I spent the best part of last week editing the ICA Getting Started series, expanding and improving it, especially the final part, which now goes into more detail on ProCopyClub.
If you’ve already been through the series, it’s worth another read (regardless of whether you decide to join the ICA or not). What I describe in those six parts is at the core of how anyone can turn themselves into a professional copywriter.
And it’s now online, so you can access the whole series anytime you want (I’ve also just added a contents section to part 1 so it’s easier to navigate).
Start here:
Fear
400 years ago, the world was a different place. A few people were rich, but most were poor (in terms of assets).
If there was a pandemic, people died and there was nothing anyone could do about it. However, those that lived carried on pretty much as normal.
A stock market collapse meant nothing. A global depression meant nothing. Businesses going bankrupt meant nothing. And mass redundancies didn’t exist (because there were no global industries and no industrial revolution).
Nine to five didn’t exist either, and transport was only for the rich, famous, or desperate.
People existed in their own tiny microcosms. Food was grown locally, and we all made do with what we had.
Yet one industry still survived and thrived then as it does and will continue to do today. Copywriting.
Writing is the only medium of communication that can be done once and repeated forever (even images cannot match words – a thousand good words will always paint a better picture).
The amount of words being written during the Coronavirus outbreak is staggering. People need to know what to do. They need to know what to buy. Governments need people who can put their propaganda together. The amount of work is endless.
One of our problems as copywriters when it comes to marketing is not thinking out of the box. Our clients are not just businesses. They are anyone who needs to persuade others about something or another.
Yet all we can think about is the number of businesses going to the wall, mass unemployment, and zero spending because there is apparently no money flowing through the system.
Jeff Bezos personally became $13bn richer over the past 2 months, and the Walton family (Walmart) have made $3bn during this crisis. Obviously a whole bunch of businesses have lost money, but the point is, money is still flowing, it’s just changed its path.
Businesses affected by the pandemic need new angles if they’re going to survive, and if there’s one thing copywriters do well, it’s coming up with new angles.
That’s what ProCopyClub teaches from week 4. The Big Idea, how to come up with them, and how to exploit them.
Lateral thinking is how we remain relevant despite all adversity. It’s how humans have survived and dominated the world (albeit not always for the good).
If you’ve been struggling to think through your next steps, start with the ICA Getting Started series. It will help.
Last Week
Last week saw perhaps the fastest number of responses on a single article for the group.
The article was titled REDUNDANT. Perhaps that’s what caught the eye, but nevertheless, people still had to read through 600 words of closely typed text – and all on the topic of why words like BASICALLY are redundant.
There’s a good reason though. We all want to be better writers, and if there’s a way of spotting what makes a piece of copy suck, then we want to know.
It also included the final two parts of my mini series on mindset. All links below (see the previous newsletter for the rest of the links to the mindset series – you can find that here: https://scienceofcopywriting.com/newsletters/science-of-copywriting-weekly-newsletter-issue-36/).
Who
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1206674129663523/
Life
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1208281892836080/
Redundant
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1209858199345116/
Good Enough
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1210810915916511/
With my love,
Quentin Pain
Science of Copywriting
PS. In case you missed it above, go here to access the full ICA Getting Started series online: https://internationalcopywritersassociation.com/ica-getting-started-part-1/