Usborne: By accident, pretty much. I needed a job and someone I was sharing a house with worked for an advertising agency. He said it was fun work. So I grabbed a Yellow Pages, wrote to the first 20 ad agencies listed, got three interviews and one job offer. A few weeks after working as a “management trainee,” I discovered that what I enjoyed most was writing. So that’s how I started writing - as a junior ad agency copywriter.

WhitePaperSource: You penned a book called Net Words about online copywriting. Are there classic rules of copywriting just for the Internet?

Usborne: I’m not sure I would say there are rules. But there are certainly guidelines. It’s not easy to condense them all into a few lines. But briefly, here are the guidelines I work with myself.

1. Understand that your company does not “own” the web as a medium. It’s not like TV, where big companies own and control every aspect of the experience. Online, the principal publishers are the users. Look at MySpace and YouTube right now. Control of the web as a medium lies in the hands of its users. Why is this important? It’s important because companies still find it hard to adapt to a medium where their audience has so much control and choice over which sites they decide to visit. And, of course, if someone wants to buy something online, they have even more control - being able to compare companies’ prices, customer service record and more with a few clicks of their mouse. As a result, when you write online, you need to be very clear about what you are offering, and very honest in how you communicate.

2. Site visitors are almost always looking for something via a search engine or link. This means that home pages and landing pages need to very quickly communicate that your company provides what the visitor is looking for. There is no time or space for fancy copy talking about your wonderful company. You have to understand and address what your visitors are looking for from the first second. (Like I said, it’s the users who are in control. If you bore them, lie to them or are irrelevant to their search, they’ll simply hit the back button.)

3. Following on from the points above, your design and text have to be visitor-centric, not company-centric. This may sound obvious for the web, but a lot of companies still struggle a great deal when trying to move away from their offline, corporate voice.

4. Be honest. You may be able to get away with half-truths offline, but you can’t do that online. If you cross the line and make a false or exaggerated claim, you’ll find your company being mocked across a dozen blogs and a hundred personal pages before you have time to make your next cup of coffee.

WhitePaperSource: Why is it so important to develop a consistent customer-focused voice across all the channels of online communication? Additionally, how does this “voice” function in a white paper, in your opinion? And what should the voice include?

Usborne: You simply need one credible, authentic voice. Then adapt it across different media. Motley Fool of Fool.com does this really well - on their site, in their newsletters, in their books, on radio, wherever. There are shifts in tone and emphasis in different media, but you can always recognize the voice as belonging to Motley Fool.

It’s the same in our own lives. You have one voice, but will speak a little differently depending on whether you are speaking to your kids, asking for oranges in a supermarket or giving a presentation at work. There are differences in what you say and how you say it, but the underlying voice remains yours, and the same.

Apply the same thinking to a white paper. Work within the structural demands of a white paper, and understand the required tone of voice. But at the same time, you can still write in a way that makes the company’s voice recognizable and credible.

WhitePaperSource: What do you think are the three things every copywriter or marketing-focused writer should be able to do in any piece he or she creates?

Usborne: 1. Help your readers. 2. Write simply and clearly. 3. Be honest.

WhitePaperSource: What are three of the most common mistakes that writers make in creating marketing collateral and copy for their clients?

Usborne:

1. Trying to be clever - to impress people with your copywriting skills.

2. Writing about the product or service, instead of its value to a purchaser.

3. Writing just one draft, instead of letting the first draft sit for a while, and then writing a second draft AND a third, until it is as good as you can make it.

WhitePaperSource: How do you stay enthused about writing and is there a technique you apply to every job to be engaged by what you are creating?

Usborne: I do that by inserting myself into the mind and heart of the reader. I may not be enthusiastic about a particular product, but if I can empathize with someone who is, then the copy takes on some life, and is a pleasure to write.

WhitePaperSource: What do you think is the most misunderstood thing about copywriting and how can marketers address it?

Usborne: In my own experience, copywriters are rarely given sufficient time to do their best work. It may seem efficient to set tight deadlines for copywriters, but it rarely results in their best work.

WhitePaperSource: How do you think copywriting and customer-targeted marketing writing will change and evolve in the future?

Usborne: Let me speak about customer-targeted writing on the web. I think that more and more, copywriters will have to come to terms with the issues I mentioned earlier. Marketing writers will have to put less emphasis on “clever selling,” and more on honestly communicating a product’s or service’s real benefits and value. Online readers have very acute “BS” detectors, and too many copywriters are slow to understand that.

About Nick: Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author and speaker. You can access all his newsletter articles on writing for the web at http://www.excessvoice.com. You’ll find additional articles and resources for freelance copywriters at http://www.freelancewritingsuccess.com.

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