You probably don't need a copywriter — and here's why
Your ads don't need to be iconic, they need to be effective.
Snickers: You’re not you when you’re hungry.
Nike: Just do it.
McDonald’s: I’m lovin’ it.
Turn off the familiarity bias filter in your brain and you’ll realise these legendary campaigns aren’t all that special. They may be considered iconic now, but the ideas themselves aren’t particularly revolutionary:
Have a Snickers because it’ll sate your hunger, thereby making you happier. Duh.
Just go for that run or lift those weights, even when you don’t want to. Basic motivation.
You’re lovin’ what? You could be lovin’ anything. Your mum’s lovin’ it.
And yet these campaigns were (and continue to be) hugely successful.
Why?
Some would say clever strategy, consumer psychology, or creative genius. But there’s one thing they all have in common:
Constant repetition.
Sure, the original adverts might have been amusing or inspiring, but these slogans wouldn’t be culturally embedded if they’d only been shown once.
It’s the difference between giving a few people a one-off smile, or entire nations quoting and joking about the campaign for decades.
Despite this, many brands spend loads on their campaigns to merely flash it at their audience. No amount of zeitgeist-capturing right-place-right-time creative alchemy has a chance when its only outing is exclusively JCDecaux bus stops for two weeks.
It makes sense to get your money’s worth from the campaign you paid for, but so many brands seem keen to move onto the next thing immediately, perhaps in fear of boring their audience.
Brands that cement themselves in cultural consciousness don’t worry about that. And that’s why everyone and their pet ferret can whistle the McDonald’s jingle.
‘But, Duckman,’ you say. ‘Consistency works for THOSE brands because they’re huge. People already know them and care about what they say.’
And by ensuring that your audience knows your brand via repeat exposure, you can make them pay attention to you, too.
It’s less that people are desperate to hear the gospel of McDonald’s, and more that you’d remember anything you were exposed to three times a day for years on end. It doesn’t matter if you used ‘I’m lovin’ it’ for McDonald’s or Basingstoke Burgers — with the same level of exposure, the result is the same.
If anything, campaign consistency and repetition is even more crucial for smaller brands.
If big brands need relentless repetition to make money, small ones need triple that.
Big brands already have an audience.
Small brands need to force their way into people’s brains and ensure they stay there.
And it’s easier to do that via consistent drip-feed than crossing your fingers for that holy grail one-off knock-out campaign that goes viral and makes millions overnight.
If your budget is tight, focus on getting yourself in front of your future consumers as many times as possible. Saving your money for repeat showings will provide better ROI than deploying the most creative campaign once and briefly. You need eyes on the product, not a Cannes Lion.
Obviously in an ideal world you would have both. But when you’re not flush with funds, you have to make a choice. And that may mean a bit of DIY.
Writing a campaign yourself:
A simple one-line explanation of what your business does for the audience and why it’s better than rival options is a great start. Because the smaller and newer your business is, the less you can afford to be vague and conceptual with your advertising.
Just imagine if those campaigns I mentioned earlier were used by new companies. Nothing about ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ or ‘Just do it’ tells you what the product is or why it’s great — which is fine for established brands like Snickers and Nike, but less helpful for Chunkers or Zeus, brands nobody knows about because I just made them up.
There’s no shame in playing it safe at the start. Think of it as introducing your business to the world.
Alongside this, here are a few important points to remember when writing your own adverts:
Choose a medium you can afford to repeat many times over — social ads, for example. Some will require more strategic planning than others, such as PPC, so don’t be afraid to ask experts in those areas for their advice on the optimal route. Remember, you’ve saved money by not hiring a copywriter, so don’t be afraid to redistribute some of your budget to a marketing pro if you’re totally lost on how to deploy your campaign.
Ask someone who knows nothing about your business what they think of your campaign. Use open-ended questions like ‘What can you tell me about [Brand Name] after seeing this?’ or ‘What is the number one thing you learned from this ad?’ rather than ‘Is the fact that we’re the only HR software solution provider to equip users with a big red SACK IMMEDIATELY button coming across?’ People are generally nice and polite and eager to please, so they’ll end up saying yes to the latter regardless, whereas the former encourages honesty.
If your test subjects aren’t replying with the right answers, go back to the drawing board until the message you want to send beats them round the head with its obviousness.
Get every part of the campaign proofed by someone who knows what they’re doing. Ask the smartest people you know to check over it. Or message a copywriter on LinkedIn and ask them to help — most will be happy to do so for a small flat fee. There are absolutely no excuses for mistakes in short-form copy, regardless of who wrote it.
Coming up with a great ad campaign isn’t easy. But if your budget is low and your business unknown, you don’t need your ads to be ‘great’. You need them to be effective. And focusing on repetition is a reliable way to get you the results you need now without breaking the bank.
You can always release higher-budget campaigns with copy support further down the line. Just look at the Skull Shaver, which started with ads like this in 2018:
And has since graduated to advertising during the Super Bowl:
They probably wouldn’t have Super Bowl money if they hadn’t started small. So give it a go yourself, you might be surprised at the success you can have by keeping it simple. And if you get really stuck, email me at theboss@duckmancopy.com, I’m always happy to help.
