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1 Tip for Balanced Copy

June 2008 By Joe Boland, Copy Editor/assistant Editor, Target Marketing
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The goal of a direct response campaign—no matter what channel—is to sell the product/service or next step in the response process. But it’s important not to oversell prospects. People get enough solicitations thrown their way that simply ignoring the bulk of them becomes second nature.

That’s why it’s as important as ever to strike the proper balance between being an overeager salesman and being a trusted source. This balancing act is no walk in park. “Trying to balance that [product and promotion in the copy] continues to be important because it’s so easy to just want to go one way all the way or the other. Either I’m just going to push the product and sacrifice a little response and have a great back end, or you can go all promotional and kind of sacrifice your pay-up or some of the back end,” says Heidi Vincent, director of direct mail for the National Geographic Society’s book division.

One sure way to reach a stronger approach is to provide copywriters with as much information as possible to become comfortable with the product. In National Geographic’s case, this is how it’s had the most success. “My experience with copywriters has been if they’re not comfortable or don’t have a good understanding of the product, they tend to overcompensate by being overly promotional. If they have enough information, they can balance the two,” says Vincent.
 

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Most Recent Comments:
Leslie McKerns - Posted on June 25, 2008
I love what Ruth said, "...let the product sell itself by wrapping the prospect in a blanket of benefits they can't resist." Excellent!
Ruth Sheldon - Posted on June 25, 2008
Heidi is right on about the tendency of copywriters to overhype a product when information is scarce. The best copywriters are the ones who let the product sell itself by wraping the prospect in a blanket of benefits they can't resist. And the best clients are the ones that provide their creative team with the tools they need to understand the product fully.
Jay Ehret - Posted on June 25, 2008
The challenge here is paradigm: "...to sell the product/service or next step." Using this paradigm will make it extremely difficult to strike a balance because it's not customer-focused.

Is the objective to sell or to engage the customer so that they want to take the next step. I don't really no anyone who wants to be sold.
Joan Bodenheimer - Posted on June 25, 2008
The best way to write good copy is to have a great salesperson (they are usually the best listeners) verbally try to sell me their product and just write what they are saying.
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Leslie McKerns - Posted on June 25, 2008
I love what Ruth said, "...let the product sell itself by wrapping the prospect in a blanket of benefits they can't resist." Excellent!
Ruth Sheldon - Posted on June 25, 2008
Heidi is right on about the tendency of copywriters to overhype a product when information is scarce. The best copywriters are the ones who let the product sell itself by wraping the prospect in a blanket of benefits they can't resist. And the best clients are the ones that provide their creative team with the tools they need to understand the product fully.
Jay Ehret - Posted on June 25, 2008
The challenge here is paradigm: "...to sell the product/service or next step." Using this paradigm will make it extremely difficult to strike a balance because it's not customer-focused.

Is the objective to sell or to engage the customer so that they want to take the next step. I don't really no anyone who wants to be sold.
Joan Bodenheimer - Posted on June 25, 2008
The best way to write good copy is to have a great salesperson (they are usually the best listeners) verbally try to sell me their product and just write what they are saying.