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Freelance Copywriter Secrets: How A "Method Actor's" Techniques Can Improve Your Copywriting
I recently read an article about the famous actor, Forest Whitaker that gave me a great idea about how a freelance copywriter can write more persuasive copy.
Whitaker is known for the great lengths he goes through to prepare for a part in his movies. He uses an approach called "method acting," which means he so totally immerses himself into a role that he "becomes" the character he is playing.
For example, when he was preparing to play the role of the notorious dictator, Idi Amin, in his new movie, The Last King of Scotland, he learned to speak Swahili, visited the village of Amin's birth, traveled all over Uganda to get an understanding of the country, and interviewed the dictator's brother, sister, surviving members of his cabinet and generals who served under him.
And when they were filming, Whitaker remained in character even when the cameras stopped rolling.
What does all this have to do with the freelance copywriter? Just this: we have all heard how important it is to understand the customer before we write ads, web content or direct mail pieces intended to sell to that customer.
But do any of us put even 1/100th of the work into understanding our target customer as Forest Whitaker puts into understanding his character? And yet we all know that understanding is the key element to persuasion.
The Roman orator, Cicero, gives great advice to any freelance copywriter whose job it is to sell a product or service. "If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings and speak my words." This is advice that is just as important for us today as it was for him 2000 years ago.
Do we have to learn a new language or travel all over a distant country as Forest Whitaker did for his role of an African dictator? Hardly, but we have to stop giving lip service to understanding the customer.
We have many tools available online that we can use to get inside our target customers' heads. Here are a few you might try:
* If there are specific books on the topics your target customers read, go to Amazon.com and read the customer feedback comments people have posted.
* Do a search on technorati for blogs devoted to these customers. Read both the blogs themselves and the comments people post to the blog's articles.
* Search for online forums devoted to your target customers and their topics of interest at www.boardtracker.com/. You don't have to participate in the online discussions, just "lurk" and read what other people have to say.
* If you already have a blog devoted to these customers and their topics of interest (good for you) encourage comments to your posts. Do this by asking for comments and by responding to them once people do comment. Nothing dries up comments on a blog faster than ignoring what people say.
Of course we can still actually talk to people in person. Conduct telephone surveys, focus groups and other means to put yourself in contact with living, breathing human beings.
The point is that if we wish to persuade, we must first stop fooling ourselves that we already know our customers (I know, I have been guilty of this too). We have to make the extra effort to really get inside their heads.
Use Forest Whitaker as your role model - but not Idi Amin.
COPYRIGHT(C)2007, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.
Charles Brown is a Dallas, Texas based freelance copywriter who writes web copy, advertisements, white papers and direct mail. Read his "Freelance Copywriter Secrets" at dynamiccopywriting.blogspot.com or contact him at 817.715.3852 or **charbrow@gmail.com**.
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