Is copywriting the most humbling of professions?
January 20th, 2017 by Bob Bly
It mystifies me how it has come to pass that so many copywriters
have huge egos.
After all, copywriting is one of the most humbling professions I
can think of.
My colleague BC explains it this way:
“So many times I have put together a campaign, launched it, and
sat back and said ‘work, damn it, WORK’ — and it did not. Very
humbling.
“And by the same token, I launched what I thought was watered
down drivel — and saw it pull like gangbusters.”
Any copywriter who says every campaign is a winner and claims he
has never had any losers is either a liar, or putting out very
little work, or not swinging for the fences to beat strong
controls.
Once, I mentioned to a big-name client that I thought their top
go-to copywriter, a famous freelancer, was great.
She snorted derisively and said, “He has more losers for us than
I can count.”
Another big-name client confided in me that a legendary
copywriter they used wrote 7 promotions in a row that bombed for
them.
Once, my client PN called me and said, “You want a laugh?”
On my recommendation, PN had called Mr. X, a famous copywriter,
because PN’s company had way too much work for me to handle
alone.
“I asked the guy what percentage of his promotions were winners,”
PN told me. “You know what he said? 100%! Ha! I sure hung up the
phone fast!”
Another famous copywriter wrote a package for a new client that
was so brilliant and creative, the client began recommending the
writer to all his cronies.
Then weeks passed, until one day, the famous copywriter got a
phone call from the client who said abruptly: “Remember that
package you did for me? Total bomb. Didn’t work.”
The copywriter was stunned … and the referrals all dried up.
By the way, all of the copywriters I am talking about here are
actually tops in the field.
The point is that even the best copywriters don’t write winners
every time.
Like Mr. X, any copywriter who says every single one of his
promotions is a home run is a liar.
And given that even the best copywriters write packages that
bomb, it is a mystery to me why so many copywriters out there
have huge egos.
If anything, being a copywriter is a humbling profession.
One day you can be king of the world, and the next week eating
humble pie.
And that’s the way it is, despite all the bragging you read by
copywriters on Facebook and elsewhere to the contrary.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2017 at 11:26 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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