The Copywriter Scores

Each new project brings with it many challenges. But one of the most crucial aspects you will ever face as a freelance copywriter is the defining and setting out of your goals.

The starting point for any new piece of work is to ask yourself what the purpose of the document you are about to write is. If you are writing a sales letter it is important to remember that what you are about to create will replace a personal visit or conversation with the reader. Therefore it must achieve what a salesman would achieve face to face.

Your goal would be any number of things including:

• Making a sale
• Getting opt-ins for your email list
• Getting someone to open an account with you
• Increase a customer’s spending with you
• Renewing a contract
• Agreeing to a meeting

Whatever it is you must ensure that it is the goal that drives your writing and not your creativity.

Writers are creative by nature so it can be all too easy to let your alter ego get the better of you. How do you know if you’ve gone over the top? If , when you read it, it makes you smile; you want to show it to everyone with a big grin on your face shouting from the roof tops ‘look how clever I am’, ditch it.

Take a look at it and ask yourself if it will persuade the reader to buy. If your answer is ‘no’, scrap it. You are not in the running for the ‘Most creative sales letter’ Oscar, you are trying to achieve the goal you have been given by your client.