I just read that the US government is deploying the military to fight fake news.
The plan is to spend billions of dollars to create high-tech, military-grade, “Hot or Not” artificial intelligence that can detect fake news automatically.
Good luck to ’em.
Though personally, I’m all for fake news.
After all, that’s kind of how I make my living.
Over the past 9 months, the bulk of my income has been from writing “advertorials” that are shown to Facebook users.
And while I’m not helping get Trump elected (yet), I am writing propaganda that’s pretending to be more or less innocent blog posts.
The similarity between this and “Russian meddling” was so obvious to me that I even considered naming my upcoming book on advertorials, “Fake News Bonanza.”
Anyways, while we are on the topic of advertorials, I want to bring up an ancient proverb.
It’s been attributed to Biblical-era marketers such as John Wannamaker and William Wrigley. It goes something like this:
“I know that half of my advertising is wasted but I do not know which half.”
Luckily, this isn’t just a problem for advertisers who pony up the money to run ads.
It’s also a problem for copywriters, who depend on the success of their copy either 1) to get more work or 2) to get paid.
I found myself in this situation just recently while writing an advertorial for a protein + caffeine shake.
Who’s really buying this thing? And why?
I don’t know. At best, I could write up two versions of the advertorial, one for each of my best guesses on the target market.
So that’s what I did.
The good news is, I can do a little bit better than Messrs. Wrigley and Wannamaker.
Because as a copywriter, you don’t actually have to watch half of your copy go to waste.
It’s enough to simply come up with a new headline (“My new go-to keto breakfast!”)…
A new lead (“Oh no, I’m so late again”)…
And then to watch which of the alternate approaches will prove best.
If you are a copywriter, I hope this little tip helps you double the odds of success, while only costing you 5% more effort.
And if you’re an advertiser — or a copywriter — you might find the following interesting. It’s a sign-up list to get notified when I launch that book on advertorials, which will have much more specific advice about how to make advertorials successful: