In marketing, a promotional copy is another one of the writing prompts you should be familiar with. Broadly speaking, a copy is a written proposition whose objective is selling whatever product you’re trying to sell. It’s different from any writing you’ve learned at school because, with the abundance of information that we currently have in all media platforms, a copy should be the most precise—and appealing—piece of information. And you’ll want to capture the attention of those potential readers.
Keep Focused
Even if you might come with 20+ ideas on how to portray your most recent release, you should restrict to only one or two, at most. It’s more frequent that you’ll have to stay with just one in mind, for most vehicles for publishing do not accept more than a limited amount of words. In brief: selectivity is your key ally.
There are two additional elements to concentrate on once you’ve selected your topic. Firstly, think about your audience. Secondly, use a simple and concise language.
Your Audience Comes First
As Ben Ross has told us, you have to get to know your audience when dealing with music marketing. Since a copy is intended for a particular public from the beginning, you should think about them when writing your piece. For example, what are the kind of people you’ll be addressing? And what is the circumstance of your material: is it going to be printed in a newspaper or is it going to be digital? If you can, consider what other texts are going to be published besides your own. In addition, if you know the details of the publication platform you’re aiming for (which you should), take advantage of the known readership of said publication. The more appropriate your promotional copy is, the better chances there are that people read it.
Some extra food for thought might be your audience’s interests. Convince them of reading your piece—and, later, listening to you—by addressing what they like. (For this, of course, you must have already interacted with them.) Explain to them, succinctly, what your music can do for them.
The Language on the Promotional Copy
Copies are not for you to show your erudition. Remember: keep it simple. Avoid “long words”; that is, words that are uncommon in the daily use of language. Moreover, since copies are short, do not go ahead and fill your text with descriptions. It’s more effective to stick to the simply-explained benefits of your product. Even more so when you choose words that you’ll be able to comprehend without the use of a dictionary.
Accordingly, use the present tense and maintain your sentences short. An excellent piece of advice is that, before sending your text, you read it out loud. In that way, you’ll be able to tell if something’s odd if you’re stumbling on some words. Be wise in your selection of adjectives: you don’t want too many of them, and those you need must be precise. And, to round it all up, make sure you’ve explained everything you mean in a clear and understandable fashion.
