What is a subscription copywriter?

20 February 2009


www.watblog.com
What does a subscription copywriter do? How different from ordinary copywriting is subscription copywriting?

There are, broadly, two kinds of copywriters: business copywriters and marketing copywriters. A subscription copywriter must go a step further ..

What is a business copywriter?
A business copywriter will reduce text to avoid repetition or unnecessary deviations from the subject. In other words, his work is businesslike. An example of this is someone who writes product descriptions for a website or brochure. Most businesses employ an outside copywriter because they don’t have the time or ability to create compelling and creative text for their websites and brochures. They hire a copywriter to write it for them because, among other things, to make a mistake in a brochure can cost the company embarrassment and lots of money in recalled mailings. It’s far safer for a marketing department to outsource the work – and the responsibility – to a specialist advertising agency or freelance.

What is a direct marketing copywriter?
A marketing copywriter writes in sales language. His copy has one purpose: to elicit a response from the reader. He or she is judged on the response a promotion receives -the higher the percentage who respond, the more he can charge. There are some very rich and talented copywriters, famous in their fields, for example: David Ogilvy, Drayton Bird, Gary Halbert, William Bernbach, Leo Burnett and John Caples.

What is a subscription copywriter?
A subscription copywriter must go a step further. He or she is a direct marketing copywriter who specialises in bringing in customers via recurring payment such as Direct Debit, Continuous Credit Card or Standing Order. The difference between a subscription copywriter and any other kind of copywriter is that he is not simply writing to obtain a response – he is asking the reader to sign up for years ahead — for as long as possible.

Measuring the performance of the subscription copywriter
The subscriptions copywriter is judged on all the costs associated with readers signing up for a membership or subscription:

1. The initial response achieved, usually expressed as a percentage of readers who sign up

2. The profitability of the promotion – the mailing, fulfilment and other associated costs vs income from that mailing

3. How long the subscribers last – the average ‘lifetime value’

4. The return on investment –revenue vs cost of the promotion

It can be seen from this description that an effective subscription copywriter will keep the cost of designing and distributing the promotion as low as possible, to maximise the return on investment from the promotion. This is true whether the promotion is an email broadcast (low cost) or a mailing pack containing glossy brochure, letter and various other inserts (high cost). Keeping costs down is an important factor when comparing work produced by a subscription copywriter and an advertising agency. Advertising agency staff will usually want to drive design costs upwards because their work is judged mainly by its appearance, not solely on its performance.

The subscription copywriter will also be involved in creating renewal notices to improve the lifetime value of the subscriber list. The longer subscribers stay, the more revenue is received and the more the company can spend on recruiting them.

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