Book Club: The Copywriter's Handbook by Robert W. Bly

Once every couple of months, several of us at Dundee Hills Group, the parent company of Redpines, gather to discuss a marketing communications related book or topic that we've read or thought about. I always take a lot of notes, copying down those passages that I want to be able to tell people about later or that I simply thought were well written. Here are my top 10 favorite tips from The Copywriter's Handbook, © 1985, 2005, 2020 by Robert W. Bly. 

[Avoid] . . . clever wordplay, puns, and "cute" copy . . . [in a headline]

p. 22

Your headline can perform four different tasks:

Get attention.

Select the audience.

Deliver a complete message.

Draw the reader into the body copy.

p. 23

Grade your performance as a copywriter on sales generated by your copy, not on originality.

p. 24

A classic headline for an ad offering a facial lotion reads: "The $5 Alternative to Costly Plastic Surgery." . . . The headline would not have been as successful if it said "$5 Bottle of Lotion is an Inexpensive Alternative to Costly Plastic Surgery."

p. 27

We are not in the business of being original. We are in the business of reusing things that work.

p. 28

Whenever I'm stuck for a headline, I type "How to" on the page, and what follows those words is always a decent, hardworking headline: good enough to use until something better comes along.

p. 30

Question headlines should always focus on the reader's self-interest, curiosity, and needs, and not on the advertiser's.

p. 31

Numbers attract the reader's eye. They should always be written as numerals.

p. 36

[#1 tip for writing clear copy:] Put the reader first. . . . address the reader directly as "you" in the copy, just as I am writing to you in this book.

p. 45

Tip: If the subject is not saying exactly what you want him to say, use the "So are you saying" technique. Say to the subject, "So are you saying that . . . " followed by the statement you want him to make. If he answers "yes, that's what I am saying," you can attribute your phrasing to the subject.

p. 393 

Toolbox: How to create a social media strategy that works

By Bob Decker

The particulars of social media platforms are in a constant state of flux. But if you're a newcomer to social media, or if your company is a newcomer, there are certain rules of the game that don't change that much from year to year and which will help you turn your social media outreach into a fruitful, two-way dialogue. Here are my top five recommendations if you're thinking about launching or relaunching your organization's social media presence.

1. Reach agreement within your teams about what your goal is in being on any social media platform and whom your presence there is for. Look to be as specific as possible.

"Raising awareness" is a lame reason to be on social media. Examples of some good reasons:

• Showing the company to be a meaningful place to work so people will apply for jobs there (or won't quit)
• Getting people to come to your event or trade show booth—or wish they had
• Entice customers to buy something specific from you—and give them a link to do so
• Encourage people to like, trust, and respect you by pointing them toward useful information that they might not have found on their own

2. Reach agreement within your company about who "owns" your social media channels and how you're going to measure whether social media is working for you or not.

Yes, social media is always going to be a team effort. But you still need to be clear about who's responsible for driving it from day to day, and who's responsible when they're on vacation. 

3. Even if it seems "easier" to go on to each social media site and post things, sign up for and use one of the social media calendaring and posting platforms (like Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout, and many others). You need this so you can more easily

• plan ahead for future posts and share the plan easily with your team
• scale out to more social media platforms
• enable coordination within your company between different functions (such as marketing and HR)
• prevent all the unpleasant things that can happen when everything depends on some spreadsheet somewhere that suddenly becomes unavailable for whatever reason
• measure the effectiveness of what you're doing on social media: most of these platforms are measurement tools as well as planning tools

4. Have in mind a recurring type of post that you can come up with a predictable frequency. Your social media channels need a "pulse," and you need to find that pulse before you launch. 

Here as elsewhere it's important to put yourself in the shoes of the audience(s) you're trying to reach. What's going to be interesting for them? As a starting point, assume they're most interested in their own problems and, if they're looking at social media at all, in being entertained and inspired. For example, as a marketing communications agency Redpines social media channels aspire to bring useful ideas to B2B companies about how to promote themselves more effectively.

Without knowing the specifics of your business, I can't recommend any specific kind of content that will work as an ongoing "pulse" for your social media channels; but I'm happy to make some recommendations in a free 15-minute consultation.

5. Be open-minded about what your goal is in engaging with social media. It's not just about getting more and more followers. For example, LinkedIn can be an excellent tool to help you find specific people in specific roles in specific companies you'd like to be in contact with so you can sell them things. Tools that automate this process, and there are many to choose from, not only save time, they can also circumvent some of the hurdles you'd face as an individual trying to reach out to people from whom you're separated by too many degrees to suit LinkedIn's rules about who you can contact directly.

I hope you found this useful! Some more Redpines resources on social media:

6 Useful Social Media Tips

5 Shortcuts to Getting Started on Social Media

Agenda: January 2023

1. Complete preparations for Posifa Technologies' participation in AHR 2023, the big HVAC show, where Posifa will be sharing some amazing new vacuum and anemometer sensors that redefine how, where, and when you can measure pressure and air velocity/direction. 

2. Wrap up video script for a new type of MOSFET family from Vishay, then admire the final video created by the internal Vishay marcom team.

3. Prepare first issue of the Alliance Memory quarterly newsletter, for which editorial calendar as already bursting at the seams.

4. Spend a couple days hiking at Big Bend National Park, which everyone says is so beautiful. On the way, check out the town of Marfa, Texas, where my Uncle Bob and Aunt Jackie lived during WWII when Uncle Bob was in the service.

5. Continue listening to Big Brains podcast from University of Chicago to see whether subsequent episodes are as engaging as the first one I listened to with guest Katy Milkman from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, author of How To Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be.

Bob's personal reading for the past few weeks has focused on

books originally published in 1939-41. In addition to the books

shown above, he's read or listened to Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household,

The Corporate State in Action by Carl T. Schmidt, and the

T. E. Lawrence translation of Homer's Odyssey.