1. Timeless Principles Lifted From The World Of Persuasive Text For You To Use And Abuse Jack Oughton / Koukouvaya www.koukouvaya.co.uk 2. HELLO HUMANS 3. The aims of this talk are as following... To help you get greater exposure and make more of an income from your music... To give you a number of discrete ideas that'll work separately or together. Take what works for you and discard the rest To act as a straightforward introduction to the rather large and detailed world of copywriting and 'persuasion engineering' 4. Aims, continued... To help you apply some of the ideas used in these areas for the benefit your creative/music business To give you some insights from the other side of the fence drawn from my experience as a freelance writer who covers music from time to time To provide lots of silly, but relevant pictures YOU DO THIS WITH EVERY LINE YOU WRITE Uses powerful, timeless words (list will be provided at the end) Uses timeless structure (often comes modified from a swipefile) 35. Continued Headline formula = Number &/or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise ~ Jeff Goins E.g: 13 fantastic ways to overeat sweet potatoes and still feel great about yourself! 36. Bad Headline Basically doesnt do any of those things. Actually this one might be good -> 37. B) Use words powerfully and powerful words Walls of Text = 38. Continued Formatting = Paragraphs Bullets Underlining Italics VARIETY 39. Powerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr The power of words is in how they work upon human feelings Consider what feelings youre trying to tap into Fear? Urgency? Reassurance:? Exclusivity? (there are many more) #1 Powerrrrrr Word Of All Time= You 40. A lot of this is your discretion, theres no regulatory body for the efficacy of words (But there are many lists of particularly powerful available online Ill make one available if you want it) 41. DESTROY ALL WEASEL WORDS Weasel words are linguistic cowardice. Often used to lie and deceive with inference and stand on empty technicality At best theyre not specific enough and at worst theyre unethical Use them too much and you sound like a slimy advert or an uninformative/crap wikipedia article. Examples: Up to 50% off! (everything from 0-50% is up to 50%) People say that... (what people?) As everybody knows... (do they really?) 42. C) Use Narrative Structure & Rhetoric Humans love stories so tell stories Bridge paragraphs so that the copy flows. And, speaking of sweet potatoes... You can start sentences with questions that you answer Whats the band been upto for the last 3 weeks? Or with words/phrases such as so, Or you can use single line paragraphs for emphasis The point is to make it read like youre talking to somebody and mixing it up a bit Also stay away from abstraction, it kills empathy most of the time. 43. BIG IDEA: USE LESS WORDS (good) Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination. ~ Louise Brooks 44. IDEA 3: Media Empathy: Communicating with journalists, tastemakers, etc. Some insights from personal experience of what it's like to be a music blogger/writer and work with musicians and musical PRs. AKA What musicians and music PRs often do well and badly review my album no 45. What music media wants to get: Churnalism: Sad, but if you have a story that already wrote itself = happy lazy time starved writers [see our point later on press releases] Rights cleared images: So they know they can use them A story thats actually not boring AKA THE HOOK: Oh, you released a new album why should I care? Whats the hook? always ask yourself that Viral/ LCD stuff: funny, sexy, useful (FHM holy triad) + anything with cats or celebrities or boobs etc. 46. Relevant Pitches: Either through knowing who thinks what youre doing is news or getting the right media list (Gorkana, Sourcewire, Entertainment4Media, PRWeb etc) Exclusivity: Kinda hard but some people use it. Friendly relationships some of the most successful PRs I know I'd count as nice people with interesting things to tell me, not people pushing products and releases. 47. Help A Reporter Out! A story that was pitched uniquely to me and mentions why I was chosen (yeah its time consuming but flattery gets you (almost) everywhere. It also appears relevant) Asking me what Im working on and then seeing if/how you can help. People who want to help me: People who just want to pitch me 48. Twitter Yes Funny, novel Engaging: it started a conversation! 49. What music media doesnt want to get AKA writers are grumpy and how not to make them any grumpier Dont simply tweet at people with links to your songs, this just makes them irritated and likely to pay no attention to anything else Dont email people press releases without some form of contact introducing them to who you are and explaining why your content is relevant to them If youve done it already thats OK but at least establish a relationship before you send more messages though 50. Continues Dont email them so obviously from a mailmerge (e.g. my name is not Journalist Oughton :/ ) people are people, not lists One too many times of this and the journo might click spam on your emails. Once that happens you are effectively blacklisted and your emails will probably not be read again Also dont be a dick on the social media. 51. Twitter No I wont RT this and you cant make me! I still dont know who this person is 52. PR In A Tiny Nutshell: Writing A Press Release Thats Not Crap Press releases are fantastic if... i. Written compellingly (designed for reader convenience not the Pulitzer Prize) ii. The reason for contact is clear and the content appeals to the journo and his/her readership iii. Sent to the right people (get the right lists and spam indiscriminately at your peril) (Often theyre none o these) (theres gonna be a link to a press release template at the end) 53. The Inverted Pyramid Via http://provercoffee.wordpress.com 54. Im going to shut up soon, promise / The Summary: Music and words are both forms of communication that build empathy with your audience/listener/allies. Empathic bridges are good and allow people to feel the emotions theyre chasing... Every product/service can be reduced to a means to enable good feelings... Some songs excite you Some songs relax you etc. 55. Summary continued Good copywriting allows you to better understand your musical/commercial offering, who wants it and how to package it so that they best get it It helps you build empathy Test and refine your communications/marketing as much as possible for as long as possible. Find out whos listening and speak directly to them 56. (and that is serious business) 57. Ideas for next steps Take no longer than 10 minutes to try the 5 word self description test (when youre in a good frame of mind) [link to it with example will be at the end of the presentation] Take a look over your biog and written marketing materials now knowing what you know (provided you got something from the talk!) Check out some recommended resources which I'll include at the end and consider how to use them. Ask me stuff whilst Im here, if you want Tweet/email me your questions/ideas later, if you want. 58. Happy to provide more help if I can: tweet your love, hate, questions and suggestions at @koukouvaya: And tell me: What do/did you want to hear more & less of? Feedback helps me improve! 59. Email Jack for links to the following: Press release template Swipefile: proven headlines etc. Powerful word list & Structuring messages checklist SEO Writing Checklist [for humans AND robots!] Shortlist: Where to find music writers, journos and bloggers Recommended further reading [copywriting, marketing, attention economy, etc] 60. Now start: Do something, anything - but remember to keep it simple! Byebye humans I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1foot bars that I can step over. ~ Warren Buffet 61. PS: How To (probably) Tell When A Copywriter Is Lying This is a bit of fun but you might find it very useful in dealing with the world of ads Adding a question to a statement, no matter how impossible, is seen as an excuse to lie or get away with stupid hyperbole i.e Get Ripped in 2 Weeks? (probably not) 62. PPS: How to help determine your brand and positioning with a few questions: The cool thing about not being signed to a major label is that you should have nobody telling you what kind of musician you're 'supposed' to be. Thus you get to find out for yourself... 63. Copywriting Exercise: Self Description AKA What are you trying to say with your music? AKA Its almost like journaling! Find the 5 core phrases that you associate with WHAT you are WHO you target HOW you do what you do WHY you do what you do [Theres a link to my filled out example available if you want it] 64. Continued... Sometimes this helps you see what youre doing. Other times it doesnt. Sometimes it helps you sharpen your writing and sometimes it simply creates bollocks. But its worth the time every now and then. How you use it depends on the kind of self description you uncover. Ideally you want to have an aha moment that helps you see where youre going, creatively or that helps you create a wicked biog/your next concept album... 65. Continued... The exercise can help you find a little direction in your self definition. But its likely that youll keep changing, so this exercise is just a rough indicator of where you are artistically right now, not some sort of destiny solidifying document Unless you want it to be? woof