Technique: The Potent power of Powerisms.
Distill your value proposition into a simple, short, direct, truthful, opinionated sentence .
Writing copy is hard. But you don't have to start with a complete blank page.
Consider using a little technique called "Powerisms".
But first, let me tell you the story behind Powerisms.
John E. Powers was the World's first full-time copywriter. John began his career writing ads in England in the 1870s.
Then he moved back to America where he wrote ads for department stores like Lord & Taylor and Wanamaker's.
His boss John Wanamaker once said John E. Powers was "the most impudent man" he had ever met.
But today many people call John E. Powers the "Father of Modern advertising". And one of the reasons is because John came up with a totally new "Reason-why" style for writing ads: "Powerisms."
John believed that for an ad to be persuasive it had to focus on ONE idea.
And that idea should be distilled into a simple, short, direct, truthful, opinionated sentence.
Good example from Hyposwiss Private Bank.
2010 ad campaign “Expect the expected”
This my favorite story from the period John was working for the John Wanamaker store in Philadelphia.
One day John asked one of the Wanamaker managers, "What items should I feature in tomorrow's newspaper?".
The manager replied, "Well, we have a lot of rotten gossamers and things we want to get rid of."
Now can you guess what came out in the next day's newspaper?
A Wanamaker ad that said, "We have a lot of rotten gossamers and things we want to get rid of."
That day Wanamaker's entire gossamer surplus sold out before noon.
Good copy is copy that tells the truth about your brand or product in a way that’s never been said before.
1. Telling the the truth is disarming and persuasive (as long as it's communicated in a memorable way).
The easiest and most obvious way to get people to trust a brand is to tell them the truth.
And the truth is, to write good copy you don't have write copy out of thin air. All you have to do is to assemble copy that tells your brand’s truest truth in a memorable way.
ONE truth, and nothing else.
Sir John Hegarty via Making Sense of it all
2. Before trying to write ad or web copy, ask yourself: "What's the most unfiltered truth I can say that might persuade people about my product or brand?"
3. To find your unfiltered truth search for what people are saying about your product or brand online.
Here's a little trick I use a lot when writing copy for clients (Warning: This involves detective work):
1. Figure out where your audience hangs out online.
2. Open Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or whatever social media tool you picked in step 1.
3. In the search bar type your product's name or brand.
4. Open a Google Docs file and copy + paste what people are saying about your brand.
5. Pick the 10 most interesting/unexpected/funny/weird/direct/memorable unfiltered truths people are sharing online about your product/brand.
6. Decide how you want to make people feel about each one of those truths.
7. Then change a fews words and turn them into short sentences (Powerisms). Limit your sentence length to 10 Words.
Whatever you might end coming up with might not be the final copy, but it sure will help you get there.
Before
