What is Copy Writing?Copy writing is the use of words to promote a person, business, opinion, or idea. Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing (as in the body of a newspaper article or book), the term copywriter is generally limited to such promotional situations, regardless of media (as advertisements for print, television, radio or other media). The author of newspaper or magazine copy, for example, is generally called a reporter or writer, not a copywriter.
Thus the purpose of marketing copy, or promotional text, is to persuade the reader, listener or viewer to act — for example, to buy a product or subscribe to a certain viewpoint. Alternatively, copy might also be intended to dissuade a reader. Copy writing is "getting across the perfect message, with the perfect words". Copy writing can appear in direct mail pieces, tag lines, jingle lyrics, web page content - although if the purpose is not ultimately promotional, its author might prefer to be called a content writer - on line ads, e-mail and other internet content, television or radio commercial scripts, press releases, white papers, catalogues, billboards, brochures, postcards, sales letters and other marketing communications media.
On websites, copywriting may also refer to content writing for the purpose of achieving higher rankings in search engines. This practice includes the strategic placement and repetition of keywords and keyword phrases on webpages. Known as "organic" search engine optimization (SEO), it is best done in a way that does not distract, bore or confuse the human reader. Achieving optimal results is something of an art. The Copy: What we can and can't provide!We can provide most smaller projects with the kind of basic copy needed to provide your end users with the information they need - we can write copy from scratch as long as there has been a consultation about style and content and an agreement about the amounts of copy to be provided. As far as straplines for advertising campaigns, that is very often down to the importance these pieces of copy are to play in a marketing strategy. We can in no way match the services of professionally trained copywriters and full time art directors, but if these types of skill sets are not available, due to budgeting constraints, we can certainly provide guidelines and/or supply clients with a reasonable alternative. We cannot generate technical copy and we expect clients requiring technical details for publication to provide the appropriate copy. We may be able to write more generic copy around technical copy but we would handle these kind of projects on a case to case basis. CreativityWriting creatively is not a gift that we are all blessed with at birth! The emergence of the blogging world has led many people to believe that because it can be done by everyone it follows that no special talent is required - this is another of those internet myths that has led to a plethora of badly written and extremely dull websites. The more creative you are about the copy published on your web site the more likely you will receive the positive results you desire, results that are actually related to your initial intent. Writing more brochure copy that is simply a rewording of what the competition has written about a similar product or service will not endear you to your customers and clients - it will inevitably encourage them to scan across your pages and leave your website. Take a look at our top menu - you don't see that kind of menu very often and it is fitting that a design company challenges perceptions and encourages exploration - but as you drill down into the menus you can still find the information you need to make a decision about us. You can easily get to a library section where our content is listed in a more traditional manner. This is what creative copy is about - making compromises between creative license, the navigation and information structure and a prevalent stylistic tendency - try and avoid using the standard formats, think about your unique selling proposition and create your own style - stick out from the crowd - don't blend in! CopywritersMost copywriters are employees within organizations such as advertising agencies, public relations firms, web developers, company advertising departments, large stores, broadcasters and cable providers, newspapers and magazines. Copywriters can also be independent contractors freelancing for a variety of clients, at the clients' offices or working from home.
A copywriter usually works as part of a creative team. Agencies and advertising departments partner copywriters with art directors. The copywriter has ultimate responsibility for the advertisement's verbal or textual content, which often includes receiving the copy information from the client. The art director has ultimate responsibility for visual communication and, particularly in the case of print work, may oversee production. Either person may come up with the overall idea for the ad or commercial (typically referred to as the concept), and the process of collaboration often improves the work.
Copywriters are similar to technical writers, and the careers may overlap. Broadly speaking, however, technical writing is dedicated to informing readers rather than persuading them. For example, a copywriter writes an ad to sell a car, while a technical writer writes the operator's manual explaining how to use it.
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On the Front Page - When you click on the image to the left of each of the large highlight bars below it will open either a small window to display the artwork, a gallery or an external website. On the top left hand side of the page you will find a style switcher to set the font size and width of the website to fit your particular needs and monitor width. We hope you enjoy the site!
