Copy is the life and breath of advertising and promotional material… And copy writing is the art and technique conveying the message to the target audience by putting together words in an interesting and catchy manner. It is wooing your target audience with words and information.

Well-written copy is vital to the success of an advertisement or a brochure, radio spot or TV commercial. It is necessary to see not only how the words read but also how they sound. Copy is not only written to be read… it is also meant to be heard. The copy has to be effective in terms of getting the attention of the audience and then delivering the message to them so that they are swept away to buy your products and services.

Copy can be just a headline in the case of a poster or text matter of a brochure running into pages. Experience has taught us that arriving at the final copy takes time. Also, it involves repeated changes. Everyone in the hierarchy wants to make sure that the written matter is factually correct and conveys the company’s image appropriately. And quite rightly so. Sometimes in order to get all the facts right, the copy has be wetted by the various departments including legal and technical. This all requires time.

The copy also determines various aspects of design. The illustration, color, size and format are all based on the headline and the copy. As such, it is suggested that as a first step, you should try to get the copy finalized. This is what is most time-consuming.

What is our process of developing effective and efficient? The following steps are involved in developing the copy efficiently:

• Collection of all the information about the company and the products involved. We collect all the brochures and other printed material of the company printed previously. This is necessary for a number of reasons. First, as far as possible there should be consistency between what was said earlier and what you are going to say now. Second, the advertising agency will have the information that can be included in the advertising and promotional material and which has already been wetted before. This is not to say that we cannot change the message or the contents. For us to write an effective copy as well as to reduce the number of iterations, we need to be given as complete information as possible.

Piecemeal collection of information increases the number of iterations as well as the time taken to develop advertising and promotional material. With complete and accurate background information, the work can be done faster with fewer interactions

• Obtain the following details:

• New facts that need to be considered.
• Changes that have taken place
• Information that definitely needs to be included in the advertising and promotional material taking the characteristics of the industry and the nature of the business and products into consideration
• Preferences of key people in the organisation. Final approval rests with these people and one has to take their views into consideration while developing any advertising and promotional material.

• Once the copy is ready, we send an electronic file to you for review. Clients are asked to make the changes or give their comments on the electronic file itself. Using the electronic media saves on typing effort.

• After a few iterations and changes the copy is finalized. We use the following concepts to make the copy effective:

• Keep it simple and direct
• Focus on telling a convincing story
• Follow the three stages of a good composition – introduction, body and conclusion.
• Follow the three stages of a good composition – introduction, body and conclusion.
• Avoid lengthy copy.
• ) Focus on benefits and not just the features
• Take editing seriously to avoid glaring mistakes.