Category: Copywriting tips

My favourite time-saving tricks for Microsoft Word on Mac

For the past 11 years I have used Microsoft Word for most of every workday.

It’s been a rocky relationship. The Word of a few years ago was not a streamlined experience. It was missing some convenience features that even Google Docs offered.

I even attempted to switch to Google Docs around 2012, but that solution was (and still is) missing lots of features that I need. Plus, having to export everything to a Word doc to meet clients’ expectations was a pain.

Continue reading “My favourite time-saving tricks for Microsoft Word on Mac”

How to be persuasive with disruptive copywriting

What is disruption?

It’s breaking the normal rules. Like when ads find a different way to engage us (Compare the Meerkat is the now-classic example), set out to shock us, or make deliberate mistakes like the Snickers example below.

It’s creating something new that changes the rules. Like how the first iPhone, which looked and worked completely differently to anything before it, changed the phone market overnight.

Disruption works by challenging our usual thought processes. It gets our attention by raising lots of questions – What is going on here? Is this better or worse than the standard way of doing things? Continue reading “How to be persuasive with disruptive copywriting”

When should you hyphenate? 5 things to know

To some they’re fussy and best kept to a minimum. To others, they’re a mark of precision and subtle meaning.

To me? Well, I’m a copywriter. So I try to use hyphens the same way I write everything – in the most reader-friendly way I can.

You might guess that puts me firmly in the “keep hyphens to a minimum” camp. But the copy I write also represents our clients’ businesses. It needs to be professional and correct.

This July, I’ll have been working as a copywriter for 10 years. Rightly and wrongly, I’ve typed an awful lot of hyphens in my time. Continue reading “When should you hyphenate? 5 things to know”

5 copywriting basics to get you started

Copywriting is fascinating isn’t it?

The idea that you could increase sales ten-fold, simply by using the right combination of words – it can seem like witchcraft. Or sophisticated manipulation, at least.

But good copywriting is really just a combination of fairly simple skills that, together, can produce incredible results.

Here are five core copywriting skills and methods, which are at the heart of everything we at Wheatleys write. Continue reading “5 copywriting basics to get you started”

“Just one thing” is the secret to better email marketing copy

Curly from City Slickers, you enigmatic old wrangler. You made such an intimidating first impression, but wisdom lay within. You knew how to deliver a calf. How to protect a lady from drunken varmints. You knew the meaning of life itself, goddammit.

As it happens, Curly even understood the secret of writing a successful email marketing message – despite having died around five years before such a thing existed.

That’s right. Because the best email marketing copy, like a fulfilling life, is about just one thing. Continue reading ““Just one thing” is the secret to better email marketing copy”

5 ways to get the better of Grammar Nazis

People who call themselves ‘Grammar Nazis’. Have you ever met these people? They’re the worst.

I meet them too often. Because I’m a copywriter, they expect to find in me a kindred spirit. Someone who shares their passion for the pernickety. It’s a bit awkward, because as a professional I do care about correct language and style. But I also believe the English language is a fluid and flexible thing.

I think writing is more about ideas and communication than proper comma usage. And many of the best writers cannot explain the technicalities of the latter.

One self-professed Grammar Nazi I know flat refuses to interact with people who don’t use proper sentence case and punctuation. On Facebook. Continue reading “5 ways to get the better of Grammar Nazis”