Is Copywriting Dying? - The ClickBait Is A Real Danger

[Deleted03867]

I've just realized that more and more people are starting to be aware of copywriting, unfortunately in a negative way.
We all know what copywriting is (I hope so) and what it is used for. But... there is a big problem.
It is being used to promote bad quality products, leaving the ugly mark on copywriting's opinion. Massively.

Too many "entrepreneurs" think that promoting their products through copywriting is the only way to go, leaving the quality of their "insanely great super duper product that is going to show the shortcut to be wealthy/healthy/beautiful/*whatever the desire is*/" under the question mark.

Now think about it.

What does the client experience when he is actually ordering the awesome product, excited about benefits and thinking about his lovely shortcut - just to find out...
it changed nothing in his life?

Angry, sad, frustrated because of that situation, he comes back on his way with the bitter taste of being frauded.
And he finds another product. Yes, also with a great copywriting that "works".

Is the client going to buy the product again as he did earlier, or is he going to look at everything with really big caution, with a high probability to just throw the opportunity of finding the easy way to make money?
You already know the answer.
Good for that client.

The same thing is happening on YouTube when video creators are inserting titles like "You Won't Believe What Happened With My Mom!" or "Am I Gonna Die After Eating A...?" just to find out it is some random-bull-shit vlog and nothing really happened.
Leaving every curious person pissed and aware of what it's called nowadays "ClickBait".

Now, what about the products that are really, I mean REALLY (in a non-sarcastic way) fantastic things that actually solve problems of their future buyers?

If you've got that ideal product (again, in a non-sarcastic way), you want to cover it up with great marketing that involves a good copy.

And... what now?

It is not gonna work as it did earlier. I mean, it won't completely stop working, but because of all these "copy-frauds" that put copywriting in an infamous light, it destroys the purpose of letting clients get to know the products that really solve their problems.

Hopefully, it is not like that all people are aware of it.

Yet.

If it stops working soon, everyone who knows that copywriting is a powerful tool to show everyone that his product is REALLY going to help his clients is going to need another way of creating a copy.

It should be the message for anyone who doesn't care about the quality of his product and wants to sell it relying only on making great landing-page.

Just don't do it for the sake of every person, including yourself.

Okay, that is all for now. I'm being on my way to think about new possibilities of creating a good copy (I know this word is being overused in my post, sorry for that).

I am curious about what you have to say, so speak your mind if you want to!

 

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[shubham525]

Youtube has really dominated everything , people just want to watch and watch.

 

[Walter Hay]

The problem is not so much with the copywriting in the body of the advertising, although a ClickBait type headline will usually be followed by trash hype.

It is the ClickBait headlines that will turn people away, so why not write ones that don't have that ring to them?

By way of example, my forthcoming book will have the title: "Franchise Your Way To The Fastlane", and that will most likely be the headline to any advertising that I might do. That is certainly not ClickBait, but if I wrote "Franchise Your Way To Fast Millions", that would be.

Walter

 

[ehben]

Marketers kill everything.

 

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[Digamma]

No. Just no.

I've just realized that more and more people are starting to be aware of copywriting, unfortunately in a negative way.

Nah. You're mistaking your perspective for everyone else's.

We all know what copywriting is (I hope so) and what it is used for.

Do you? Because from your post I'd say you don't.

But... there is a big problem.
It is being used to promote bad quality products, leaving the ugly mark on copywriting's opinion. Massively.

Really? What an upsetting news!

Is the client going to buy the product again as he did earlier, or is he going to look at everything with really big caution, with a high probability to just throw the opportunity of finding the easy way to make money?
You already know the answer.
Good for that client.

This is marketing 101. It's nothing new, it's literally the job of a copywriter to deal with it.
And has been known and dealt with by advertisers since the dawn of the profession.
Read Schwartz.

The same thing is happening on YouTube when video creators are inserting titles like "You Won't Believe What Happened With My Mom!" or "Am I Gonna Die After Eating A...?" just to find out it is some random-bull-shit vlog and nothing really happened.
Leaving every curious person pissed and aware of what it's called nowadays "ClickBait".

Does it? Or do people love clickbait and love sharing it on social media?
Or maybe some markets love it and some don't?
Is it possible your marketing has to fit the market, not the other way around?

If you've got that ideal product (again, in a non-sarcastic way), you want to cover it up with great marketing that involves a good copy.

And... what now

It is not gonna work as it did earlier. I mean, it won't completely stop working, but because of all these "copy-frauds" that put copywriting in an infamous light, it destroys the purpose of letting clients get to know the products that really solve their problems.

Again, marketing 101.

Okay, that is all for now. I'm being on my way to think about new possibilities of creating a good copy (I know this word is being overused in my post, sorry for that).

What do you think copywriting is?

 

[DonTriumph]

Hmm... three things as I see it:

1. Their copywriting/marketing will only kill their BS product/whatever they promote.

2. Good copywritinf will catch and hook people's attention. Your job now is to avoid #1 (don't sell/advertise crap!)

3. Clickbaits usually have the same structure and same feel. Just avoid doing them and be better than them.

So, copywriting won't just die. In fact, in my opinion, people don't even think about copywriting or marketing.

Nobody complained about the marketing of a BS seld help book.

Nobody complained about the marketing of a fake drug.

Nobody complained about the marketing of gym supplements that work.

Though everybody's gonna laugh at the marketing (ad) of a politician during election, haha.

Kidding aside, you see nobody thinks about how the product is marketed. It's always about the product itself at the end of the day.

And besides, most people don't even know the word "copywriting".

 

[Deleted50669]

Copywriting is alive and well. Any company that sells.. anything.. is using it. What you're talking about is the endless SEO battle being waged on Google to get clicks from the front page. That's a very specific species of copywriting. That's the cancer of the field. People holding up golden veils to allure naive consumers, only to find it's hiding a pile of shit. Yea, that form of copywriting is on its deathbed for sure. But the kind that uses legitimate, value-driven strategy to educate consumers and give them realistic expectations, that's making a lotttt of people a lotttt of money.

 

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[Deleted03867]

Thank you all for your replies and thoughts.

Nah. You're mistaking your perspective for everyone else's.

Does it? Or do people love clickbait and love sharing it on social media?
Or maybe some markets love it and some don't?

I've just realized that you are right. I've seen many people talking about they hate click-baiting or do not trust any kind of, quoting: "special advertisement text" on forums, I've heard about it personally, and yes - I did not think about them as a minority.

 

[Digamma]

I've just realized that you are right. I've seen many people talking about they hate click-baiting or do not trust any kind of, quoting: "special advertisement text" on forums, I've heard about it personally, and yes - I did not think about them as a minority.

Good answer. Also in my experience, people say that. What they mean is that they think they don't trust marketing messages when they are not the target market. Then the right message comes and they lap it right up. How many people do you hear saying TV ads are stupid and don't work?

To elaborate more on the topic of the thread, I suggest you google the phrase "market sophistication". It's the advertising concept of the issue you describe in your OP (somewhat).

Copy is communication. You are just "interfacing" a market with an offer.
How you do it depends entirely on your target market. Your message has to be tailored to them. And so yes, of course, you need to use a different language for each.

Now, when you use the traditional direct response style (you know, "Get Sexy Nails In 54 Minutes With This NASA Trick The Orange Man Doesn't Want Women To Know") as clickbait does, you are leveraging the fact that there are fundamental psychological mechanisms that work. And yes, those you want to always leverage.

But that's the basics, or better the fundamentals.
It's like a painkiller: can be used with any pain, but it's not a cure for the variety of diseases you might have. So what's next?

Leverage the specific psychology of the market you have in front of you.
And the language and messaging and positioning they respond to (or hate) will change with that.

(Some people are fond to say that human psychology doesn't change... it changes all the time with culture, of course. What they mean is that basic neurology doesn't change.)

Note that here you have two things:

• The psychological make-up of the target market: what they believe, how they see the world, the associations that spark in their minds when they think about things. And...
• The skepticism they have towards marketing message, related to how much they've been subjected to the same shit copy over and over (this is what you were talking in your OP, and it's the "marketing sophistication" concept I mentioned earlier).

Let's take this forum, for example. What if you wanted to sell something to the typical person here?

• You would keep in mind that people here are very marketing aware, and skeptic of bombastic headlines and promises. You would expect us to receive the message more positively if you toned that shit down. [this is the skepticism, sophistication]
• But more importantly, you would remark and remark on "value", because this forum is obsessed with the idea of value. You would probably want to use the idea of the Fastlane, and car-related metaphors. Because we're programmed to think in those terms. [this is tailoring to the psychology of your target market]

And it makes sense, doesn't it? If I came to you and told you "I cAn TeAcH yOu To GeT rIcH wItH dAy TrAyDyNg", what would you respond? "Nah, screw that money chasing..."
Would you maybe respond better to "Hey, you're on the Fastlane, you're making money, but what if you could also make that money work for you as you make it, day by day, and start growing your money tree right now?"?

This is all off the cuff, but I hope I'm getting the point across.

And this is what copywriting (well, marketing more generally) is. To create a bridge between a market and an offer that fits them, in their language, whatever that may be. It's not writing in that particular direct response style.

Granted, that kind of writing is just good, and that's why we learn it. It teaches you to be direct, to be clear, to hit the nail like Thor's hammer... but it's one tool in the shed.

That's not going to work, straight up, with more skeptical and peculiar markets. It still works pretty well, generally, to a level that usually is surprising to the layperson (and by the way, it works just as well if you know copywriting yourself...)

But when a market hates it, it hates it. One example: engineers, the type that hangs out on Hacker News. Hates sales/marketing, convinced everybody outside their cubicle is incompetent, analytical to a fault (except when proclaiming ads/DR doesn't work, despite all the evidence of the contrary... it's almost as like they're not really rational after all, are they?).
A nightmare to sell to, and traditional direct response is probably a bad bet.

Well, this went long. When I get going on this topic, I get going. Hope it helps.

 

[A_Random_Guy]

In my opinion, people who buy stuff blindly based on good copywriting are the ones to blame. My country had one of the lowest literacy rates in the past decades, however, whenever I see people buying stuff online from websites or E-Commerce Stores, they always read the top 20 comments, watch YouTube reviews on the said product and ask for feedback from their friends who already purchased it.
If they value their money, they will verify and doubt before investing their money on others.
As the previous comment says, copywriting is a means of presenting your product to people to get them hooked.
If I am browsing the internet and find an article that says " Branded Suit on sale for 50%", I wouldn't bother wasting time checking it out and keep doing my work. However, if I find an article stating "A fan of James Bond? This suit is just for you. Exclusive sale of 50% until this weekend."
I will care to check out what they offer. However, before buying, I will check out the user reviews, the number of users who bought this, the price of the same dress on other websites, etc. and decide later.
This is my take as a customer.

 

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[Xeon]

Too many "entrepreneurs" think that promoting their products through copywriting is the only way to go.

I've been bombarded with guru ads on youtube and FB daily......and I swear, everyone is an entrepreneur nowadays. Maybe thanks to social media.
Girls selling me-too dropshipped beauty products? Entrepreneur.
Guy who works out at the gym and also gives fitness advice? Entrepreneur
Person X who does a mundane activity? Entrepreneur.

 

[Kid]

I've been bombarded with guru ads on youtube and FB daily......and I swear, everyone is an entrepreneur nowadays. Maybe thanks to social media.
Girls selling me-too dropshipped beauty products? Entrepreneur.
Guy who works out at the gym and also gives fitness advice? Entrepreneur
Person X who does a mundane activity? Entrepreneur.

Same thing happened to "Hacking" and to some extent "programming".
Now programmers don't program a thing, they "hack" it.
"Hackatons" aren't meetings where you hack bank of america for fun.

And the true story.
I was in some classes where teacher (rather old in rank and age)
told us that here's his "Program".
I almost burst into laughter in his face.
It was Excel spreadsheet with few cells connected that calculated something.

Or ... maybe... i can call myself now "Excel Programmer"!

 

[Deleted52409]

idk man... tons of people are still buying weight loss pills 10 years later.

 

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[Xeon]

I was in some classes where teacher (rather old in rank and age)
told us that here's his "Program".
I almost burst into laughter in his face.
It was Excel spreadsheet with few cells connected that calculated something.
Or ... maybe... i can call myself now "Excel Programmer"!

'Programmer' is outdated.
'Excel Developer' sounds nicer, or better still, 'Analytical Dev Ops' lol

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

I've just realized that more and more people are starting to be aware of copywriting, unfortunately in a negative way.
We all know what copywriting is (I hope so) and what it is used for. But... there is a big problem.
It is being used to promote bad quality products, leaving the ugly mark on copywriting's opinion. Massively.

Too many "entrepreneurs" think that promoting their products through copywriting is the only way to go, leaving the quality of their "insanely great super duper product that is going to show the shortcut to be wealthy/healthy/beautiful/*whatever the desire is*/" under the question mark.

Now think about it.

What does the client experience when he is actually ordering the awesome product, excited about benefits and thinking about his lovely shortcut - just to find out...
it changed nothing in his life?

Angry, sad, frustrated because of that situation, he comes back on his way with the bitter taste of being frauded.
And he finds another product. Yes, also with a great copywriting that "works".

Is the client going to buy the product again as he did earlier, or is he going to look at everything with really big caution, with a high probability to just throw the opportunity of finding the easy way to make money?
You already know the answer.
Good for that client.

The same thing is happening on YouTube when video creators are inserting titles like "You Won't Believe What Happened With My Mom!" or "Am I Gonna Die After Eating A...?" just to find out it is some random-bull-shit vlog and nothing really happened.
Leaving every curious person pissed and aware of what it's called nowadays "ClickBait".

Now, what about the products that are really, I mean REALLY (in a non-sarcastic way) fantastic things that actually solve problems of their future buyers?

If you've got that ideal product (again, in a non-sarcastic way), you want to cover it up with great marketing that involves a good copy.

And... what now?

It is not gonna work as it did earlier. I mean, it won't completely stop working, but because of all these "copy-frauds" that put copywriting in an infamous light, it destroys the purpose of letting clients get to know the products that really solve their problems.

Hopefully, it is not like that all people are aware of it.

Yet.

If it stops working soon, everyone who knows that copywriting is a powerful tool to show everyone that his product is REALLY going to help his clients is going to need another way of creating a copy.

It should be the message for anyone who doesn't care about the quality of his product and wants to sell it relying only on making great landing-page.

Just don't do it for the sake of every person, including yourself.

Okay, that is all for now. I'm being on my way to think about new possibilities of creating a good copy (I know this word is being overused in my post, sorry for that).

I am curious about what you have to say, so speak your mind if you want to!

Great copywriting goes unnoticed.

 

[Fox]

It’s like CGI - you only notice when it sucks.

Good copywriting is all around you everyday but the vast majority goes unnoticed.

It’s that great Facebook post that draws you closer to a brand ambassador, that cool IG caption story that weaves in the use of a product, the informative article that goes viral and spikes sales.

Cheap copy makes you feel cheap. You’re annoyed that you even read it.

Great copy though makes you feel great though. You don’t even notice cause it’s fits right in with your ego and self image.

Copywriting won’t be going anywhere but it is always evolving. If you work in a niche that has a lot of bad copy then you take that into account when you write your own content. If everyone is hyping X - you give the honest rundown of X with the real pros and cons.

The only damage people do with bad copy is to their own business. They might get more views but trust and authority plummets. I wouldn’t let it get to you - it opens the doors up in other ways to write great content your audience will now love even more.

 

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[Kruiser]

Great copy though makes you feel great though. You don’t even notice cause it’s fits right in with your ego and self image.

I notice copy all the time, mainly because I've read a lot about it and marketing generally, as a lot of people on the forum have. So, I definitely notice copy . . . when it is written to others. When it speaks to someone else's self-image and worldview.

But when it speaks to ME and my own world view and self-image, it is really hard to notice copy and not be affected by it. Because when I'm reading it, I'm not thinking "ok, I see what technique the writer is using there" I'm thinking "hell yeah, this guy gets it!"

A few months ago in Lex's guru thread someone mentioned how he watched a webinar once just to see what the presenter would do. I think he described it as "watching marketing porn." But even with that attitude going in, he was still almost reaching for his credit card by the end of the webinar. Because when somoene is really speaking to your worldview, it is almost impossible not to be affected by it.