You should never just "fill in the blanks" when creating your copy
It’s certainly an attractive idea. You write a killer sales letter for one company and your mind starts to go to dark places. You start to tell yourself, “Why do I need to write a different sales letter for the next company? This one is great as it is. All I need to do is change the name of the company and some other minor details and I can sell it to anyone.”
You’d drastically reduce the amount of time you need to work on your next sales letter and you know you’ll be selling a great piece of work…so why does it feel so wrong? Well, that’s because it is wrong. It’s also terrible business practice and here’s why:
Companies are paying you a very good fee for your time and your talents (or at least they should be – check out my article on what copywriters charge if you feel you should be earning more). They expect to get high-quality, 100% unique work that has been written with a focus on their company. If they were to find out that the sales letter or website copy you wrote for them is exactly the same as a whole bunch of other company’s sales letters and websites then you’ll soon find yourself in the dog house with a lot of businesses and that will do nothing to help your credibility.
Word of mouth and recommendations you receive from your clients are so important to a freelance copywriter that you can’t risk earning a bad reputation just because you want to save yourself a lot of time and try to “cheat” the system.
If you were still wanting to go down the route of selling templated copy then what you must do is inform your customers exactly what it is they are buying. You could create a couple of templates and sell them cheaply to companies who just want to get their websites up and running or those companies who are on a restricted budget. At least this way you wouldn’t be conning your clients.
You’d be doing yourself and your business a much better service by writing unique content every time you have a project. Invest your time and energy into making each project better than the last and not only will you earn a great reputation, but you’ll become a better copywriter too. You need to be your own copywriter, not somebody elses.
Now I should make some distinction here between using copywriting templates in your work and studying copywriting templates. Studying templates, to see what makes them successful, is certainly something you should do, but stop short at actually using the template. There are some great blog posts (particularly concerning how to write a great headline) and some great templates out there that you can look at so make sure you do.
What do you think? Do you use copywriting templates? Do you think that I’m talking rubbish? Let’s hear your comments!
James,
Thanks for bringing this topic up. I have to say I agree with you. If a company is paying you to come up with something creative and unique, using templates in the way you describe it is definitely wrong.
Also, thanks for featuring a graphic of my Copywriting Templates at the top of this post.
I would have to conclude that you are not familiar with the actual product I’ve created, since “templates” is a term used rather loosely for a lot of what’s included.
I have five Story Templates. Here’s one of them, the Herald Story Template:
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I don’t think using a template like that is going to reduce creativity or cheat a client. In fact, if the client is looking to be set apart in the marketplace and get measurable sales result, this proven formula will guide the copywriter to create something that works — without using a cookie-cutter approach.
James, I’m aware of all the fill-in-the-blank products out there, and I’m not sure they help anyone. But I designed the tools in FastEffectiveCopy.com (which includes Copywriting Templates) to help people stay on track without boxing them in too much.
Hope that clarifies a thing or two…
-David Garfinkel
Hi David,
I’m glad you agree with me. I’m sure your products are not the kind of templates I was talking about within my post. When it came to the image, yours just fitted the article very well (because they included the words, copywriting templates) but I probably should have found a more suitable image so as not to lump your products in with the bad copywriting templates I’m talking about.
I’ll change the image as this is just unintentionally bad press for you and that’s not fair.
Apologies for that.
Thanks, JT.
No need to change it if you don’t want to, though… I’m not afraid of controversy and I’ll take the publicity, as long as you spell the name right…
Ah no, it wasn’t fair on you at all. My bad. The image has been changed into a fill in the blanks image.
Perhaps you might be interested in doing an interview for ProjectCopy? I’m trying to get some of the leaders of the copywriting world (as I see them) involved here to teach and provide advice to the new generation of copywriters out there.
Does that interest you?
Sure, JT, that would be great. Email me and we can set something up!
Thanks.
Hi there,
Good post on an interesting topic. Yes, I agree that as a matter of ethics, clients should get original content if that’s what they’ve chosen to pay for. On a more professional-development note, writers get better only when they move outside of their beaten paths of thought and delivery, just like with anything. Good copywriting should fit like a tailored suit. A good copywriter should be a master-tailor of the Enlgish language. If a writer offers off-the-rack content, then his pricing should refelct that. If he offers tailored material that requires special attention, he deserves special compensation.
-Joshua