying "do everything you can" actually means "do everything you can write."

Which one is more likely to attract beauty-loving women: losing weight in "three days" or losing weight in "an instant"? In the business sector, "Satisfied" is not as good as " "Yue Chengdong", conspiracy theory.

I have deep feelings about being sincere. The reason why I became fascinated with Keigo Higashino was after I read "The Convenience Store of Sorrow". This is not a novel at all, it is clearly a marketing textbook. "This grocery store can help you find back what modern people have lost in their hearts." What a great copy. From then on, I immediately fell in worship of the customer service position. I found that everyone has to work in a customer service position for a period of their career, communicating with users on a one-on-one basis, cultivating relationships, and raising the temperature. Why are you so resistant to micro-business, but when you want to buy a piece of clothing, you will think of the big brother who often likes your posts on WeChat Moments ?

Like is the best copywriting in the circle of friends , so when making social products or micro-business, there must be an operation position specifically responsible for the "Like" product. Because likes have cumulative value. You may not care about one or two likes, but if someone likes your posts for a year, you will feel guilty. This is a type of copywriting strategy.

Yang Lihe, a great copywriter whom I have admired for a long time, told a story like this: One night, she was taking a walk with her 2-year-old son. There was a bright moon hanging high in the sky. Suddenly, dark clouds covered the moon. The child suddenly looked up and said, "Mom, the moon has gone out." What a punctual catch. How can adults write such pure words!

I followed suit and took my son for a walk at night, pointing at the moon and saying, "Come on, say something to daddy." Finally one day, my son came to his senses. He looked at the moon and said: Grandma...

When I looked, it was true. The moon on the first day of the new year was as thin as Jack Ma . It was time to feed the baby! So I immediately added this idea to my copy library for backup.

I told my son that daddy was a little tired from writing every day, and asked him to give daddy a back pat. Then my son pouted his little mouth and blew (patted) my back. The word "Pu Pu" is a perfect copy because our whole family was happy.

Sometimes I would deliberately train my son’s writing skills by teaching him a poem: I stand on the upper floor looking at the scenery, and the people looking at the scenery are also looking at me. My son's tampering was very accurate: I was standing upstairs enjoying the scenery, and the people who were enjoying the scenery had not yet gotten off work .

Tears were streaming.

My uncle was sick and in the hospital, and he was in a bad mood for several days. So I wrote a poem: My uncle is still a young man now, and he blows the trumpet so loud that it resounds through the sky. After hearing this, my uncle burst into laughter. Because it brought back memories of his time as a big shot in the trumpet world.

Therefore, good copywriting can touch emotions.

//Good copywriting is spoken language

In 2012, I don’t know if the brothers who run the website 108 remember that I wrote a recruitment post like this:

In 2012, the year of Guichou, at the beginning of late spring, 108 people were specially recruited to operate the website, hoping to start an uprising. Thinking of talented people, they will soar high; admiring excellent people, they will attend elegant forums. coo108 has original articles and operation comments; it also has handsome men and beautiful women, and the elegant tunes of Xue and Lin, which can serve as the scene of the love affair of "For whom do I stand in the wind and dew in the middle of the night". It is better to share a room with others than to enjoy it alone. Just like an apple, it is sweet and delicious. If one person enjoys it alone, he gets one flavor. If two people share it, they get two flavors. The same is true for thoughts. By sharing one thought, everyone gains one thought. This is the meaning of gaining two tastes. Although everyone in coo108 is different and has different styles, when they have similar interests, they will be happy to meet each other and be content. Han Li was an incompetent man, but he rose up in rebellion. If you come to make snow, please sweep the flowers and wait for you!

At that time, I was obsessed with "Dream of the Red Chamber", so I made a post in the same way. It was not until now that I realized that this was a piece of rubbish that could barely be considered literature. From an effectiveness perspective, it was not spread. Except for a few operators who also love literature and said that I was talented, other users did not comment. The most harmful thing about writing copy is self-admiration.

Now, I followed the trend and started a new activity in the small circle , and changed my name to Hanli Late Night Chat Operations. My recruitment post was extremely vulgar:

I am a focused person and I like to talk about operations in a simple and easy-to-understand way, with an emphasis on practical application, just like the title of my book “Practical Guide to Operations”. In 2018, I will be a full-time hostess 365 days a year, spending 8 hours in the community waiting for you to chat, and then chat and study everything about operations. I will break down all the knowledge points of operations, interpret some great books, and share good information. People who join the community should keep asking questions, and I will answer all of them. We can also communicate by phone. In a word, in 2018, you will be promoted to the ranks of operational experts, your salary will increase significantly, and your position will be promoted rapidly.

The effect is many times better than my original recruitment post. Of course, this copy is still being optimized.

I am a mixture of copywriting and literature, and for a long time I couldn't write colloquial copy. Since I couldn’t get a job at a large advertising company, I ended up doing telephone sales.

Sales people always pay attention to "a thousand cups of wine are not enough when you meet a good friend", and my strong literary and artistic temperament has allowed me to create miracles in the sales field:

Hello, who is this?

I am Han Li, a sales consultant at Huaqianyuexia Company. I would like to ask if your company has had any good financial success recently?

What's up?

I have an ad space with infinite power that can turn decay into magic and solve your problems!

Bang, the phone was hung up.

I was wondering how such beautiful words could not impress the customers.

Sure enough, the phone rang, and it was the same customer. I was delighted, thinking that he must have smelled the scent of Amway in my sales pitch.

Are you sick? If anyone is rotten, your whole family is rotten!

Just like that, no orders were signed in 6 months. When I call clients, we always have a disconnect and the tone doesn't match.

In a fit of anger, I fired my boss.

Gradually, as I encountered more and more setbacks in the workplace, I began to feel guilty. I felt that it was not my boss’s fault and I should call him to explain:

Hello, who is this?

Boss Li, I am Han Li. You really don’t recognize the great man. You are a forgetful person!

Bang, the phone was hung up.

Look, how terrible the flowery copywriting is. Therefore, don’t treat copywriting as literature. It should be colloquial, popular and simple .

//Good copywriting must have commercial intentions

Let me give you a real example. I was selling educational products in Nanjing and I made a fatal mistake. After following up for a long time, we finally made some progress. When it came to the payment stage, I thought I had it easy. However, when I saw that the client's 4-year-old daughter was very nervous (she was under semi-military management by the client), I couldn't bear it, so I spoke to the parent in a frank manner: Brother, your method of educating children is biased. The customer's face suddenly turned cold, and he turned around and left with his child. In the end, the order was lost.

I was reprimanded by my supervisor for this. Then I understood: all the sales tactics are designed to make users impulsive. Salespeople cannot be self-righteous. No matter if you are right, you must follow the customer's point of view. If a customer says Jack Ma is fat, you have to use "A branch of red beauty with dew and fragrance" to create a user portrait for Jack Ma. Going along with others is a kind of psychological warfare, which is more conducive to closing deals if done well.

This was my first big mistake with copywriting. Although I have always believed that it is correct, especially after having children, I often think of the 4-year-old girl who was under semi-militarized management and her retired military father.

So: don’t think about using copywriting to educate users unless you are an expert in a certain field. Because copywriting has commercial intentions.

When I was in Nanjing, I also worked as a handyman in an advertising company. The executive director found that I wrote good articles, so he intended to cultivate me and often asked me to write some promotional plans. Once, Nanjing Bank of Communications held a Mid-Autumn Festival party. The leader had been thinking of a slogan for several nights but failed, so he asked me to think about it too.

The opportunity to show off finally came. Without saying a word, I spent ten minutes thinking out a sentence: "Lang Lang is in the Mid-Autumn Moon, and Didi is doing well."

The leader was so happy that he wanted to hold my face and kiss me twice. The proposal was given to Bank of Communications and was highly praised. After arriving in Beijing, I kept boasting about this success story in order to get a job as a copywriter in an advertising company, but I often ran into obstacles. Until one day, I met a noble man. During the interview, he was very frank and said to me, "Han Li, you are indeed interesting, but your writing style is not suitable for advertising copywriting. After all, copywriting is not literature, and it contains commercial intentions." Instead of being a copywriter, you might as well become an editor, which may be more suitable for you. His words woke me up, and I listened to him and started editing books for several months.

Looking back on that miserable time looking for a copywriting job, I feel a little intoxicated. In order to be able to engage in copywriting work, I read a lot of books on copywriting and planning, but I fell in love with Taiwan's ideological advertising copywriting, and admired Xu Shunying's copywriting style very much. I found the complete set of copywriting of Zhongxing Department Store on the Internet, printed it out and studied it every day. There are also shadows of Eileen Chang and Haruki Murakami in it, and I am a fan of both Eileen Chang and Murakami. There is also Li Xinpin's copywriting. I am not very interested in her other books, but I treasure the copywriting she did for Eslite Bookstore. I once imitated their writing style and amused myself quite a bit.

Now it seems that these copywritings are really not like copywritings, at least in mainland China, they are not down-to-earth (except for real estate copywriting). This is because mainland copywriting focuses on effect first. In order to conquer the market, they do not hesitate to insult the public with empty words and big talk. Who has the mind to play the long game and catch the big fish? Few bosses have the courage to use obscure literary and artistic copywriting. I did deceive myself for a long time. Perhaps I was destined not to become a professional copywriter because I had a weak business sense. The reason why the copywriting of Bank of Communications is popular is mainly because the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala is just for entertainment among people in the circle, and the copywriting has no purpose of dissemination.

//Good copywriting must be based on operational strategy

The fat and fair Tang Sanzang is regarded by people as a monk who can remain calm and not lustful.

But that’s not necessarily the case.

We can see clues from the behavior of Tang Monk in "Journey to the West". During his 14-year journey to obtain Buddhist scriptures, Tang Monk encountered a total of 7 beauties: the White Bone Demon, the Queen of the Kingdom of Women, the Scorpion Demon, the Apricot Fairy, the 7 spider spirits, the mouse spirit, and the Jade Rabbit Spirit. Among them, the White Bone Demon and the Spider Demon both want to eat Tang Monk. Only 5 women expressed their love to Tang Seng (he only met 7 beauties in 14 years, which shows that Tang Seng had no luck with love in his life. Those who envy Tang Seng for his luck with love can leave now).

So, Tang is lonely. When people are lonely, they are prone to accidents, so when Xingxian said that powerful line: Take advantage of this beautiful night, what else can you do if you don't have some fun? How many moments can we have in life? Tang Seng felt hot all over. Unfortunately, Xingxian is just a junior CopyWriter after all. He doesn’t understand user psychology and bed culture, or in other words, he has no awareness of the scene: Shibagong, Guzhigong and others are standing next to him, and Tang Seng is shy!

So Tang Seng is just like the Chinese national football team . When he met the demon girl Xingxian who threw herself into his arms, he remained as calm as ever. The straightforward and heartfelt copywriting instead angered him.

This shows that if you don’t pay attention to the user’s environment and don’t understand the user’s psychology, no matter how good the copywriting is, it will be difficult to achieve the goal. Therefore, the copy needs to be based on the operational strategy and cannot be written casually without any scruples. It needs to fit your business scenario. It is not like you are clearly doing campus recruitment business and you keep pushing content about how to write papers to users every day. It should be closely related to users' job hunting and career to be in line with business value.

//Good copywriting requires careful consideration of words and sentences

The Internet is shallow and fragmented. Some very good articles or activities can make a world of difference just because of a few words in the copy.

Let me give you a typical example: If I change only two words in my micro-novel "The Angry Operator", the potential audience will increase a hundred times. Which two words are they? "operation". If I change it to "the angry person in the workplace", think about it, will the effect be different?

I've seen a small example of HR recruitment. There was a small company hiring people, and the company address had the word "室" in it. As a result, the interview rate was 20%. Later, they met a copywriting expert, who called and asked those who did not come for the interview, and then simply removed the word "室". The result was an interview rate of 80%. Why? Because users feel that the word “室” is too small, it means a small company and it reminds people of a pyramid scheme.

Therefore, the copy contains market capacity.

It was probably in 2013, when I was working on a forum, I was so excited that I used modal particles in all the titles of the articles in the homepage recommendation area, such as "So this is how a web editor works", "Ah, operations can also be done this way"...

Because I heard at a salon that modal particles can increase click-through rates . I tried it on purpose, and sure enough, I remember that the CTR of the recommended area was really much higher than the previous day.

Therefore, modal particles will add points to the copy.

Although the copy is spoken language, every word must be thought out clearly. For example, "老爷" and "老爷子". More words will lack an identity: if you call an elderly person who has been an official "老爷", he will not be happy to hear it, but if you call him "老爷", he will be happy. Especially in the era of officialism.

When I was working in the online education K12 market, I planned a landing page about the college entrance examination, with the aim of persuading parents to enroll their children in pre-exam sprint classes. The topic was very dry. I randomly listed a list of titles for the leader to choose from, such as "It is possible to cram for the college entrance examination at the last minute", "The college entrance examination is coming, are you ready?"...

My leader likes to think. He said to Han Li, "Think about it again. If you can come up with something new in the main title, the effect will definitely be better than all previous topics." Because this topic is going to be put on Baidu bidding, every inch of land is valuable, so we must think about the strength of the copy.

So I spent another 2 days carving the main title. Suddenly, an inspiration came to me, and I came up with a title "College Entrance Examination is approaching, how can parents get full marks?" It was very attractive because it later became the landing page with the highest conversion rate in the history of the company.

Therefore, copywriting must be carefully considered, and spoken language cannot become nonsense.

//Good copywriting must have power

I remember when National School Prince was popular, I specially wrote a short review and posted it on the website. I just wanted to take advantage of the hotspot to attract traffic and deceive my boss. Later, I don’t know how it became popular, and many websites reposted my “commentator article”.

In my article, I said that the national school idol must be hyping himself up. I said that hype is like making a pancake, you have to fry it both ways, otherwise one side will be burnt and the other side will still be raw. The national school idol was angered and called his company, asking why he was accusing me of hype. He was just a college student and didn’t have the money to hype himself. What he said was true, but he was used as a target by the media. He ordered me to delete the post.

I was really a little excited at that time. This was the first stimulation that copywriting gave me. I felt like I could survive in the Internet’s professional ecosystem.

By chance, I came into contact with the college student recruitment business. My life was miserable when I just graduated and came to Beijing. As I mentioned above, I couldn't find a copywriting job for six months. I only ate two steamed buns a day, and a bag of instant noodle seasoning had to be soaked in water for two days. I know it's not easy for college students to find jobs , so when I was writing copywriting for the college student job market, I wrote it for myself with my memories.

For example, I wrote an article about whether college students should take the postgraduate entrance examination. I vividly explained why I took the postgraduate entrance examination and what I lost because of it. It was very popular. Many classmates left messages saying that after reading my article, they decided not to take the postgraduate entrance examination. The writing was very true and powerful. Later, I added some celebrity elements to this article and sent it to a new batch of graduates. It still had a very good effect and sparked a lot of discussion in the circle of friends.

So authentic copywriting has power.

There are a group of lazy people in our community who don’t like to swipe their cards to enter, so they cause trouble every now and then. So the property wrote the following copy:

"Theft is rampant. For safety, it is everyone's responsibility to protect access control."

Then two days later the door broke again, so I changed the sentence:

"At 8pm last night, Room 1203 of Building 12 was robbed, with a loss of 100,000 yuan."

The door is still in good condition.

//Good copywriting requires constant trial and error

So, how can we predict the effect of copywriting? No matter how great a copywriter is, he cannot guarantee that the copywriting will be excellent. Therefore, copywriting requires constant trial and error.

Copywriting trial and error is a systematic project, and it is also something I have studied in depth. I have always wanted to find a scientific trial and error method. Because trial and error is too complicated, I have introduced detailed cases in the "Practical Operation Guide". Here I will only briefly talk about the trial and error process.

When I was working on a service account, a piece of copywriting, "Hundreds of famous companies have started campus recruitment in the spring of 2015", a piece of copywriting of about 100 words brought 100wpv to M Station, and my leader said it was amazing.

Later, I continued to work hard on the copywriting, planning to reach a new level in the second week. Because I felt that the number of readings could be improved, I kept the same content in the second week, but I changed the title to "March is the easiest month to get an offer from a prestigious company." This title really worked, and the number of readings increased by more than 10,000. Later I thought about it, and the reason why the number of readings increased was because the title of this copy was user-centric: fresh graduates only want to get an offer, and I gave them the best month to get an offer. Who would refuse a high-paying offer from a famous company? (This title also implicitly coincides with a formula for good copywriting, which is discussed below). I summarized it in an article: "I spent a whole week thinking about this copy." Later in the third week, I tried another copy: Must-read: Revealing the exclusive tips for getting an offer in spring recruitment. It played the mystery card, but the result was shocking. The number of readings was half of the previous two articles. Clickbait doesn’t work here.

The picture above shows the effect of those three texts. The part I marked in red is trial and error: suppose I use the second title, and publish it on the date of the first publication, and the copy is only written on one screen of the phone (that is, the original text will be displayed on the first screen of the phone. There is a funnel here, that is, every additional screen on WeChat will result in loss), then the effect will definitely be right.

This is the value of trial and error in operations: different combinations of titles + best release dates + screen times will have different effects. Select the strongest combination of elements from trial and error and push them all. This is the strategy to maximize the value of copywriting in operations. Therefore, copywriting is not just the copywriting itself. The effectiveness of copywriting is also driven by various factors, which requires continuous trial and error.

In fact, the first copy is also very good. If it is modified to "Thousands of Famous Companies", I believe it will also improve the effect. Just one word difference will make a big difference, but it will be fake.

Regarding copywriting and even operations, I have always believed in "30% water and 70% reality" . I also classify those who advocate the " user operation love theory" as "operation managers" and talk business.

According to my operating motto, it would be better to change the first copy to "more than 130 famous companies".

So, if there is no scenario or environment for trial and error in copywriting, is there a foolproof copywriting method? The conclusion is yes.

//The universal formula for writing good copy

The second copywriting in the above case is the most successful because I imitated the universal formula of copywriting to think:

In one sentence, unique selling point = the result that customers want + the limited time limit + what to do if it cannot be achieved

This formula is about refining the unique selling point of a product. I found this in the book “Lean Startup in Action” and it was very inspiring. The book gives an example of a good copy: Freshly baked pizza delivered to your door within 30 minutes, or it’s free.

The second headline I wrote implicitly fits this formula.

I read a book on entrepreneurship methods, and what impressed me most was the copywriting formula.

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Having said so much, how do we practice the art of copywriting in our daily lives? Copywriting is not something that can be achieved overnight, so here are some tips for you.

//Delusion

Delusion, scientifically known as brainstorming , is called bragging in popular culture.

Li Bai, China's number one copywriting master, is a paranoid maniac. His copywriting skills have reached perfection. “The water of Taohuatan is a thousand feet deep, yet cannot compare to the love Wang Lun gave me.” “The waterfall drops three thousand feet straight down, as if the Milky Way falls from the sky.”... He is worthy of being the greatest poet of the Tang Dynasty. If one wants to reach his writing ability, the road to Shu is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

Lei Jun intercepted a good copy: Standing in the eye of the storm, even a pig can fly. It has a bit of Li Bai's meaning.

An article I wrote about copywriting was rewritten by a copywriting expert as "The universal title formula for quickly creating good copywriting." The word "universal" has obsessed many WeChat operators . Later, the topic "The difference between a copywriter with a monthly salary of 3,000 and one with a monthly salary of 30,000" became popular. How many copywriters fell for the 30,000-yuan copywriter?

Thanks to the rapid spread of social media , clickbait has become the mainstream literature and art today. I think it’s KPI that’s to blame. Good content does need eye-catching headlines, but if the quality of the content is average, no matter how much you wish for it, it will be in vain.

Everyone has delusions. When they are young, they dream of having many wives and concubines. When they have a son, they dream of having another daughter. Delusion has made many science fiction writers successful and also given birth to many online novel masters. Writing copy requires imagination. "When your company goes public, I will go to Nasdaq to hand you the hammer and you ring the bell." I said this to a friend who is starting a business, and he immediately became more confident.

So when you have nothing to do, you can often daydream, and you also need to be good at capturing other people’s delusions, especially the delusions of the users you are operating. When people express emotions, they are all masters of copywriting.

//More observations: child + name

Children are all masters of copywriting, especially when they are just learning to speak. While playing on the road, my son suddenly said: The bus farted. It turned out that the bus honked its horn; my son said to the car exposed in the sun: The car is thirsty. Seeing the sun shining, my son said: The sun is shining brightly. Sometimes I ask my son: Are you lonely? "Lonely" he pouted; are you happy? "Happy," the face was already smiling brightly. Children have a sense of language. When I have nothing to do, I will teach my son some vocabulary. For example, lush. I said: Look, the flowers there are growing so lush! About a month later, he met a fat aunt: The aunt had grown so lush!

Naming children is a big market and also a science in itself. It's not just people's names. When I was creating my own website, I would often think about the domain name for a long time and write it down whenever I thought of it. For example, the name of my blog "www.weboper.com" took me a long time to decide on. Including the Chinese name "Operation Management Notes", it was polished several times before it was finalized. Website Operation 108, this name brought me a lot of extra points when I was operating the website. I remember once I held a salon at Peking University and hung banners with my name on two trees by the Weiming Lake. Even the security guards at Peking University were attracted and insisted on collecting my banner. But I encountered problems later on and it wasn’t quite like self-media , so I changed it to “Han Li Chats about Operations Late at Night”.

When naming, I have always disagreed with considering the short-term benefits of SEO and making the name very long just to get ranking in search engines . For example, the name of my first website was "Self-Study Materials Network" and the domain name was "zikaoziliao.com". It did help me quickly get my first bucket of CPS commission through Baidu, but I always felt that the name was not grand enough, so I gave up. For a business to last long, SEO is just a channel that can bring in traffic but may not necessarily lead to retention .

Therefore, naming is the best way to practice copywriting. When you have nothing to do, go to kindergartens and cultural centers more often. The names of the children posted on the walls are all excellent copywriting works by their parents.

//Imitation: Better than the original

For example, I wrote an article earlier: Laughing Out Loud on the Day of College Entrance Examination (reply to college entrance examination to view). The title imitated Dapeng’s autobiography "Laughing Out Loud on Difficult Days". The college entrance examination was very appropriate, so I was recommended to the headlines by some youth media.

The first sentence of the article is an imitation of Zhang Ailing's short essay "Love":

Meet the person you meet among thousands of people, in thousands of years, in the endless wilderness of time, not a step earlier, not a step later, just in time, there is nothing else to say, but to ask softly: "Oh, are you here too?"

I wrote:

High school was a green period of our lives. Not a year earlier or later, we just happened to be in the same grade and class in 1996. Then, we spent three years together preparing for the college entrance examination. When we all forgot about our youth because of the college entrance examination, only Zheng Guoqiang experienced youth with all his heart, but was stabbed three times by youth as a result.

Feel it, don’t you think they are similar?

"If a child starts learning Excel three days after birth, he is already two days late"

When I threw this copy to my colleagues, they laughed out loud, proving that it was a good copy.

The reason for this is that when I was analyzing campus accounts, I made a ranking of the most popular articles of the year based on the number of reposts, and found that my "Excel Shortcut Keys" that I had written through trial and error actually won the top spot in the number of reposts of the year. I burst out laughing and suddenly remembered a sentence from my training instructor when I was doing sales in Nanjing: If a child starts learning English three days after birth, he is already two days late. With just this one sentence, the instructor captured a large number of orders, which shows the power of copywriting.

Therefore, imitating good copywriting and playing word-changing games is also a method.

//Word game

I often tell my friends that I can write love poems very quickly, and I can finish one in 2 minutes. How is it done? I usually pick two poems at random and insert them in like shuffling a deck of cards. Spend another minute fixing the rhyme, and you'll have a love poem.

This is a kind of word game. If you practice diligently, your writing will become more and more sophisticated.

I remember that I was particularly interested in idioms when I was in high school, so I started to memorize an idiom dictionary. As I was reciting the text, I suddenly started to make up my own language and discovered a lot of interesting things. For example, when you read “神出鬼没(mo)” as “神出鬼没(mei)”, people around you will look at you with admiration because they will laugh.

I remember once in high school I wrote an 800-word essay in which I used 120 idioms. It was used as a model essay and promoted throughout the school. Vocabulary is thus accumulated.

My Chinese teacher said to me: Han Li, before you are 30 years old, you will not be able to write any insightful articles. You might as well write more beautiful things before you turn 30 and improve your writing skills. So, later on, when I had free time, I would recite Chu Ci, Tang poetry and Song lyrics. And try every possible way to use it in writing.

I made a joke once. I wrote this sentence in my composition: Everyone has his or her own broad road, which is full of thorns! . I was criticized by the teacher, and half of China was embarrassed during that time.

//Put yourself in their shoes and experience it

I went to university in Ningxia. There is Xihaigu, the poorest place in China. Once, the school organized an inspection trip there. Seeing that the villagers didn't even have a mat on their kangs and there was no pot on the stove, and that they were living a life of eating raw meat and drinking blood, I felt terrible. Only when you really see poverty will you understand that the poverty we imagine is not really poverty. Xihaigu is home to many poets, all of whom write about desolation.

I have a college classmate and we share the same dormitory. He was from Xihaigu, and I was touched by him on the first day he entered the dormitory. His clothes were covered with patches, his face was dark, and he looked weathered.

During his four years in college, he read all the books in the library. When we were all overwhelmed by the mountain of books, he was suffering from a book famine. Later he wrote a novel "Sixth Uncle", which became popular on campus. He is the seed player of the new generation of Ningxia Sankeshu. He and I once collaborated on a poster design at school to advertise fountain pens. I wrote a piece of Su Shi's calligraphy of "Red Cliff" as the background, and he added a sentence: Write poverty with your heart.

Therefore, only by experiencing life with your heart can you create good copywriting.

//Read more miscellaneous books

I have always suspected that the brand name of Jianlibao Season 5 came from Jiang He’s obscure poem “Talking to Myself”:

The so-called depth is to let you only see the surface of the sea

Those long-term things will look brighter with a sail

If you want to build a house, you have to find a harbor that doesn't freeze.

You can go out to sea or stand on the shore.

Anyway, the water is watching you.

Is it often soaked in all four seasons?

Can you get out of season five?

So, it’s a good idea to read more poetry. I believe that there are very few people who still read Misty Poetry nowadays. That’s why I call it a miscellaneous book.

How to choose miscellaneous books? I have a trick: read the books that 90% of people won't read. I don’t know if there are such people around you. Their typical characteristics are “weird thinking and uniqueness”, and there is always a finishing touch to everything they do.

I have always recommended Teacher Yang Lihe’s out-of-print book "Advertising Copy Fax", published by Shantou University in 2003. It may be outdated now, but at that time it was the best copywriting textbook I had ever seen. I discovered this book by chance in the National Library of China, then borrowed it and quickly went to the printing shop on campus at Peking University to make a copy.

Zhan Hongzhi recommended that: Copywriting master Yang Lihe wrote a book full of on-siteism, which provides people who want to learn copywriting with the most directional and practical way, and is a meritorious deed for the benefit of all living beings.

The characteristic of this book is that it is easy to understand at a glance, it is not obscure, and each method has examples. I have tried all the methods in it. Especially her five types of creative thinking: vertical and horizontal breadth thinking, coordinate quadrant depth thinking, situation description thinking, non-single-point cross thinking, and imaginary situation thinking. Very instructive. I remember it was in 2007, I couldn't find a job, so I took this book to Peking University to observe and think broadly about "misery". I wrote a full page of words about misery, full of nonsense and bitter tears. Unfortunately, it did not survive.

//Find your creative scene

Everyone has moments when ideas come flooding back. There is a very good saying: There is no one at night, you can only walk into poetry. What I mean is that night is when inspiration bursts.

This kind of situation often happens in the Chinese department.

When I was in college, there was a master of horror novels in the dormitory next to ours. At two or three in the morning, when everyone was fast asleep, he would suddenly jump up, light a candle and start writing furiously. He was so excited that the corridor was filled with eerie airs.

This is the night-time inspiration, and there is also the drunken type. The truth comes out when people are drunk, and what comes out is good copywriting. I am this type of person: after drinking a bottle of beer, I can come up with a lot of ideas, so I drink it while recording it with my phone.

I also have a particularly good habit, which is to walk through the streets and alleys, and take pictures of good house numbers when I see them as souvenirs.

I often go to the pizza buffet. One time, the door was broken and the waiter wrote a sentence on the door: I'm tired, don't push me. At that time, there happened to be a business improvement project for a B-side product. The original HR could post job information on our website without any restrictions, but this time we had to impose some restrictions. However, we had to issue an announcement in a more tactful way to avoid causing dissatisfaction among HR. I struggled with it for several days, but couldn’t figure it out. Then I saw what was written on the door, and suddenly I understood. I went back and wrote a copy. Look at the copy of the button below, and it also has the effect of removing the user’s negative emotions:

Also, when I was squatting on the toilet. Only excretion can recycle the copy. Oxygen singer Christine Fan often squats in the hotel toilet to write songs, which may be related to the smell.

Everyone has different copywriting scenes: when do you get inspired? When smoking, taking a shower, walking, or when there is a lot of noise... Ma Boyong said he did this when he was taking the subway.

When you find your creative copywriting scene, be sure to remember the supporting equipment: a good memory is not as good as a bad mobile phone. Write down your inspiration at any time. I won’t explain this skill, all copywriters know it.

Of course, there are many other methods, such as telling stories through pictures, watching crosstalk, etc. Please think about it.

//Build your own copywriting arsenal

Having said so much above, this is what I mainly want to express.

In my previous article " Growth Hacking in Action: A Complete Case Study Explains the Core Operational Methods", I inserted a small special topic on copywriting explanation. Among them is a complete list of copywriting when I was revising a B-side project. You can review it again.

Copywriting is a systematic project, not as simple as just one or two sentences . The copywriting system I made has emails, text messages, push notifications, and WeChat sharing messages on the channel side, and page guides, key buttons, pop-ups, releases, etc. on the product side. Different business scenarios require different copywriting and different recall methods. It is basically a complex copywriting management system and trial-and-error system.

The longer you work as an Internet copywriter, the more you will feel that copywriting is not about word by word, or about writing a vivid article that gets a lot of reposts. When doing copywriting, one must have operational thinking , a structure, and a system. Only when different copywritings work together can the effect of 1+1=3 be achieved.

One thing I’ve been doing in my spare time is building my own copywriting arsenal.

For example, you can classify the copywriting effects according to their intensity, pick out the most critical driving engines, and place them in the arsenal in layers.

After doing this, I can treat KPI as the enemy. I will attack high KPI with artillery and attack low KPI with a machete. Just like the four stages written in my operation methodology , the copywriting itself also needs trial and error optimization to obtain scientific strength, and then operate efficiently driven by business goals, and finally turn the copywriting into a service and product.

Therefore, in daily life or work, the practice of words, phrases and sentences is one aspect, but we must also pay attention to the systematic thinking of the copywriting.

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

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