I‘m an early millennial. Born in ’82, right on the outer limit. So I’m not the embarrassing kind. I’m not a soylennial. When soylennials write copy, this is what they come up with:
“Don’t be evil.”
Then they realize, huh… that’s dumb, and change it to:
“Do the right thing.”
A vague platitude everyone can agree on while effectively removing all accountability because it’s so ambiguous and open to interpretation. In trying to speak to everyone, they speak to no one.
I once saw on a copywriter’s website…
“Direct marketers care about results; we care about impact.”
What the falafel does that even mean? 2 things wrong with this.
Thing #1
The business owner now has no objective measure of the effectiveness of his/her copy. Conversions low compared to industry benchmarks? Fugedaboudit; we care about impact, not results. Plus, you don’t want to be too salesy, now, do you? People who want to sell are the bad people; they’re icky. And WE don’t want to be them.
Thing #2
A scarcity mentality about making money. These copywriters think of money as a zero-sum game. That is, if you give me dollar, you have lost a dollar and I haven’t given you something of equal or greater value in exchange. And you’ll never get that dollar back.
This is a peepeepoopoo mentality. Do not hire copywriters who think this way. Pay yourself what you would have spent on the copywriter and write the damn thing yourself. You’ll do a better job of it.
3 Money Mindsets
- People pay me for the value I create
- The more money I make, the more value I can create
- The amount of money I make is an indicator I’m doing the right thing
Notice the money mindsets are contingent on creating value. It assumes your integrity in selling people what they need, and what can help them. Don’t go in faking the funk. If you do, the money mindsets are no longer valid and you’re actually harming rather than helping.
Have you worked with a soylennial copywriter before? Let me know in the comments.