3 Communcation Insights I Developed Today While Riding My Bike.

Virtually every day for the vast majority of my adult life I have written something.
In the beginning most of it didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. I was experimenting with allegory and my writing was, let’s call it, highly decorative.
This is a necessary stage that every writer needs to go through in order to to understand the outer limits of his imagination. Mine was pretty far out there, at least that’s what people told me.
Over the years, you start to reel it in and develop a pretty distinct impression of the kind of writing you want to do.
Because not every writer does every kind of writing.
Last week, the wife of a friend and friend of mine on Facebook asked me to give her some advice about becoming a writer, the kind who actually gets paid.
This is what I said back to her.
"Before I give you any advice you need to think about 3 things.
1. What kind of writing would you be happy doing?
2. What kind of writing do you think you’d be good at?
3. Where do 1 and 2. intersect? 


Once you have the answers to those questions you will know what kind of writing you would like to do, and I will know whether or not I have any advice to give you."

It’s Complicated. But It’s Simple

At my core I am a copywriter, because that’s primarily what I get paid to do. Everything else either supports that in terms of marketing (like this blogging) or is a hobby (like my lyric writing and my screenwriting)
So this is the first thing that I figured out today.

1. Everything About Commercial Writing Starts With Copywriting.

This includes ads, brochures, business letters, direct mailers, emailers, broadcast commercials and longer format video etc.
If you haven’t mastered this stuff. If you haven’t put in at least ten years figuring out how this all works, then you are missing a critical part of the learning process.
I can see the eyes rolling back and the smirky grin. I can. You don’t believe it because you are so immersed in the digital world of web sites and PPC and blogs that you don’t realize this stuff basically doesn’t work unless it adheres to a lot of the basic rules of copywriting.
This is a big part of the reason why digital marketing is a 1% ROI game. The people who achieve more than that are not concerned with the soft approach to anything. They are aiming right between the eyes and firing 50 calibre bullets.
The triggers are being pulled by copywriters. They’re not called that anymore, They are more like hybrids. They didn’t start off writing web content and blogs and landing pages. They started off writing ads and brochures and direct mailers and commercials. They are the third distinct generation removed from the pioneers of modern advertising.
As the world changed and digital marketing came into being, they changed with it.
But they have two distinct advantages. 1. They know how to create selling messages within the context of the digital marketing process, and 2. The don’t buy into the bullshit that most digital marketers are selling. Because they know that it’s all advertising. It always has been. It always will be.

2. Your Content Probably Sucks.

Here’s the second thing I figured out.
The world is drowning in useless content. The 80/20 Differential (shortened down from the bulkier 80/20 Rule of Almost Everything) clearly states that 80% of digital content is crap and useless mainly because it doesn’t get read. Some would argue that percentage is even higher.
Crappy web sites that don’t say anything. Pointless blogs that are more self-indulgent than informative. PPC ads that don’t attract business. Etc.
And why do you suppose that is?
Well my theory is that there is a fundamental lack of creativity out there. Not a lack of creative people but a lack of people with the requisite skills to be able to build selling messages and real persuasiveness into the so called creative work they do.
It’s not their fault. They have had it beat into their heads by digital marketers who tell them that the ‘people’ out there don’t want to be sold, but want instead to be ‘engaged’.
This of course is bullshit that is only in the best interest of these digital marketers, who have created a world where you have to spend a lot of intellectual capital to keep a soft program going. Oh, by the way, you’re paying them to manage all this for you, too.
And frankly you’re getting hosed.

3. The Thing Nobody Can Predict Is The Next Big Thing

The last thing I figured out has to do with the future.
And while I will be the first to admit that I can’t predict it, my best advice is to keep your eyes peeled for and your mind open to new ideas. Even if they somehow feel like they could be old ideas.
Like a web site that doesn’t look like some freaking WordPress Template and that actually tells people what you do and what you can do for them.
Like a business card that has a little story on the back about what you can do for your customers or clients instead of being some graphic designer’s wet dream.
Like a series of blogs or videos where the story actually has something to do with your business and the people you do business with.
You know, shit like that.
Will it rock your world and make you or your clients a superstar? Probably not. At least not right away, Because the digital world moves like a three-toed sloth.
But what it will do is tell the people on the other end of your communication that you’ve got some serious chops and that they should definitely keep their eye on you.
Well that’s it for today. My daughter’s coming over to talk about writing with me. She has an idea. And I’m not surprised. I taught her well.