5 Most Influential Copywriters That Inspire Us
Effective copywriting is the cornerstone of successful marketing, and at Empowered English, we take pride in our ability to craft compelling and persuasive messages for our clients.
In today’s digital age, where content is king, copywriting has become critical to any successful marketing campaign.
Copywriting is about capturing the reader’s attention, establishing a connection, and persuading them to take action. It’s a skill that requires creativity, research, and a deep understanding of the target audience. And, as with any craft, it must be honed and developed over time.
In this blog post, we will discuss five of the most influential copywriters of the past and present. We draw inspiration from these individuals and their contributions to the industry, and we hope to encourage our readers to continue learning and growing as copywriters themselves.
So, whether you’re an aspiring copywriter or a seasoned professional, join us as we explore the lives and work of some of the most impactful figures in the world of copywriting.
Let’s get started!
Eugene Schwartz
David Ogilvy
David Mackenzie Ogilvy, CBE, was born in June 1911. He was a prominent British advertising executive who founded the highly respected advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather.
Often referred to as the “Father of Advertising,” Ogilvy credited his campaigns’ success to his detailed research into consumer behaviour, which he learned while training at the Gallup research organisation.
He pioneered creating persuasive advertising campaigns that resonated with consumers, earning him a reputation as one of the greatest copywriters ever.
His techniques remain highly sought-after by modern-day advertisers looking to engage their target audiences and generate effective results.
Ogilvy’s success was primarily due to his relentless attention to detail, from researching consumer insights to crafting compelling messages that drove action. He was also adept at using storytelling tactics, such as weaving personal anecdotes into his work that made it more engaging and personable for audiences.
David Ogilvy also had an impressive eye for visuals, which he used strategically combined with text to create powerful campaigns that achieved the desired results for clients.
David Ogilvy, like Schwartz, revolutionised the copywriting and advertising landscape.
From his books Ogilvy On Advertising and Confessions of an Advertising Man to notes and memos he left for his colleagues, David Ogilvy has provided the copywriting landscape with a wealth of knowledge and memorable quotes.
While it would be impossible to think of just one way Ogilvy has influenced our work at Empowered English, it was his ethos around attention-grabbing headlines that we think about most often.
Ogilvy stated that “The headlines which work best are those which promise the reader a benefit. On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” So you had better write a headline that draws your audience in and lets them know why they should read on.
Our personal favourite is the headline Ogilvy wrote for Rolls Royce: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in the New Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”
Now if that headline doesn’t scream luxury motor vehicle, we don’t know what does!
Laurence Blume
Laurence Blume is a well-known copywriter with an impressive career spanning decades.
His work has been praised by his peers and clients for its impactful messages and creative approach.
Blume’s success is attributed to his innovative writing style, which seeks to capture readers’ attention with humour and emotion-laden stories that speak directly to their needs.
Blume began his own business in 2001 after discovering a gap in the UK market that he could fill with his bespoke online marketing-focused copywriting service.
He soon found himself in high demand from some of the biggest brands in the world, including Allianz, Siemens, Thompson Reuters, Harrods Bank, Unilever and Informa– all of whom sought out Blume’s services for their campaigns.
How Laurence Blume Inspires Us
With an impressive portfolio of top clients and a wealth of experience in the copywriting sector, Laurence Blume has cemented himself as one of the leading copywriters in the UK.
It is Blume’s landing page strategy that inspires us the most. Blume believes (and we agree) that landing pages are an entirely different challenge than the copy for the rest of your website.
His experience crafting sales letters informed his approach to landing pages, and Blume is an advocate for continuously testing his work until he finds the most successful strategy for a particular landing page.
Blume states, “even if my first attempt (at creating a landing page) were to convert 20% of all your traffic, it’s still possible that we’d find on testing that some small adjustments raised this to 25%.”
This continuous testing and improvement inspires our work at Empowered English.
Brian Clark
Copywriting is essential for those who want to make it big in the digital world.
Brian Clark, the founder of Rainmaker Digital and Copyblogger Media, is an excellent example of how far copywriting skills can take you.
Brian Clark has been at the forefront of copywriting since 2003, when he started Copyblogger as an experiment in creating content and building a powerful online platform.
Over the years, his skills have helped him build a successful career and gain influence in the industry.
He has written multiple books on copywriting, including The Copywriter’s Handbook, which has become a must-read for aspiring copywriters. His blog posts often feature tips and tricks for anyone looking to hone their craft.
How Brian Clark Inspires Us
Joanna Weibe
Joanna Wiebe is a pioneer of modern-day copywriting.
She is an acclaimed writer and founder of Copy Hackers, a resource for content marketing, conversion optimisation and copywriting courses.
Her work has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company and Wired.
Wiebe’s innovative writing style has made her one of the most influential copywriters in the industry today. Her approach to creating persuasive copy has allowed her to consult with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Amazon, Dropbox, Adobe and Shopify.
Through her consultancy, Copy Hackers, she provides professional advice on crafting compelling messages that resonate with customers.
Her expertise also extends to user experience design, focusing on how people interact with digital products, from websites to apps.
Joanna Weibe is the original conversion copywriter. Her expertise in moving readers to take action is genuinely inspirational.
Conversion copywriting is all about moving the reader of your copy to take action. Conversion copywriting is writing copy that convinces someone to accept your offer.
According to Joanna Wiebe, the trick to successful conversion copywriting is all about getting inside people’s heads.
She believes the difference between writing persuasive copy and copy that is only “okay” is how much you focus on your audience.
At Empowered English, we think about the audience the entire time we’re writing copy. We don’t just think about the best words to describe a product or service. We think about the words that our audience uses.
Honourable Mention: Alex Cattoni
Writing a blog about influential and inspiring people in the copywriting world without giving a special mention to Alex Cattoni of Copy Posse would be a massive oversight.
In 2012, Alex started her freelance copywriting business, and in 2019 she expanded her one-woman agency into a small but mighty group of female copywriters and created the global community The Copy Posse.
Her goal was to redefine what it means to be a copywriter today and share her techniques and strategies to build a heart-centred 7-figure business from the ground up.
Alex’s ethos is to create meaningful and heart-centred copy that utilises tried and tested direct-response marketing principles with modern brand storytelling inspires us to do the same.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the five most influential copywriters have provided immense guidance and inspiration to the copywriters at Empowered English.
They have shown us the importance of understanding our target market, creating attention-grabbing headlines, and crafting persuasive copy that resonates with readers.
We are thankful for their wisdom and guidance and look forward to continuing to create meaningful content in line with their teachings.
Whether we are thinking about David Ogilvy’s advice on the importance of research and testing or Joanna Weibe’s expertise in creating persuasive copy, these are just some of the invaluable contributions to the world of copywriting we can draw upon each day.
As we strive to become better writers, we must remember the lessons learned from these highly successful copywriters.
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