Page 165 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

76 ACT LIKE A MAGPIE

Magpies are known for their petty larceny. They love bright, shiny
objects and will cheerfully nick wedding rings, silver spoons,
and trinkets from your house to decorate their nests. Copywriters
should be a little like magpies too. Yes, it’s great to come up with
your own ideas, but not until you’ve had a good rummage through
everybody else’s.

This isn’t me being lazy either. Pick your copywriting titan: all
have borrowed freely from their forebears. The trick is to find a
good idea, steal it, then adapt it to make it relevant to the product
you’re selling.

The idea

From a dozen or so great copywriters
When I started out as a copywriter, at the tender age of 22, I had
no idea at all what was involved. So I did the only thing I could
think of and went out and bought a bunch of copywriting books.
Among them were How to Write Sales Letters that Sell by Drayton
Bird, The Secrets of Effective Direct Mail by John Fraser-Robinson,
and Advertising That Pulls Response by Graeme McCorkell.

I read them cover to cover, making notes and trying to figure out
how to apply their ideas to my own job. Since then I have kept on
buying books and my shelf now groans under the weight of a couple
of dozen well-thumbed friends. Those I have donned the stripy
sweater and eye-mask most often for include The Solid Gold Mailbox
by Walter Weintz, How to Write a Good Advertisement by Victor
Schwab, Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples, The Adweek

156 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS