lessons in copywriting 2

1. You must know what you're talking about.
In order to be informative - never mind persuasive - you need to know how the car is put together, how the chicken is taken apart, what the surfactant does, what to expect in the foreign country, in what way is the soil refinery 'refined', etc, etc.
In the absence of such knowledge, you will be doomed to rely more on adjectives; always a mistake.

2. You must remember who is doing the talking.
We use words like image, character, tone, texture, even personality, almost interchangeably. But whatever we choose to call it, it must be recognisable, distinctive and consistent. this is even more important than friendly, approachable and accessible.
The writer who attempts to put the agency's mark on the client's copy or - God forbid - his own mark should pay with his job. And his severance should be that of his writing hand.

3. You must know who you're talking to. (Or, better still, to whom you're talking.)
This can be knotty in the extreme. 'Males, 18 to 34' or 'Households above 3lakhs pa' are categories worse than useless, they are destructive. You may actually have to enter the Hades of the focused group. (Purchase a round-trip ticket, with no advance reservations required).
The very best tactic is to create your own customer or prospect. Keep your creation a secret and real life need never touch you.
Keep in mind, at the same time, that your prospect (even of your own creation) is likely to be smarter than you are and much warier. He is, after all, not in advertising; you are.

One final thing: being a copywriter is hard enough, hiring one is worse. "We need more (fewer) (better) (cheaper) (livelier) talent" has been heard in agency hallways since before agencies had hallways.
Talent might just have something to do with writing ability. But I'm not sure. many people have a way with words; often that's all they have.
Now it doesn't matter any more, I'd look for a teacher-turned-salesman (or a salesman-turned-teacher) and take my chances.

- Bob Levenson