Copy Writing

Copy Writing is the art of promoting something. According to wikipedia, “Copywriting is the process of writing the words that promote a person, business, opinion, or idea. It may be used as plain text, as a radio or television advertisement, or in a variety of other media. The main purpose of writing this marketing copy, or promotional text, is to persuade the listener or reader to act — to buy a product or subscribe to a certain viewpoint, for instance. Alternatively, copy might also be intended to dissuade a reader from a particular belief or action.”

The copy is written to promote an idea, or person, or company or a product or virtually anything. The copy could be short or copy could be long. The length of the copy is not really relevant as some people think, copy could be as long as necessary, but not longer.

Copy’s most important and foremost element is its heading. Heading should be pertinent, bombastic, sensible and attractive. The traditional wisdom about headlines is that they should be short. Normally there is rule of 8 words in a heading, but its not a law written in stone. Again, it could be as long as necessary, but not longer. All in all though, short headlines are easier to scan, and cannot be missed. Shorter the headline, more the chances of attraction.

The general rule of thumb about copy writing is that it’s better to error on the side of more information than less, but you also need to know when to stop.