CopyCon18: More than an excuse for a weekend in the Big Smoke
First, a confession.
Back in my corporate days, I saw conferences as a way to get my employer to pay for a couple of days away in a posh hotel in the big smoke. Sure, I had to sit through a few plenary sessions and take the odd note to justify the trip. But I also often got the chance to catch up with friends and order room service on someone else’s dime.
These days, as a sole trader who has to pay my own way, I tend to avoid interstate events unless I can kill a few birds with one stone and schedule in some client meetings to make the whole shebang tax deductible.
But I am so glad I made the special effort to get on a plane and wing my way to Sydney last weekend for CopyCon18. To be honest, I mainly went to catch up with my virtual copywriter colleagues, do a bit of big-city shopping and have some time to myself after 24/7 parenting as my husband worked long hours during vintage (explanatory note: He is a winemaker, so perks!).
Of course, it was great to catch up on my colleagues, hit the shops and enjoy “me” time. But I didn’t expect to learn stuff. Loads of stuff.
Businesses are meant to evolve
Like Kate Toon, my business has changed since I first launched in 2011. Maybe not quite so much as Kate’s, who has transformed herself from a copywriter to entrepreneur and now owns several businesses, including the one behind CopyCon, the Clever Copywriting School. Kate spoke about the reasons behind her evolution, and exploded the myth of passive income, explaining that her e-courses now come with hundreds (thousands) of clients who all want a piece of her. But you can tell by the way she carries herself on stage that she enjoys every minute of helping people with SEO and with launching their own copywriting business.
My business has evolved in a different way, and Kate’s presentation showed how important it is for sole traders to enjoy business growth, but also know their limits. Not everyone has to launch member sites, or put on events, in order to consider the business a success.
Put the problem before the product
I usually work as a B2B (business-to-business) copywriter, which means my clients are usually in the B2B space, and often in services, rather than products. I do a lot of trade journal articles, stakeholder newsletters, information posts, as well as big, unwieldy documents such as annual reports, capability statements, white papers and more. Even my web copywriting experience tends to be with B2B clients.
With this kind of dull-but-worthy experience, I can be a little gun-shy about product sales pages. I don’t identify as a sales copywriter (not that there is anything wrong with that).
But all this might change thanks to Joanna Wiebe from Copy Hackers, who showed delegates the secret to persuasive, conversion copy. It’s simple – put the problem first, then agitate things, then unveil the product. BOOM. This works for all sales copy – for landing pages to brochures.
Copy is just like icecream
In her presentation about editing (and let’s face it, that has the potential to be a tad dull. I know, I do it regularly), Kelly Exeter charmed me by comparing copy to icecream. Vanilla is fine, everyone enjoys vanilla, but with a good edit, and the right ingredients, you can turn vanilla into “Maggie Beer” magical. Kelly generously shared her step-by-step editing process, a method I already instinctively use, but it was nice to get some validation.
Write for your mum
Well, maybe not YOUR mum, but my mum for sure. My mum is one of the most risk-averse people I know. She needs everything planned to the last minute, and hates surprises. So from now on, I am going to write stuff that I know will give her conniptions – because Robert Gerrish told me to.
In his presentation about dealing with difficult clients, Robert shared this gem – write copy that worries the most risk-averse people you know. In other words, don’t be vanilla.
Another little tip from Robert, which I live by each day is to surround myself with the right people – IDEAL people.
Artificial Intelligence is not the enemy
Somewhere in among his hilarious stand-up routine, Dave Eddy provided some nuggets of wisdom to those of us in the room a little terrified of AI taking our jobs. We know bots are writing (pretty terrible) copy right now, and with fast-moving technology it may not be long before the AI copy improves. But here is the thing, instead of being scared of AI, we can embrace it, and use AI tools already available to improve our processes, client communication and more.
Winning small business clients
Although I work with a few small business clients, I tend to attract larger corporations and government work (not too many small businesses need annual reports). My work also tends to the technical industries, such as energy and resources, mining, construction and regulatory. It’s not that I don’t like small business clients, it’s just that a lot of the small business leads that come my way seem to be of the tyre-kicking variety, who have found me on Google and want to not only pick my brain for the price of a cup of coffee, but also expect me to waste two hours of my day on a round trip into the CBD for said coffee. Jane Tweedy is on a mission to change all that. She works with small businesses who want to transition and grow, and has a few sure-fire ways to not only target the right small business but also where to find them and how to make them see the value in hiring a professional copywriter, even if they don’t quite know what a copywriter is.
The most important lesson of course is that I’m not alone. There are countless just like me, in pyjamas and slippers all over Australia, who sometimes feel a little lonely, and a little stressed about money and difficult clients and juggling priorities. I mean, I knew that in the abstract (I’m not in hundreds of Facebook groups for nothing you know), but it was great to get out and meet all those invisipeeps in person. And next year, with CopyCon19 moving to Melbourne, I plan to meet even more.
If you missed CopyCon18, you can still buy a video ticket for all juicy goodness (minus the shopping and socialising).
And for those interested in checking out the action in person next year, the waitlist for CopyCon19 is open now.