The Art of Copywriting
When it comes to the terms of reading about advertisements or publicity materials, what comes to your mind?
People tend to skip the reading part and go straight away to check on the poster. Indeed, eye-catching designs would certainly catch people’s attention more. But what if there is no illustration for the writing? Would people just skip reading it immediately just because they find it boring? Sadly, it might be true! If people ignore those advertisements because of those complicated writings, then there would be no use of the publications to be done. Even so, it still won’t set aside the fact that writings can intrigue people’s interest in the brand, will it?
Therefore, why do people find reading boring?
Some say that reading is just a waste of time and it takes too much effort to read. However, how do they come up with the idea that reading is a waste of time? To be frank, a writing would be less interesting if it gets too logical or a bit too wordy and complicated, especially for a description of a brand. It has to be easy to comprehend, but still straight to the point, and of course, it needs to engage the readers.
First things first, the activity of writing for advertisements or publicity material is often known as copywriting, while the person who does the writing is known as a copywriter. Copywriting is different from content writing. It is an action of communicating through writing with the purpose of introducing, promoting, and informing the public about a brand. It is selling the personas of a brand. In contrast, the purpose of content writing is to inform the valuable information of the content.
Problems you may find doing copywriting
Copywriters may find some difficulties in the making of copywriting. One of the difficulties that copywriters often have to face is the frequent occurrence of words or sentences that appear repeatedly in the previous captions, the use of repetitive words also makes the caption seem less attractive. You may find problems like not knowing the right and suitable words to replace those words. Other than that, getting stuck while writing happens oftentimes. You may know what to write but it’s so hard to pour them into writings. Problems like this may delay the progress in copywriting.
The main key to success in copywriting is to attract the readers’ attention, which can be found in the aesthetic of the writing itself. It may not be as simple as what we thought it would be. It requires techniques to write the words. In conclusion, if one wants to be a good copywriter, one must consider practicing writing and critical reading. The following are several tips and tricks to be a great copywriter:
- Master the materials
The first point that you need to emphasize is mastering the materials you want to write. It is important to know the brand, the product, and the purpose of it. Remember that you’re writing in a way to introduce and promote the brand. For that reason, you have to know all of the information about it. - Be specific in the writings
In order to make it easier for the readers to understand, make sure that your writing is straight to the point so that readers know the aiming point that you are emphasizing in the writing. Avoid redundancy in your writing, instead, it should be concise and clear. The redundancy of writing would only disinterest the readers. - Word choices matter
Copywriters also need to make sure that the word choices are simple, yet sophisticated in a way to grab the readers’ attention to read the writings. The targets determine the words you are using in your writing, so know them really well! If you’re promoting the brand to the public including commoners, choose words that are frequently used in daily life since not everyone is capable of understanding the complexity of the words you’re using. In addition, if your writing is aimed at a specific group of people, you should know them well enough in order to aid you to choose the appropriate words. As an instance, advanced business vocabularies will be more preferred if the targets are C-level executives. - A catchy headline is important
The headline is the spotlight to your writing as it is the first thing that the readers would see. It will let the readers know that your writing is the one that they are searching for. It should capture the readers’ attention as if it is a clickbait. With that, readers will be captivated by the headline and attract them to read the whole writings. Nevertheless, note that it still has to be related to the topic. A misleading headline will disappoint your readers and get your brand a bad image, therefore, you need to get it right. - Don’t doubt your writing
Yes, redundancy may not be good for your writing. However, when you’re stringing words together, don’t doubt yourself, write as long as you want, you can do the editing later. Thinking too hard about writing so limitedly would only stop your creativity in writing. Do the touch up by removing the unnecessary words in the end. - Read and read
Reading develops the mind. You can also learn new things like advanced words and vocabularies by reading people’s writing, especially in advertisements and publicity material. You will get used to the way they write those strings of words in the media. And by reading too, you can find sentences with the same purpose in different versions to avoid repeated sentences in your writing. Furthermore, you can practice it in your own writing.
Copywriting in SISTEM
In regards to copywriting, it can’t be separated from branding. Not only it gives the identity of the brand but branding also builds a strong foundation by communicating its brand to the public. That reason is why a good skill in copywriting is needed in order to actualize a great brand.
Where do we implement copywriting skills? There are several social media platforms that SISTEM is using to keep the public updated about the things going around SISTEM such as information, Sharing Sessions, and events held by SISTEM itself. Other than that, those platforms are used to celebrate great days. The publication in LINE Official Account is designed to inform the targets in the most practical way. Instagram is mostly used for documentation purposes. In addition, LinkedIn is used to publish both activities and documentations in the most professional way. And through the captions, we do the copywriting.
What stands out in the captions we write is that we are using English as the main language as the usage of Bahasa Indonesia is not sufficient enough to fulfill the needs of communicating with people around the world, especially in terms of technology. With that, SISTEM is prioritizing the usage of English in a way to make its members be more familiar with it. In the end of each caption, we also include #UnleashYourUtmostPotential as our tagline. This is adapted from SISTEM 2020’s vision which desires its members to accelerate their capability by unleashing their utmost potential.
And, that is how we, the Public Relations Team do the copywriting for SISTEM!
So, what are the next things you will have to do?
Grab your papers and pen, try to write about something! Bear in mind that reading is one of the greatest significances in copywriting, so don’t miss that part too. Mistakes will not spoil the whole scheme. Thinking of the mistakes will only hold you from writing. Just carry on writing!
