Over the past 20 years, I’ve written millions of words for our clients. I didn’t start as a copywriter. I have a degree in English, taught at senior school level, and later switched to a business career in management and marketing.
A key role in my career at DesignStreet, a creative marketing agency, has been copy development. Through thousands of projects, I have become a proficient copywriter – specialising in B2B – and create compelling content that generates excellent results.
Before I start writing, I make sure that I understand the client’s brief and know precisely what they want to achieve. I do research and check all references provided. Always top of mind is that the client is investing money in the message, so it has to be high quality and valuable in its own right. It has to achieve measurable results.
We use a team-based brainstorming process for projects needing campaign headlines and messaging concepts. This delivers excellent results, on occasion within the first few minutes! Everyone contributes, and we tap into powerful ideas and concepts that are far more effective than one person trying to create a fresh messaging idea every time.
The points below summarise my approach to writing:
- I write as simply as possible with the goal of being easily understood
- I choose short, simple words over longer, more complex words
- I aim to keep the copy as short as possible
- Wherever I can cut words out, I do
- I avoid cliches and overused language
- I make sure that spelling and grammar are accurate
- I look for appeal in either the meaning or rhythm of the words
- For business readers, I use a style that I call “relaxed professional”
- I prefer using active voice over passive voice.
I usually write a first draft, leave it overnight, and edit and finalise it the next day. These tweaks and improvements make all the difference.
When I’m finished writing, I put myself in the reader’s position and ask myself if I get the message and if I’ll respond as desired. I then re-check the brief and make sure that what I have written is correct.
What about AI? I have recently subscribed to the Premium version of Grammarly and have the comfort of a powerful tool that constantly checks what I have written for style, spelling, and grammar and that offers alternatives as appropriate.
By using Grammarly I aim to lift the impact of my writing by 20% to 30% and ensure that its vast language model is working for me to help create the best possible copy on every piece I write, and that is word-perfect every time.
The most enjoyable aspect of my job is starting with a client brief and a blank Word document and ending with powerful content that can create outstanding results for an organisation in terms of impact and ROI. Once it’s done, it looks easy. But getting it precisely right takes a lot of work and experience.
Check out Graham’s previous blog about graphic design technology over 25 years at DesignStreet here.
