I know many will disagree, but the classic direct-response copywriting just doesn’t work for me. I don’t need a very explicit call to action if I like what I see/read. I will contact you if your story has won me over, not because you wrote “contact us!” and a few testimonials. And if something doesn’t work for me, I immediately have doubts it will work for other people. Does anyone really fall for the product or service because of the phrases like “top quality”, “satisfaction guaranteed” or “new formula”? It’s not a rhetorical question, I genuinely want to know. I have read hundreds of copywriting tips and tricks where to communicate to the target audience, I need to follow a certain pattern of writing. But what if my message doesn’t fit that pattern? What if that form makes it sound phoney and hollow? Is that a bad copywriting or is it a different kind of writing?

In my mind, if I’m writing about something, I research that something and then sharpen my metaphorical pencil to start writing about it to present it in its truest possible light. Only that way I can reach the genuine style for that certain something. I don’t research about HOW to write about something and then have the form which I have to fill with content. And I know there has been “content-first” and “content is the king” paroles in recent years but it seems to me that’s just form. Bad form. Because we still have to follow the Google’s instructions for indexing web pages if we want our sites to be relevant in their search. And let’s admit, we all want to be Google-relevant.

Coming to this part of the post, I thought maybe this post should be called formal complaint. It’s a decent play on words of my pro-content ramblings. But would it be true to the content of the post? Would a well-intentioned googled expect tips on how to write a formal complaint? Some SEO specialists would definitely advised me to call it something that would get a lot more hits than “whatchamacallit”. But why would I want to lure people to my content, people who are not interested in my content? I’d rather have 2 interested readers than 20 000 viewers looking for something else.