Copywriting, successful writing for design, advertising and marketing.

One of my goals is to improve my content writing skills. I feel like the language and writing aspects of projects is something go struggle the most with and I am eager to learn how to do this better and how i can improve upon my current literacy skills. so I have decided to start reading ‘Content Writing’ by Mark Shaw. I have made some notes of what I have learned from it so far below, I have not finished this book, I have only read the first few chapters  however I will finish this in the early summer.

Who is Mark Shaw?

Mark Shaw has been a professional copywriter for more than 25 years and he is the founder of Jupiter Design, which is one of the UK’s top 25 design agencies. Shaw is now the President of Liquid Agency Europe, here he manages global brand and messaging for some of the world’s leading organisations. He regularly lectures on copywriting, messaging and branding, and also writes a weekly creative industries column for the Nottingham Post.

Chapter 1 – Getting to grips with copywriting

Whilst reading this chapter I took some notes of the main points and key things that I wanted to take note off for future use and relfection, see below.

So basically to sum up chapter 1, in order to began the copy writing process I must understand my target audience because the consumer consciously chooses the advertising messages they they wish to listen to, so if you know what your target audience wants and wishes for then you can be successful in your advertising and in your brands language and copy writing.  What was surprising to me was to read that there is no room for you personality in your copy writing, when I have written copy for my brand work this semester I feel like I have injected some of my personality into that, but perhaps I should revisit certain areas especially when it comes to my portfolio written work so I don’t add in too much personality and keep it clear and accurate.  This author also talks about how the use of puns and humour is becoming less important than crafting a well- constructed and stimulating message, this comes under that idea of too much personality; this is something that I want to think of reflect more upon. I want my brand to come off friendly but I don’t want my writing to take away from my work or the message that I am trying to get across.

Chapter 2 –  The art of writing great copy

The second chapter consisted of even more information including real life examples and a check list of what to do when you get a client brief. This chapter was highly focused on client brief information and this client brief information will be useful when I advance further into this career as for right now however it isn’t as relevant. However I did gain a lot from this second chapter including the idea that the more thorough you process, order and prepare the more successful you will be in writing and the easier it actually is to right.

I also found the added exercises tasks at the end of each chapter a very nice touch to this book and I will go back and revise these and try them out for myself at a later date, see an example of this below.

What have I learned so far?

I have learned:

• Keep writing clear and accurate
• Intrigue keeps the interest alive
• Typography is so important!
• Focus on target audience
• Don’t over analysis
• Keep life easy for myself and keep it very simple
• No room for personality when it comes to copy
• Don’t tell a consumer what something does, tell them how or why it will improve their lives
• Understand what my audience want and like

How can I apply this to my work?

From reading the first few chapters I actually have gained a lot of knowledge about writing copy. I feel like this book has helped me a lot in the area of writing so far I am enjoying how this book is laid out and I am very eager to know and learn more about it. I will apply what I have learned so far to the writing my portfolio as I feel like this can be improved a lot. These first few chapters have taught me that I need to use language as a powerful tool when it comes to copy writing as this is such an important part when it comes to branding and keeping consumers engaged, therefore I will take all of this knew knowledge and apply this to my work. As long as I keep my writing clear and simple and focus on the audience I will be successful. This is an area I do struggle with so I am very keen to continue to learn more and I am excited to finish this book very soon and I will continue to make notes on it and what I learned from it.