Robert W. Bly - The copywriters handbook: a step-by-step guide to writing copy that sells (3rd edition)

ALSO BY ROBERT W. BLY

Secrets of a Freelance Writer
Selling Your Services
Business-to-Business Direct Marketing
The Elements of Business Writing
The Elements of Technical Writing
How to Promote Your Own Business
How to Get Your Book Published
Write More, Sell More
Direct Mail Profits
Ads That Sell
Careers for Writers
Creating the Perfect Sales Piece
Targeted Public Relations
Keeping Clients Satisfied

THE COPYWRITERS HANDBOOK

3 RD EDITION

A Step-by-Step Guide to
Writing Copy that Sells

Robert W. Bly

An Owl Book
Henry Holt and Company
New York

Owl Books

Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Publishers since 1866

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York 10010

www.henryholt.com

An Owl Book and are registered trademarks of
Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Copyright 1985, 2005 by Robert W. Bly

All rights reserved.

Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bly, Robert W.

The copywriters handbook : a step-by-step guide to writing copy that sells / Robert W. Bly.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-10: 0-8050-7804-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7804-6

1. Advertising copy. 2. Business writing. I. Title.

HF5825.B55 2006

Henry Holt books are available for special promotions and
premiums. For details contact: Director, Special Markets.

Originally published in hardcover in 1985
by Dodd, Mead & Company

First Owl Books Edition 1990

Designed by Kelly S. Too

Printed in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

For Fred Gleeck

On writinga matter of exercise. If you work out with weights for fifteen minutes a day over the course of ten years, youre gonna get muscles. If you write for an hour and a half a day for ten years, youre gonna turn into a good writer.

Stephen King,
Time (October 6, 1986)

No one writes as well as he ought. He is fortunate if he has written as well as he could.

Bliss Perry,
Bedside Book of Famous British Stories (1940)

Appendices:

At a meeting of the Direct Marketing Club of New York held a few years after publication of the first edition of The Copywriters Handbook, the club awarded a certificate to me declaring the book to be a mini-classic of direct marketing.

I dont claim that this book is a classic, but over the years I have had hundreds of businesspeoplefrom entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 executives, to novice copywriters and some of the worlds top direct-marketing prostell me they read and were influenced by the book.

So when my publisher, Henry Holt, asked me to prepare a revised third edition, I was conflicted: Id already messed once with a classic. But at the same time, there were new techniques I wanted to add. And of course, the first two editions, published in 1985 and 1990, respectively, had nothing in them about the Internetand the Web has transformed marketing.

So heres the approach I took to preparing the updated new edition:

1. In those chapters containing copywriting techniques that have, for the most part, withstood the test of time, I kept revisions to a minimumdeleting some extraneous text, cleaning up language, updating old data.

2. Where appropriate, Ive selectively and judiciously added important new copywriting techniques. Example: the 4 Us for writing headlines in .

3. Ive added two new chapters to cover electronic marketing: on e-mail marketing.

And thats it. So if youve read or own the first or second edition, you know what to expect. And if you haventwelcome to The Copywriters Handbook. For decades, thousands of copywriters and other marketing professionals have relied on this book to help them produce more powerful, compelling, and persuasive copy. Now you can, too.

This is a book for everyone who writes, edits, or approves copyad agency copywriters, freelancers, ad managers, account executives, creative directors, publicists, entrepreneurs, sales and marketing managers, product and brand managers, Internet marketers, marcom professionals, and business owners. It is largely a book of rules, tips, techniques, and ideas.

Many big agency copywriters and creative directors will tell you that advertising writers dont follow rules, and that great advertising breaks the rules.

Maybe so. But before you can break the rules, you have to know the rules.

This book is written to give you guidelines and advice that can teach you to write effective copythat is, copy that gets attention, gets its message across, and convinces the customer to buy the product.

Beginners will learn all the basics they need to know: what copy is, what it can do, how to write copy that gets results.

For people who have been in the business a few years, The Copywriters Handbook will serve as a welcome refresher in writing clear, simple, direct copy. And, the book contains some new ideas, examples, and observations that can help these folks increase the selling power of their copy. Even old pros will get some new ideasor some old ideas that they can use profitably for their own clients.

My approach is to teach through example. Numerous case histories and sample ads, commercials, mailers, and brochures illustrate the principles of effective copy. Guidelines are presented as short, easy-to-digest rules and hints.

Perhaps the copywriters who dont know the rules do produce great advertisingone time out of one thousand. But the rest of the time they create weak, ineffectual adsads that look pretty and read pretty but dont sell the product. (And the reason they produce bad ads is that they dont know what makes for a good ad!)

If you master the basics presented in this book, I cant guarantee that youll go on to write great advertising or win prestigious advertising awards. But I can be fairly certain that youll be writing good, clean, crisp, hardworking copycopy that gives your customers reasons to dig into their wallets and buy your product... and not someone elses!

As you read The Copywriters Handbook, youll discover what youve suspected all alongthat copywriters arent literary people or creative artists. Copywriters are salespeople whose job is to convince people to buy products.

But dont be disappointed. When you begin to write copy that sells, youll discover, as I have, that writing words that persuade can be just as challengingand excitingas writing a poem, magazine article, or short story. And it pays a lot better, too.

I do have one favor to ask: if you have a copywriting technique that has worked particularly well for you, why not send it to me so I can share it with readers of the next edition? You will receive full credit, of course. I can be reached at:

Robert W. Bly

Copywriter

22 E. Quackenbush Avenue

Dumont, NJ 07628

Phone: 201-385-1220

Fax: 201-385-1138

E-mail: rwbly@bly.com

Web site: www.bly.com

Id like to thank the following people and companies for contributing samples of their work for publication in this book:

Jim Alexander, Alexander Marketing

Len Kirsch, Kirsch Communications