
Old School Copywriting for New School Businesses - smg
https://www.slideshare.net/marklittlewood/joanna-wiebe-old-school-copywriting-for-new-school-businesses
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nerdponx
I think this kind of misses the mark in some cases, or at least ascribes
causality where there's little evidence for it. Some alternative hypotheses
about slides 20, 22 and 23:

\- The inSSIDer ad on the right looks got fewer clicks because the styling is
outdated and obnoxious, whereas the one on the left is on-trend.

\- The "control sweat" ad is worse because the word "sweat" is right there in
big letters, and that's distasteful.

\- The buttons with "free" got fewer clicks because they talk about _money_ ,
not about _the benefit of the product_. Talking about money up-front is a
warning sign to people, like they're overeager to prove the wrong thing to
you.

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tmnvix
> The "control sweat" ad is worse because the word "sweat" is right there in
> big letters, and that's distasteful.

The more successful alternative had "my armpits are always wet" in the
equivalent location.

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mark_l_watson
I am surprised by the negative comments. I am not a copy writer, but I write
technical books. I thought her views on the business of copy writing to be
very interesting, even though that is not my business.

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foxhop
Joanna Wiebe is hands down my favorite Copywriter. I know her voice just by
reading her copy. She is truly a master of this craft.

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jevgeni
I feel this is painfully banal. I know that it is industry best practice, but
still.

It is pretty transparent when somebody is writting to me to sell something and
I care less about that text instinctively. I don't care what the copywriter
wants, I care about what I want. I don't care about your sales or conversion
rates, I'm solving my problems. Going through all the desperate fluff is just
too bothersome.

Oh what's that, you've figured out how to put my first name into the first
sentence? We know how templates work, that doesn't make it more personal.

Oh you use fancy designs and flashy graphics? How does that bring me closer to
my goals?

Etc., etc.

A short, valuable, plain text is more important to me than all the fancy
vacuous copy in the world.

~~~
wmeredith
Eh, I️ feel you, but we are outliers. I️ suspect the same of most people on
this board. All this stuff works better than not, MOST of the time.

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marklittlewood
We will publish the talk online (with a transcript), soon. It will be
available here: [http://businessofsoftware.org/2016/07/all-talks-from-
busines...](http://businessofsoftware.org/2016/07/all-talks-from-business-of-
software-conferences-in-one-place-saas-software-talks/)

Alternatively, subscribe to the BoS newsletter and we will email you when it
is live.
[http://businessofsoftware.org/updates/](http://businessofsoftware.org/updates/)

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blueyes
This is great advice. And it's great copy in itself. Most companies focus too
much on what they do, and not enough on who they serve.

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commenter1
I'm not a marketing person, but even I know that everything you or your
company does is PR for the company. Then people put up stupid slides like
this. In 2 minutes time, this company lost me. That's one hell of an
achievement. You're in marketing, at least act like a semi-professional.

