REVIEW: "Business copywriting" - how to write serious texts without rules

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Do you have signs hanging over your desk: "Secrets of Heading Writing", "7 Ways to Make Text Selling", "Commandments of a Successful Copywriter"? Denis Kaplunov tells how to get these rules out of your head and start working with really serious texts.

"Business copywriting" is already a book by Denis Kaplunov, which, according to the author, will certainly go down in history. In the information and advertising flow, you won't catch anyone with a template. Therefore, in business copywriting, meaning becomes the main means of attracting attention. Denis Kaplunov generally speaks a lot about the importance of content, prioritizes its content, which should be the main acting force. The new book is devoted to how exactly the content of the text should influence its form and perception.

The book "Business copywriting", unlike other books by Kaplunov, is not written for a wide range of readers. Actually, businessmen should hardly read it, hoping that they will no longer have to order texts from professional authors. There is enough information to start independent work, but it will be difficult for people outside the profession to understand it. To digest such a volume of information and use all the data in your work, you need experience. But the authors have something to work with.

Why read a book

The book is almost lacking in standard advice on how to make good copy using templates and rules. Rather, on the contrary, Denis suggests breaking the existing rules as often as possible. Too many queries in search engines start with the words "How to write …", too many ready-made recipes are offered in response. Moreover, methods are often copied from books by foreign authors without any adaptation, that is, they are not suitable for the Russian language. The bottom line is that readers, that is, potential clients, do not even stop looking at the verbal rubbish, although the words are "correct" and are grouped into the text according to the canons.

Can you imagine what this book would have become if I had strictly followed the seven-word rule? There were seventeen of them in the previous sentence, don't you understand it?

Denis Kaplunov

There are rules in business copywriting, but they do not relate to the formal side of the work. To write a serious text, you must always politely tell the truth and only the truth that is interesting to the reader. Seems like nothing new? The author articulates and develops this idea on the first 40 pages of the book. The other 350 are about how to achieve this.

"Business copywriting" teaches you to work first with the product, not with the text. Before you start writing, you need to find out what you are talking about, and to learn thoroughly, otherwise instead of text you will at best get only water and a continuous "blah blah blah". Only good preparatory work will help you to make a truly high-quality text.

Are you faced with the task of preparing a document, and you open a text editor to get started right away? Get rid of this habit from tomorrow. You need to start only when you have a whole picture in your head, at least of the concept of the text.

Denis Kaplunov

To understand what you will be writing, you need:

• understand why you are writing;
• find out the maximum about the product you are presenting;
• put yourself in the place of the future reader and understand what he needs;
• find the key idea and decide how to show it.

This is a summary of the first chapter. The next six show you exactly how to do this, and in VERY detail. The author says a lot about the fact that the text should be as specific as possible, and he himself follows his own rule: each statement and advice is accompanied by examples of how to do it and how not to do it. Denis Kaplunov generously shares his works presented as a reference, and rightly so. You can immediately see that the author's methods actually work.

The main point is that the person who writes about the product must be an expert. A fair amount of information in the book does not concern the text at all, but work with "serious people", but it remains behind the scenes: how to collect information, what questions to ask the customer, what to look for when working out the concept of the text.

For me, a serious reader is one who is inclined and capable of performing a targeted action. He reads the text to understand how interesting he is to take this action, in whose favor to make a choice.

Denis Kaplunov

If you have managed to understand why and what you are writing about, it will not be difficult to turn knowledge into text. There are many exercises in the book that teach exactly this. It is useful for beginner copywriters for practice, for experienced copywriters for finding errors.

The lists of prohibitions deserve special attention:

• foreign terms to avoid;
• words that indicate the lack of specificity;
• adjectives and verbs that interfere with reading;
• abbreviations that cannot be used in serious texts.

Difficulties of perception

Now a little about the cons. The impression was that the author wanted to embrace the immensity and write a textbook that would replace all copywriter's desktop aids at once. Tips sometimes overlap (for example, how to write numbers correctly, we are talking in several chapters), are mixed and confused. A minute ago, the author talked about the need to rewrite his own texts, and now he talks about the rules for using verbs. A little information about naming, a little about a commercial proposal, something about correspondence with clients, more about site pages. It seems that you have just completed the task and compiled the text for the photo report, and you are already writing a letter of recommendation.

This spread shows, on the one hand, that business copywriting tips and rules are universal. On the other hand, it interferes with perception. The presence of a clear structure is the only advice that Denis gives and which he himself does not follow.

There is also a minus that I personally did not like, but perhaps many will consider it a plus. There is a real information bomb hidden in the chapter "How to write interestingly".

This note was written under the influence of 300 g of whiskey. Isn't it different?

Denis Kaplunov

The advice to release fantasy is, of course, good, but the way of execution for a long time put me in a stupor. It turns out that inspiration for serious writing must be found in the bottle. Yes, in our reality, summits are very often mediated by alcohol, but usually people drink after the deal, not before. I wonder how many authors believe that a glass or two of whiskey helps to relax and add drive to the text?

To whom and how to read the book

Beginning authors need to read the book from the end, from the chapters that return us to the school curriculum. Denis lists common mistakes, complex rules, and once again reminds you why you need to improve your knowledge of spelling and punctuation. Additionally, there is an express course on layout and an impressive list of professional techniques. If you are new to work, read in reverse order, gradually get to business texts.

Long-time copywriters start with careful reading, review the last chapters and refresh their memory, because there are things that you need to always remember. Read the first chapter to your customers, explaining why you need product materials and why you do it the way you do.

"Business copywriting" is a must-read if you write texts and want to reach a new level, but you fail: most likely, you will find out what is the reason. If everything is in order in your profession, the book can be used to work on mistakes that no one is immune from.

"Business copywriting", Denis Kaplunov