Freelance Copywriter Secrets: How to Write Copy When You're Stuck

By: Charles Brown
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:43:04
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It happens to every freelance copywriter now and then. You get an assignment to write copy about a product or a service that just leaves your brain dry.

Nothing about the product excites you or leaps out at you as a strong selling point. Nothing hits you as unique and nothing shows you an open door to write anything interesting about it.

Well there is a way to get your brain started and get the ideas flowing through your finger tips.

Strategists in every business field use a quick, analytical tool that is called SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

How do you use SWOT analysis to help you write good copy? Here are a few ideas

  1. Strengths. What is this products benefits? What does it do for someone who buys it? What does it do better than the competitors’ products. Why should a person choose this product over any of the other choices available out there?

  2. Weaknesses. Believe it or not, your product’s shortcomings can lead you to its best selling points. In a recent article called Freelance Copywriter Secrets: Honesty Is Good For The Bank Account, in which yours truly "borrowed" (OK, I stole it) some of Dan Kennedy’s ideas about admitting your product’s flaws up front.

    Not only does an upfront admission build trust, it also allows you to shine the spotlight even brighter on the product’s strong points. And if that were not enough, admitting flaws helps you position the product as different from all the other competing products out there.

  3. Opportunities. Where can your product take your customer? What changes or improvements can it help them realize? Think in terms of what doors your company can open for the customer.

  4. Threats. Very often the easiest way to sell something is when your customer is experiencing a problem or pain. People are more motivated to avoid or escape from pain or a loss than they are to realize a gain. If you can understand what problems your customer faces and show them how your product is the solution, you have written great copy.
See? It really is not that hard to get unstuck. I have found the secret is to keep my pen moving or my fingers typing until the words start to flow and make sense. SWOT analysis are the training wheels for your thoughts to run on until all that starts to happen.

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Charles Brown is a Dallas, Texas based freelance copywriter who writes web copy, advertisements, newsletter articles and direct mail that turns readers into YOUR customers. Visit his blog at dynamiccopywriting.blogspot.com or contact him at 817.715.3852 or **charbrow@gmail.com**.

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