What Is Copywriting

By Author: Henry Perry
Total Articles: 35
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The usual definition you'll find is something along the lines of:
The art of writing words that sell.
I take issue against that definition. I consider copywriting as much a science as it is an art. And I would define it thus:
The art and science of writing words that persuade.
Let me explain.
First, the science bit.
Writing is an art. No doubt about it. The fact that we all do it is irrelevant. After all, if I gave you a pen and a piece of paper and told you to draw an angel, then I'd expect at the very least some sort of stick figure sprouting wings. Or, you may surprise me and give me something rather special.
Either way, give yourself a clap on the back. You've done art. You're an artist.
And, in the same way, if I asked you to write a paragraph on what you did over Christmas, I'm sure you'd turn up trumps.
So you're a writer, too. A polymath, even ... ;-)
But if I asked you to draw an accurate map of the Amazon basin, you might come unstuck. This would involve putting pen to paper, for sure. But knowing what you're going to draw and how you're going to approach ...
... the task requires knowledge of facts and principles. That's science.
Copywriting is the same. The act of putting words on the page is an art. But knowing what to put, where and why is another matter entirely.
Copywriters aren't reinventing the wheel all the time. There is a great body of knowledge out there, accumulated by the systematic study of great marketing successes and flops. We know, for instance, that a great headline in a sales letter has a huge impact on whether the reader is likely to read the rest of it. We also know that customers don't want to be told how your product is going to help them, they want to be shown.
My point is simply this. Successful copywriting involves using this body of knowledge to our best advantage. We use certain techniques simply because they work. The fact that tried and tested principles exist and that we use them makes copywriting a science as well as an art.
Writing Words That Persuade
OK, I'm being a bit pedantic here. Nine times out of ten, the purpose of any copywriting is to make the reader reach for his or her credit card.
But not always.
Sometimes we'll write copy to convince people to sign up for our free newsletter. No money changes hands, but we now have a prospect we can mail to on a regular basis. Maybe we'll get their cash later on.
Or perhaps we just want someone to think about something. And hopefully convince them to think like us.
Take, for instance, charities like Oxfam and political groups like Greenpeace. They use copywriting techniques to make readers think about world poverty and the damage we're doing to the environment respectively. They'll commission copywriters to write articles for the media and copy for promotional posters. Not all of these will come right out and ask for a donation (but of course, they're going to refuse one either). But they want people to come around to their way of thinking and use copy to persuade them to do so.
So copywriting is all about persuasion. Persuading people to buy our products and services, or persuading them to do other things which we consider to our advantage.

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