I've just finished Write To Sell: The Ultimate Guide to Great Copywriting. Here is part 1 of a series of posts detailing what I learnt from the book. If you're interested, grab a copy on Amazon.
There are four things you should always remember about copywriting.
It's a world apart from academic writing, business memos, or fiction. Copywriting simply means writing in a persuasive way to convince someone to do something that they wouldn't have done otherwise. That's it.
Don't get carried away with telling everyone when your company was founded, your career background, what you think about the economy at the moment - it's not about you. You have to focus on the reader - what do they want to hear? What are their fears or needs, their hopes and dreams? What will motivate them to pay attention to your sales message and then act upon it?
Focus on using simple, easy-to-understand language. You don't win points for using multi-clausal sentences and trying to sound like James Joyce. Keep it simple. Bigger is not always better.
Most writers don't have any sales experience; and most salesmen aren't good writers. To write really good copy, you have to combine these two skillsets effectively. You need to look at your writing as a sales process. The good news is that if you can do this, you will be better than 95% of people out there.If you can remember these 4 simple rules, you're on your way to writing good copy.