Page 31 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

9 ON THE WEB, IT’S
(EVEN MORE) PERSONAL

Attend an internet marketing conference these days and there
is a very good chance you will hear a presentation on writing for
the web. But what the guru advises turns out not to be so very
different from what the greats of advertising and direct marketing
copywriting have been saying for the last 100 years or so.

The guru will take as his (or, less frequently, her) whipping boy
a piece of cloddy, hubristic, advertising copy—from a corporate
brochure, perhaps. “This,” they intone, “just won’t wash on the
web.” Well, I’m sorry, but it didn’t wash in print either. It’s just that
it was quite hard to tell.

The idea

From a social club for upmarket sport fans
A while ago now, I wrote some web copy for a company bringing
together sporty/horsey types. We wanted to capture the energy of
the sports themselves and present the benefits of the club through
copy that sounded like the company’s founder was talking directly
to the site visitor.

Here are a couple of paragraphs:

Watching your horse come from behind to win by a head.
Seeing the match turn on a last-minute drop-goal. Discussing
form with leading jockeys and trainers. There are many ways
to set your pulse racing. And joining Racing Pulses gives you
privileged access to them all.

22 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS