By Richard Croxford, Senior Copywriter, UK.

On my desk, I have a copy of a memo from David Ogilvy.

It’s pinned next to my computer monitor, on the right-hand side, and I try to read it at least once per day.

I don’t work at the modern Ogilvy & Mather but I’m a big fan of the man who would later be known as “The Father of Advertising” and the premise of the infamous Don Draper, from Mad Men.

He was a founder of modern marketing and I highly recommend his book “On Advertising” to any young copywriter just starting out.

Here’s what the memo from Ogilvy says:

How to write

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David Ogilvy

I highly suggest you print this out, pin it to your desk at work, staple it to your forehead – I don’t care, just read it often!

A good start, but…

Ogilvy’s memo is a great place to start when you’ve just taken your first copywriting job.

Certainly, I also recommend the Roman-Raphaelson book (which is called “Writing that Works” by the way) which will teach you everything from email writing to general advice for copywriters.

But I feel that Ogilvy misses one key point – perhaps because it was fundamentally a part of the culture of the business that he founded already.

I think I’d include three key points at the end of the memo:

• Work hard.
• Practice.
• Study the craft.

Fundamentally, I believe this is where some of my career wins have come from (like being promoted to Senior Copywriter at the agency I work at).

It’s partly why I started this blog too.

Work hard

If you’re a copywriter and you want to move up, you need to work hard.

You need to put in the extra hour or two per day and, occasionally, stay past 5pm to get the project done.

If you’ve got to drink extra coffee to keep the cogs working after a night on the piss, maybe that’s a worthy sacrifice.

And I’m not suggesting you stay up until 3am every morning either – but, if your hours start at 9am and end at 5pm, could you come in at 8:30am and leave at 5:30?

Could you put in the little extra every day that other people don’t?

You’ll find very few people moving up in the world of marketing that don’t “play to win,” that don’t put in the little bit extra.

In this, I’d also include putting yourself forward for the next challenge, and the next, and the next.

If the boss asks you to handle something that’s slightly out of your comfort zone, why not say “yes?”

Take on that little bit of extra work and see where it gets you.

Practice

Practicing is a no-brainer if you want to get ahead.

It’s why I started this blog.

Think about it: If I write three articles more per week than you do, I’ll have written over 150 more than you in a year.

Three per week might not sound a lot, but I promise that 150 is going to make a big difference.

Practice makes perfect and although I still make mistakes in my writing or occasionally don’t get the best result in my copy, I’ve seen a genuine improvement in a relatively short amount of time.

Oh, and you better stop relying on ChatGPT if you want to be a good copywriter.

We all use it – we’d be fools not to – but technology comes and goes and ChatGPT could, in theory, disappear tomorrow.

I don’t rely on it to write these Absurd Insights blogs for example. This is my practice time and the less I use it the better.

Skills and talent, on the other hand, are a lot harder to extinguish regardless of technology.

Learn to write well without it and you’ll never be a slave to its existence.

Study the craft

To study the copywriting craft properly, I simply recommend the following:

• Listen to Rory Sutherland in every podcast he appears on.
• Read Writing that works by Roman and Raphaelson.
• Read On Advertising by David Ogilvy.
• Read The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton.
• Subscribe to Absurd Insights.

I speak from experience here – this is what I did to study the craft.

Every copywriter will have their own way and I’m sure many would disagree with my methods, but this is my advice.

Much like the rest of the article is from my perspective – don’t forget that!

Your path might be different, it might take you down different avenues and pursuits that I haven’t even begun to explore.

I certainly don’t claim to be the next Don Draper (I wish I was) but maybe you could be!

It’s an exciting time to be a copywriter.

I do hope you enjoy it.

The easiest way to become a better copywriter is to subscribe to Absurd Insights and best of all, it’s FREE!