How Laryngitis Makes You a Better Copywriter by Holland Webb

I didn’t speak until I was three years old. To everyone’s relief, I finally talked and did so in full sentences but only to my mother.

Months passed before I spoke to my grandmother for the first time. I said … well, I see no need to repeat the conversation word-for-word. Let’s just say it ended with my grandmother saying, “Any little boy that can talk like that can talk. Now, you talk to me!”

Other than a short bout with laryngitis when I was 11, I haven’t lost my voice since.

Having a distinctive voice is a good thing for a writer, though, right?

Not always. In some of the most lucrative forms of writing, your own well-developed voice will trip you up. During a 2014 interview, Michelle Medlock Adams said, “I worked hard at finding my voice, and then once I found it, I was hired as a ghostwriter and had to lose my voice and find someone else’s.”

If you want to be a copywriter, you’ll lose your voice, too.

Voice, in the writing sense, refers to an author’s individualized style. It includes a writer’s unique use of punctuation, syntax, diction, and word choice to create a piece that sounds like no one else. For fiction writers, voice is a critical component of authorship. It’s how you can tell the difference between a work by Leo Tolstoy and one by Dame Barbara Cartland. Voice distinguishes an author.

As copywriters, however, we don’t showcase our own voices. Instead, we imitate the voice of the brand we write for.

In practice, that means copywriters use the vocabulary, idioms, and sentence structure that best reflect that brand’s image in the public’s mind. Does the brand want to seem top-shelf or approachable, edgy or family-friendly, chatty or formal? Your style needs to match that.

Vocabulary

A company may give you a list of vocabulary words in their style guide and ask you to use them or avoid them. I wrote for one hotel that didn’t allow the word “cozy” because it sounded too rural. A higher education marketing agency didn’t permit me to say “wages” because “salary” was more elegant. And a pet retailer banned the word “owner” because it perpetuates the stereotype of cats as property.

With small companies, you may have to make your own lists. When starting a project for an online home fashions retailer, I spent two hours creating a word bank by combing competitors’ websites for word-choice ideas.

I suggested the phrase, “inspiring good looks” for a brochure on cedar shingles. The marketing folks asked me change it to “inspiring breathtaking beauty.” It matched their audience’s expectations more exactly.

That’s what we’re talking about.

Idioms

What about idioms? One current client, a major international brand, insists I avoid all idiomatic phrases. The rest of my clients are mid-size companies, and they like me to slide some conversational bits into my prose.

A few words of caution on idioms:

First, be sure you’re using an idiom not a cliche. “Buy our brand-new product or be left by the side of the road” may be clever if you’re selling auto parts. For most written pieces, however, “left by the side of the road” or “left by the wayside” is more cliche than idiom. That’s one example. You can determine when you’ve crossed the line yourself.

Second, don’t get overly folksy. Unless you’re writing for a brand modeled on the old TV show Hee-Haw, being too down-home can sound offensive. I’m a Southerner, and I can tell when you’re a Yankee trying to imitate us. Half my family is black. I can tell when a writer isn’t black but is trying to sound like it. Just don’t do that.

Finally, idioms are like jalapeños. A few will add spice. Too many will send your readers sprinting to the bathroom.

Sentence Structure

As with any kind of writing, the best copywriting includes sentences that are long and ones that are short. Punchy sentences. Explanatory sentences. Informational sentences. Questions. Directives. And interjections. Your writing should still ebb and flow with varied sentence lengths. That said, make sure your sentence style reflects your brand.

Here is sample feedback I’ve received from brand content managers about sentences:

• Don’t use rhetorical questions. That’s not the image we’re going for.
• Try to stick to a tone that’s more informational while still establishing a relationship with the reader.
• Watch your use of the passive voice.
• Change the structure of your sentences so you aren’t opening two in the same paragraph with a dependent clause.

Finding your voice is an important part of becoming an author. Losing it is equally vital if you intend to write content for corporate or non-profit clients. Try writing a piece and then rewriting it in the same voice as your favorite author or company. See how it compares to your original.

A bout with writer’s laryngitis might be just thing you need to polish your work. And soon, you’ll have editors and marketing directors saying, “Any writer that can write like that can write. Now you write for me!”

Holland Webb is a full-time freelance copywriter and digital marketing strategist living near Greenville, SC. His clients are leaders in the online retail, higher education, and faith-based sectors. Holland has written for brands such as U.S. News & World Report, iLendX, Radisson, Country Inn & Suites, MediaFusion, Modkat, Great Bay Home, IMPACT Water, and BioNetwork. He is a featured writer on Compose.ly, and his monthly copywriting column appears on Almost An Author. You can reach him at www.hollandwebb.com or at hollandlylewebb@gmail.com.