What’s the point of your copy? That brochure you have or that web site you just put up? Lots of “big time” marketing and advertising agencies will throw buzzwords like “brand awareness” at you, but they’re full of garbage. You spend money on this stuff. Why? To make money. The point of your copy is to drive sales. Therefore, copy that is just there for “brand awareness”, i.e., informative copy, is absolutely worthless for your business.

Example: what if I sent you a letter that says the following:

My name is Tom Meitner and I am a freelance copywriter who writes the following things: sales letters, brochures, Web copy, etc. I also know some designers.

Are you itching to pick up the phone? No. Now, imagine you received a letter that said this:

As a freelance copywriter, I save you money and time by getting your copy done with a fast turnaround time at a fraction of the price of a full marketing agency. My work recently doubles the response rate of the follow-up copy that a Hawaiian entertainment business was using, and I even have a strong network of designers that ensure a “turnkey” process for your next project – turn it over to us and we will bring you back fast results with high quality!

That’s certainly not the be-all, end-all to copy. As a matter of fact, I just came up with it on the spot here. I’d probably review it a few times. But, the second one is persuasive copy, and that’s what you want to shoot for. Informative copy is about you, and persuasive copy is about the client. Informative copy tells them what you do, persuasive copy tells them what they get. No prospect wants to read about you. Ever. They want to know why it matters to them.

So persuade them.