If you’ve been reading this blog for the last few months, you know I’ve been writing a series of posts on copywriting. Similar to the approach I took with my series on social media, I’ve looked at copywriting from a 30,000-foot level, focusing on the principles you need to be mindful of if you want to succeed in this profession.

As I wrote about my own career in the very first post in this series…

I may have worked for a number of different companies, developed new skills and taken on new responsibilities – such as creative direction, public speaking and social media – along the way, but I’ve also stayed true to my roots as a copywriter. 

And after all of these years writing headlines and subject lines, direct mail packages and email blasts, blog posts and brochures, teasers and tweets, I’ve been able to draw a handful of conclusions about what it takes to succeed as a copywriter.

Now that I’ve completed this 2,800-word series on copywriting, I’ve bundled each post together and archived them as one long article, “10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter,” which you can read in its entirety here. Or simply click on the fifth tab over (the next to last one to the right) at the top of this blog.

For your convenience, I’ve also listed each post in this series below with its corresponding link.

As always, if you have any feedback for me, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or click “Like” below. Thank you.

To read the entire 2,800-word “10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter” series, click here.

To read each post in this series, one at a time, follow the links below…

10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part One
Dare to be different.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Two
Care deeply about results.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Three
Walk in your readers’ shoes.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Four
Develop strong presentation skills.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Five
Keep your head out of the sand.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Six
Exercise good judgment.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Seven
Meet your deadlines.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Eight
Be a team player.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Nine
Sweat the small stuff.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Ten
Use social media.

8. Be a team player.

Most copywriters are accustomed to working alone, sequestered away from the rest of the team, doors closed, blinds drawn, working feverishly against time.

It’s what we do out of necessity, when there’s no room for distractions and we just need to put our heads down to get the job done as soon as possible.

Yet while it’s certainly not unusual for a copywriter to do his or her thing in isolation, battling loneliness as well as the clock, it really shouldn’t be the norm.

Sure, to succeed as a copywriter, you need to be a self-starter, capable of working independently for long stretches of time. But you also need to be a team player, someone who works well with others – especially designers, creative directors and account people – and can appreciate the importance of timely, seamless handoffs between everyone involved in a project.

You need to be disciplined enough to work in a vacuum (if necessary), but you don’t want to be an introvert. The more enthusiastically you collaborate and communicate with others, the better.

If you’re invited to a meeting, be punctual and prepared to participate.

If you’re taking changes to your work, respond promptly and positively.

If you’re given a deadline, beat it.

Brainstorm – or just plain socialize – with your colleagues and clients as much as possible. Get away from your desk and out of your office whenever the opportunity presents itself.

If you go out of your way to show your support for those who depend on you, they’ll be more likely to return the favor and do everything they can to ensure your success.

This is the eighth in a 10-post series on how to succeed as a copywriter. In the near future, I’ll publish the remaining two posts in this series (not necessarily consecutively), here on my blog, A New Marketing Commentator. Please stay tuned. And if you have any feedback on this series for me, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or click “like” below. Thanks.

Previous Posts in This Series

10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part One
Dare to be different.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Two
Care deeply about results.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Three
Walk in your readers’ shoes.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Four
Develop strong presentation skills.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Five
Keep your head out of the sand.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Six
Exercise good judgment.
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Part Seven
Meet your deadlines.

To say that marketing has changed in the last few years would be to put it quite mildly.

Marketing has been rocked, shaken, stirred, knocked for a loop and turned completely upside down not just by the Internet, but by the emergence of social media as an informational, educational and conversational platform leveraged by the masses.

Watch this short video and learn what to do about it before it’s too late…

This “blog post on video” was recorded on September 13, 2009 on Old Connecticut Path (overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike) in Framingham, MA. It’s an adaptation of a post I wrote earlier this year called “Who Moved My Customers,” which you can read in its entirety here.

When I took my oldest son, Scott, 13, to see a rock concert at the Comcast Center (Mansfield, MA) recently, I knew we were going to have a great time. But I had no idea I’d be one of many getting a crash course in HPV (human papillomavirus) and the diseases it causes, including cervical cancer.

But in addition to giving us pictures to commemorate the occasion, that’s what Merck and Co., the maker of GARDASIL, a cervical cancer vaccine, gave me and a throng of other willing participants. I was glad to get a souvenir photo with my son, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn more about HPV in the process — and, consequently, given an opportunity to help spread the word here on my own blog.

This was the deal. One and all were invited into a photo booth to have their pictures taken, which were available for free online. To retrieve yours, you were directed to a special landing page, where you were presented with a list of 20 facts about HPV and cervical cancer before being taken to another page where you were asked for a little information about yourself in exchange for your photo, which you could download, email to others, share on Facebook and elsewhere.

Besides such an important lesson about HPV and cervical cancer, what you and I can learn from such a great photo marketing strategy is a unique way to get constituents to serve as brand ambassadors. In this case, it was really all about the place, the people and the pictures…

How to Educate, Entertain and Engage People with Photo Marketing

1. Host a special event (or piggyback on someone else’s) that’s attended by your target audience.

2. Give those in the audience the opportunity to have their pictures taken with something – or someone – special to mark the occasion.

3. Require people to visit your website in order to retrieve their free pictures.

4. Create a custom landing page on your website where you can tell your new visitors more about your product, service or cause. 

5. Make sure that everyone registers and provides you with some contact information in exchange for their free pictures.

6. Make it easy for constituents to share their pictures via social networking sites.

7. Finally, don’t hesitate to follow up with them, reminding them of the free pictures they received from you and doing everything you can to convert them to friends, fans and followers.

Having won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive times (1999-2005), Lance Edward Armstrong went a long way – literally – toward winning the world over for his athletic prowess once again when he finished third this year in the prestigious, 2,200-mile, 23-day bicycle race.

But Lance is not just one of the greatest athletes of all time. He is also a tireless, tenacious advocate for cancer sufferers and their families, having beaten the dread disease himself and founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), a nonprofit organization that goes above and beyond in helping the millions of people living with cancer today.

Chances are you know of the Lance Armstrong Foundation because of its ubiquitous yellow LIVESTRONG wristbands, which were sold for the first time over five years ago to raise funds for cancer research and awareness. 

I have written about the yellow wristbands several times before on this blog (here, here and here) and I have been wearing one of the more than 70 million of them that have been sold to date long before my wife, Barbara, was diagnosed with cervical cancer one year ago this week (August 7, 2008).  Barbara received swift and successful treatment for the disease and was eventually declared cancer-free (thank God) — but many aren’t so fortunate and that is why the Lance Armstrong Foundation wages such a fierce, unrelenting battle.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation’s fundraising tactics have always been as brilliant as its cause is noble. Its website alone is a marketing masterpiece, but the Foundation seems to leverage practically every other communications channel just as successfully, too — blog, newsletter, direct mail, email, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, you name it.  

On Twitter, for instance, you can follow Doug Ulman (President and CEO of the LAF), the LAF as a brand and even Lance himself, but it’s something else the Foundation did recently on Twitter recently that really captured my attention. The LAF made it possible for you to add the yellow LIVESTRONG wristband to your avatar.

“During the Tour de France, show your support for Lance Armstrong and the 28 million people living with cancer by adding a LIVESTRONG wristband overlay to your twitter avatar,” reads this page on the LIVESTRONG Action site.

“All you need to do is click here to add the LIVESTRONG Wristband overlay and your avatar will be updated.”

And to help the LAF spread the word virally on behalf of this fabulous idea, after you add the wristband to your avatar, a tweet is automatically posted to your account, stating…

“Support Lance’s return to Tour and #LIVESTRONG global cancer fight. Add wristband to your Twitter with 1 click – www.livestrongaction.org/avatar”

Yes, the LAF ingeniously found a way to successfully leverage something in the Twitterverse that was already a huge iconic symbol for its brand in the real world. Like the Boston Red Sox “nation” wearing red, a multitude of LAF fans, including yours truly, are now seen sporting yellow with each and every one of their tweets. 

How cool is that?

Frankly, as a new marketing consultant, I’m asked all the time by businesses and non-profit organizations how to use social media to reach and engage a loyal constituency. Included in my answer now is a strong recommendation to just look what the LAF has done with its yellow LIVESTRONG wristbands on Twitter. I can’t think of a better example to emulate – or a better cause to support, either.

Note: Even though this year’s Tour de France is history, you can still add a yellow LIVESTRONG wristband overlay to your Twitter avatar. I helped my wife, Barbara, add one last night and the tweet that was automatically posted to her account afterwards read, “Support Lance and #LIVESTRONG global cancer fight. Add wristband to your Twitter with 1 click – www.livestrongaction.org/avatar.” So…

…to add a yellow LIVESTRONG wristband overlay to your own Twitter avatar, click here.

And to donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, click here.

Bob Cargill is a copywriter, creative director and social media marketing consultant who helps brands (both commercial and non-profit) to strategize, develop and implement successful new marketing programs. He is available for hire on a part-time, temporary, freelance, project or contract basis. To contact Bob now, click here.

While I haven’t posted much here on A New Marketing Commentator lately, I have been active in the blogosphere via Internet Marketing Strategies and Secrets, a blog that is published and written by the team at Nowspeed. I’ve written a number of long posts there, most about social media, something I’ve been preaching and practicing and incorporating into my everyday marketing activities – where and when appropriate, of course – like there’s no tomorrow.

So as a way of kickstarting this long overdue re-launch of the blog that I reluctantly put on hiatus for so long, I thought I would share some of those posts with you here. If you have the time, reading through this retrospective of mine will give you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately and will, hopefully, help you start, or improve upon, your own social media program.

What will be apparent after reading all this is just how strongly I believe that social media presents a rare, unprecedented and transformational opportunity for all of us marketers to deepen the bonds we covet with our customers and constituents.

So instead of asking “why social media,” try asking yourself “why not.” Instead of fearing it, try using it to your advantage to form long-lasting, mutually-beneficial relationships with like-minded people who are grounded in a high degree of transparency, trust, loyalty and love toward one another. And if you’re having any difficulty understanding social media and its many business applications, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me — anytime. I’m always glad to help. Always…

The Cure for the Common Social Media Practitioner
Preview: What’s a social media practitioner to do in order to be heard loud and clear above the din of so much online activity, never mind responded to favorably? How do you as a marketer or a PR pro or perhaps even an intern who’s been hired to build a constituency of friends, fans and followers command attention and respect for the brand you represent?

To read “The Cure for the Common Social Media Practitioner” in its entirety, click here.

How to Weave Cause-Related Marketing and Fundraising Tactics into Your Social Media Program
Preview: There is a social media marketing strategy that appears to have caught on out there, one that can help marketers like you do well by doing good for others, one that Minneapolis-based Target Corporation leveraged recently by way of its “Bullseye Gives” campaign, in which the retailer asked its audience to go to its Facebook Fan Page and choose – from a list of 10 – the charities it should “give to the most.”

To read “How to Weave Cause-Related Marketing and Fundraising Tactics into Your Social Media Program” in its entirety, click here.

Five Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Use Social Media
Before you decide to dip your toes in social media, take a few minutes to answer these five important questions.  If you can answer yes to at least a few of them, then you’re in a pretty good place, a position from which you can at least begin to immerse yourself in such relatively uncharted waters as the blogosphere, the Twitterverse, Facebook and the like.   If not, then you need to move the needle in these areas and possibly talk to a third party specialist who can provide consultation, support and assistance.

To read “Five Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Use Social Media” in its entirety, click here.

The Ten Types of Tweets on Twitter
Preview: How many different ways are there for marketers like us to express ourselves to a mass of followers, fanatics and friends on Twitter? Well, for starters, here’s a list of the ten types of tweets that seem to prevail on Twitter, each of which you might work into the rotation during the course of your communications on this phenomenally popular social media platform.

To read “The Ten Types of Tweets on Twitter” in its entirety, click here.
 
10 Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Direct Marketing
Preview: Sure, blogging is all about being open, honest and yes, vulnerable.  Its most ardent devotees believe passionately in sharing generously with their audiences, engaging them frequently in particularly candid conversations in public forums where everyone has an equal voice. So it’s not necessarily the first place you’d turn if your priority is, say, e-commerce.  But the number of similarities between blogging and direct marketing tell me the two disciplines don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Not at all. For instance…

To read “10 Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Direct Marketing” in its entirety, click here.

15 Types of Posts to Make a Blog Easier to Write and More Interesting to Read
Preview: A post can be as short as just a sentence or two or as long as a full, feature-length, 500-word article.  It doesn’t have to be perfectly written, either, as the main attributes of a prototypical post are mainly that it’s somewhat conversational in tone, timely and, most important of all, engaging. Yes, there are many different types of blog posts.  I have listed 15 in this article, but the possibilities are almost endless.

To read “15 Types of Posts to Make a Blog Easier to Write and More Interesting to Read” in its entirety, click here.

Are You a Corporate All-Star?
Preview: Whether it’s delivering an outstanding presentation at an important trade show, winning over a client with an awesome display of creative firepower or simply going above and beyond on everything that’s asked of you, there are many obvious ways to score points with your boss. But now you can add blogging, tweeting and even spending company time on Facebook to that list.

To read “Are You a Corporate All-Star?” in its entirety, click here.

How to Use Twitter to Report “Live” from an Event
Preview: Tweeting about a “live” event in real time is not only fun, it gives you the opportunity to treat your constituents to valuable information and insight that they might not have gotten otherwise.  It is also of tremendous benefit to those who are putting on the gig, as you are in effect acting as a journalist, or even an evangelist, propagating their content, helping them get the word out to a larger audience.

To read “How to Use Twitter to Report ‘Live’ from an Event” in its entirety, click here.

The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channels
Preview: The reason my wife, Barbara, hesitated to take the plunge and sign up for Facebook for so long is pretty much the same one that others — especially business people and corporations — are taking so much time to dip their collective toes in the social media waters in general. Fear. That’s what I learned from my wife about Facebook and social media…and that’s what I would like to share with you here.  Most people hesitate to join the online conversation because of these six fears…

To read “The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channel” in its entirety, click here.
 
Target Uses Newspaper Ad and Social Media to Give Back to Communities
Preview: Since 1946, according to the retailer’s website, “Target has given 5% of our income to the communities we serve. That adds up to over $3 million each and every week.” Here’s how Target saluted the moms among us (in honor of Mother’s Day) and leveraged social media to give (something every brand, big or small, should be doing nowadays) by asking members of their audience to go to their Facebook Fan Page, where they could tell them “which of these ten charity partners we should give to the most.”

To read ”Target Uses Newspaper Ad and Social Media to Give Back to Communities” in its entirety, click here.
 
Old-School Marketing Principles in a New-Media World
Preview: Despite the popularity of social media, you can still succeed in marketing today the old-fashioned way.  Yes, there are still plenty of opportunities for purists, traditionalists and even the raw neophytes among us to leverage the timeless, tried-and-true principles of our trade. Take Cushman’s Fruit Company, for example.  Demonstrating the right way to harness a few proven, age-old direct response advertising strategies, Cushman’s was selling 24 of its legendary HoneyBells in a quintessential, full-page mail-order ad that appeared in the November 23 (2008) edition of PARADE Magazine.

To read “Old-School Marketing Principles in a New-Media World” in its entirety, click here.

Note: Bob Cargill is a copywriter, creative director and social media marketing consultant who works with Nowspeed and other clients, helping to strategize, develop and implement successful new marketing programs. He is available for hire (by both commercial and non-profit organizations) on a part-time, temporary, project or contract basis. To contact Bob now, click here.

“I’m lucky. You’re lucky. So how can we take some of our good luck and give it to kids fighting cancer?”

Okay. So I haven’t written anything here in a long, long time, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been away from the blogosphere. Far from it. In fact, I have written quite a few articles lately that have been posted on the blog, Internet Marketing Strategies and Secrets, which I invite you to read at your convenience.

But what brings me back to A New Marketing Commentator is my latest project, training to run the Boston Marathon (yes, again) as a member of the MassGeneral Marathon Team Fighting Kids’ Cancer…One Step at a Time. This will be my 12th marathon, my 9th Boston and the 6th time I have run this legendary race for charity.

In addition to direct mail, email, blog posts and word-of-mouth, this time around I am also using Twitter, Facebook and, yes, YouTube, to promote my cause and raise funds. To learn more about how you can help me fight kids’ cancer, please watch my video above, then go to my own personal fundraising page hosted by FirstGiving. Thanks so much for your time and support.