You’ve seen them. You’ve SEARCHED for them!
- 10 Great Copywriting Ideas that Sell
- 14 Qualities of Excellent Advertising
- How To Create a Website in 6 Super Easy steps
Even I have a few of these articles. They are great for my SEO.
But you can’t create advertising that works with a formula. Any more than you can write a novel from a listicle of “What makes a good novel.”
You need that BIG IDEA!
When you’re selling a fire extinguisher, you open with a roaring fire.
NOT “A fire extinguisher is vital for #homesafety. 😃” (AI’s suggestion)
What makes advertising boring?
Risk Aversion
The first thing the web development company does, is look at what your competitor is doing. So the client gets a mashup of what the others in the industry are doing.
Data-driven approach
Web development companies are over-reliant on data. Data shows what has worked in the past, and corporate accountants are in their comfort zone with this approach. So the client gets more of what they did before.
Lack of marketing instinct
Most web developers are tech engineers. They focus on their “agile methodology”, a checklist of activities, and tracking chargeable hours. Their focus is to create an amazing, user-friendly working shell with banner, navigation and a footer, and then hand it over to the client. The client is expected to provide THE BIG IDEA in terms of marketing strategy. The client hands over final copy, and has a Google drive of pro photos of products, people and premises. The web developer enters the content. (See next)
Targeting the Masses
Web developers use generic tropes – green trees, happy families, loving couples, a pretty service “girl on the phone”. Oh, and the SUV driving up the mountain. Originally the web developer planned to swap out these when THE BIG IDEA happened. When the client didn’t complain, the website got published with them.
Budget Constraints
A limited budget CAN lead to creativity, but mostly it leads to default free templates offered by Canva, Elementor and Figma. It looks amazing – just like everyone else.
The BIG IDEA🎇 is what makes a website that works!
I started my career in advertising. Each creative team is made up of:
Art Director: good with drawing pictures 🎨
Copywriter: good with writing words 🖋
Creative Director: idea generator 🎇
You don’t start “designing” until someone generates THE BIG IDEA 🎇 .
- The big idea SELLS
- The big idea makes people FEEL
- The big idea makes people WANT
I put “web design” and “web development” and “technical writing” in my SEO because I’m trying to say …
“If you come to me, you end up with an actual website, not a mood board and competitive analysis report”.
The unspoken part of my job, is to create a first impression, that makes the right prospect stop, backtrack and take a second look.
