Like 9,099 other happy souls, I’ve gamely taken on Darren’s 31-day Better Blog Challenge. I suspect he’s easing us into things, baby steps, but – just like at a pub quiz – I’ll take the easy points where I find them

“Your blog’s elevator pitch?” He asked yesterday, day 1.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have bothered. Yet I’ve got such a smacking “I-told-you-so” story, pinned to the importance of having a speech down bloody pat.

A friend of mine is a little marketing ace – built for a high-flying corporate life. We met early in our careers, both fresh out of university. We had a hard-working streak in common and easily carved up our work between us. I took the words and she made them look pretty and brand appropriate. She was all over her textbook maxims:

“Always, always be ready with your elevator pitch. You just never know when your big break will come.”

She was obsessed. She was driven – and it was hilarious. “What’s your elevator pitch, Miss Copywriter,” she’d tease, knowing full well I thought it was a load of crap. A string of words learned by rote would sound forced and unnatural, rendering them useless.

Here’s the inevitable “I-told-you-so”. Away together on a business trip, she happened across a man she knew to be the VP Marketing of a major (major!) corporation. (I can only assume she’d memorised their pictures, as teenage girls do pop stars). It wasn’t an elevator, but she had mere seconds to nail her now-or-never, do-or-die opportunity. 

That rabbit’s foot of an elevator pitch, memorised inside and out, allowed her to start speaking before she could back out. It meant she looked poised and articulate, able to hide the shaking knees trying to betray her. 

Despite the huge opportunity and its tiny timeframe, she knew exactly what to say and ask and delivered it with utter finesse. 10/10. The man was so impressed with her confidence, he became her mentor. He was more than happy to help a young person with the balls to approach him – in person – and start talking. Guess how far she’s gone since then? Leaps, bounds and miles beyond.

It was with this in mind that I sat down for a good long while and stared at a blank notebook. Turns out, if good old Darren had asked me outright “what’s your blog about,” my response would have started with “uhh…”, before probably shouting “copywriting! It’s about copywriting!”. No takers for that boring slog, right?

Yet what if I promised to explain why copywriting matters. Of the difference it can make to any sized business, whether done well or beyond horribly. How good content shows whether a company cares (and if no content might suggest it doesn’t). Why the answer to standing shoulders above the competition might be found in words. A back-to-basics approach saluting integrity, damning jargon and suffering conniptions at apostrophe crimes. Like anything worthwhile, it’s about sharing the love. Why? Because I’m a copywriter – I sell benefits, not features.

Tags: blog, web development