What Makes For A Good Direct Mail Copywriter
His work is to basically help an organization reach out to its targeted audience and tell them what they do and why the audience should buy the products or services of that company. Direct mail copywriters are usually outsourced and are free agents since they work for different organizations. This actually serves to make them independent, free from obvious "sun-king Syndrome" that most "insiders" are likely to suffer from. So, what are the secrets of a good copywriter?
A good direct mail copywriter should try to know the product or service that you are selling. That way, he/she will be better placed to write effective promotional material for your organization. In other words, he should be in a position to answer every question thrown at him/her by the usually feisty customers/target audience. He should not only be concerned with creating hype using empty rhetoric, but should defend every aspect of his claim. In addition, by knowing the product or service, the direct mail copywriter is also able to put on the shoes of the customer and is able to analyze their needs and fears, and then comes up with effective strategies of responding to the concerns.
The style of writing matters a great deal as well. A good direct mail copywriter is not necessarily the one who uses deadpan prose, whose adjectives, nouns and pronouns are exactly where they should be. It should be highly readable. Any copywriting professional who communicates using the corporate speak might (using terms such as "upstream" activities) might not get the message across. Some copywriters will say that they prefer short sentences with lots of periods (full stops), and justify it on the basis that the customer will prefer short texts for readability purposes. Whereas there is an element of truth in that, it is not necessarily the correct thing to do. A customer interested in your product will read the whole material that is put down, regardless whether it's long or short. This is because such customer is interested in the product and wants to buy it. Other people who are spurred to read on simply because the sentences are short are unlikely to be interested in your products or services and will not buy anyway.
A good direct mail copywriter should cut through the industry jargon and simplify the position as much as possible. Customers do not want to go through all the legalese, (unless they are themselves looking for legal advice) of complicated financial terms, he should also be able to relate with a wide range of individuals. Someone might relate well with lawyers but might find the going getting tougher when it comes to computer geeks. Generally, a good direct mail copywriter should be an all around. In addition, if you are looking for a good direct mail copywriter, they should provide a sample of earlier work. The only reason you are hiring that person is so that they can generate results and if she cannot do that it means that you are probably taking a big gamble. There are no hard and fast rules on how to spot a good direct mail copywriter from the one that you shouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. But the foregoing is sufficiently indicative of things to look out for.
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