Writing may’ve come to you naturally at some point. You might’ve worked long and hard on it in university or on your own. Hey, you might already be a stellar copywriter and a storyteller of Homer’s scale! However, speaking for myself and for a lot of people I’ve spoken to, that definitely wasn’t the case for everybody. So, (drumroll) here is my humble blog for music nerds on how to copywrite effectively for a music agency such as MassiveMusic where I completed my internship. If you are just coming in fresh from your second (or third) year of Uni I think you’ll find this useful, because I sure wish someone told me those things before I started.
Equalize
I don’t know about you, but the way I fell in with writing was through long texts, where I could close my eyes and paint a picture. When I started studying Communication Science, this love of mine got further fueled with writing massive research reports. Though admittedly research reports are much more alike with technical diagrams than with paintings, my striving for writing was always gratified.
The reality is although long-format writing is great and exciting, in a corporate context of external communication, you really need to equalize your thoughts the best you can. And I mean both pin-point equalization and rough equalization. Always double check whether the whole topic is connected to your initial idea. Is this the most effective way to portray this? Is this word the right one? Because if you don’t, you’ll soon realize that your boss is cutting about 70% of your beautiful tirades in favor of more direct, catchy, and clear formulations.
Saturate
This is very closely related with the point about equalization. In academia we are very used to prioritize elaboration over catchiness and pizzazz for obvious reasons (I don’t think the scientific community is ready for clickbait in journals). In corporate writing, however, it is all about your sentences being sharp as a blade and catchy as a hook.
Think about the key aspects of what you are writing about. What are the standout elements? Is there any eye-catching topic within it, that people will grab onto? Does your writing attract to the brand, or does it merely inform?
Make sure to ask yourself those questions, and adjust the brightness, warmth, or gain of your texts. It will be difficult at first, but the more feedback you’ll get, the better you’ll become.
Compress
In a text for customers, it is very important for your writing to be consistent. Because, as copywriters, the most valuable asset we are trading is our time with the time of people who read our texts. In our age of information overload, people value time more than anything. And the last thing your text should ever do is make people feel like your text is taking their time away.
Peaks are still important, and your compression shouldn’t focus on reducing them (conversely to many cases in music). The primary goal of compression is to bring out the quieter parts of your text to the same (or comparable) level with the rest of it. Because the attention of a reader is hard to get and easy to lose, and your goal is for them to make (and hopefully click) on the CTA.
Conclusion
I hope this blog has helped you in understanding the fundamentals of corporate creative writing and possibly made your entry week a bit less stressful.
Best of luck,
Alexander.