Freelance Advertising Copywriter

Advertising copy that speaks, sticks and sells

The truth is that, whatever it’s selling or promoting, nobody really wants to read an advert. That makes advertising copywriting an interesting challenge. You have a few seconds – sometimes less – to interrupt someone who was quite happily doing something else, give them a reason to pay attention and persuade them to think, feel or do something.

I’ve been writing advertising copy for 30 years, across print, digital, posters, billboards, television and radio. Some campaigns have needed three words. Others have needed 300. The trick is knowing which words matter.

Nobody wants to read your advert

Some people will tell you advertising is an art. Others will tell you it’s a science. It’s probably somewhere between the two, with a bit of luck thrown in. Whatever you call it, buying the media space is the easy bit. Getting somebody to notice what you put in it is rather harder.

A good advert needs an idea. It needs to understand who it’s talking to, what matters to them and why they should care about whatever you’re selling. Then it needs to communicate that without demanding more attention than anyone is prepared to give it.

Sometimes that means appealing to logic. Sometimes it means emotion. Sometimes you need to come at the subject from a completely different angle, tilt the reader’s perspective or catch them off guard by saying something unexpected.

What rarely works is trying to say everything.

If I throw five tennis balls at you, you might catch one, maybe two. Advertising works much the same way. Give people one clear thing to grasp and they’re considerably more likely to grasp it. I’ve had as much success with three words as I have with 30.

Sometimes the words are the idea

Advertising copywriting isn’t simply filling in the spaces after somebody else has had the idea. Sometimes the words come after the concept. Sometimes the words are the concept.

I can work from an established creative direction or get involved much earlier, helping develop the proposition, campaign idea, headlines, straplines and messaging before writing the supporting copy.

I’m equally happy working directly with a client or alongside designers, creative directors and agencies. Words and visuals generally work better when they meet before the last five minutes.

Give people a reason to care

Features tell people what something is. Benefits tell them why it matters. That distinction sounds obvious, but an awful lot of advertising forgets it. Businesses naturally want to talk about themselves: what they make, what they do, how long they’ve been doing it and why they think they’re marvellous.

The person reading the advert generally has another question: What’s in it for me?

Good advertising finds the point where what you want to say meets what your audience actually wants or needs to hear. That might mean introducing an unfamiliar product, changing a perception, explaining an advantage, overcoming an objection or simply making someone curious enough to find out more. The important thing is to give them a reason to care.

Advertising copywriting services

Over the years, I’ve developed advertising concepts, campaign ideas and copy for businesses, brands and organisations across a wide range of sectors. That includes:

Advertising concepts and campaign ideas
Headlines, straplines and body copy
Print advertising
Posters, billboards and out-of-home advertising
Digital and display advertising
Paid social advertising
Radio commercials
Television and video advertising
B2B advertising
Consumer advertising
Campaign messaging

The medium changes the way you write. A poster beside a busy road has a very different job from a magazine advert, digital campaign or radio commercial. But the principle remains much the same: work out what matters and make it worth noticing.

A good brief helps

A tight brief doesn’t restrict creativity. It gives it somewhere useful to go.

Before I start writing, I want to know what you’re trying to achieve, who you’re talking to, what you’re selling, why anyone should be interested and what might persuade them to respond. I’ll also want to understand the competition, the brand, the medium and anything else that might affect the work.

You don’t need to present me with a beautifully written creative brief. If you have one, excellent. If you don’t, I’ll ask questions until we have what we need. The clearer we are about the problem, the better the chances of finding an interesting answer.

Thirty years. A lot of blank sheets of paper.

Thirty years of advertising copywriting has taught me a few things. I don’t believe every advert needs to shout. I don’t believe every headline needs to be funny. And I certainly don’t believe adding an exclamation mark makes something exciting.

I do believe in understanding the audience, interrogating the brief and finding the thought that gives the words somewhere to go.

Advertising doesn’t give you much room for error. You need to get to grips with unfamiliar subjects quickly, distinguish the important from the merely interesting and find an idea that works for the audience rather than one that simply looks clever in a presentation.

And sometimes you have to keep staring at the page until the right three words turn up.

Selected advertising work

How much does advertising copywriting cost?

It depends on the job. Three words can take considerably longer to get right than 300, so I quote according to the brief, scope and complexity of the project rather than charging by the word.

Tell me what you’re working on and I’ll give you a clear price before I start.

Need an advertising copywriter?

If you need an experienced freelance advertising copywriter for a campaign, an individual advert or simply an idea that refuses to turn up, tell me what you’re working on. I’ll tell you honestly whether I can help.

Nobody really wants to read your advert. Let’s change their mind.

Give me something to sell