Copywriting For Magazines

Magazine copywriting is a different kettle of fish to online copywriting. Online copy should be keyword focused in order to encourage search engines to favour the site in its listings. With magazine writing, this is not essential.

When looking to the services of a copywriter for your magazine, it is very important that the writer understands your target audience. They should get a good feel for the language of the magazine by going over back copies and really getting to grips with what the magazine is all about; the subject matter, the way in which copy is written, the desires of the editor and what readers seem to favour.

Many people think that magazines are all the same in the way they are written. It would be so easy for us copywriters if that was the case! However, pick up an interior design magazine. If it’s a high end magazine aimed at readers who have a high disposbale income, the language will be more ‘flowery’. It will describe in delicate detail what you are seeing but it will also detail where pictured items can be purchased and usually at what price. Pictures speak a thousand words so the saying goes but it still needs to be backed up with some well chosen prose so the reader not only gets the visual experience but also can get a minds eye view of this particular interior or product in their homes, in their lives – they need to feel it, touch it, smell it almost. This product or interior will then be theirs and they are sold. This is the power of magazine copywriting.

Now take a look at, say, a hobby magazine. This magazine may be aimed at men, often of a medium age, wanting information on a specific subject. The flowery, descriptive language of an interior design magazine would not be welcomed here and copy needs to be sharp and to the point.

There is a time and a place for clever copy – choose wrongly and your magazine could flop within the first few copies. Get the language right and you could well have a success on your hands.

There are myriad of magazines on the market covering every conceivable subject from celebrity news to fashion, interior design, building, caravans, holidays, hobbies, babies, writing – any subject. Magazines will contain a mixture of sales copy that needs to be correctly written for the audience – they may need to be punchy and attention grabbing or suggestive in how that particular product or service could change your life. The magazine will contain articles about the specified subject that need to be informative but also to hold the readers attention right to the very end – speaking of which, an article which drones and just fills space will be a waste of time. Magazine copy needs to reach out to the reader, hold their attention and remain upbeat throughout. Readers are often looking for something new and exciting and this can be portrayed in powerful copywriting.

From a personal experience, I spent several years working with a car accessory magazine. Not that interesting from a girls point of view but with a subscription base that ran into tens of thousands of readers the world over, there was clearly a market for it and this is what was successfully aimed at.

I also gained some experience with a high end interior designer magazine writing articles about featured spa hotels, featured restaurant interiors, private homes with a designer edge and up and coming new ideas for interior design from a purely aesthetic viewpoint as well as a seperate section on eco-friendly interior ideas. This magazine was aimed at the young to middle aged market, mainly women as it has been proved they do most of the shopping in a household (funnily enough) and with a generous disposbale income. Copy for this magazine was aimed at getting the reader to believe they could, and wanted to, have all this – fewer words but carefully chosen.

Whichever type of magazine you are involved with, magazine copywriting services are a niche market and an essentially powerful tool in keeping readers buying the magazine month after month. Parker Copywriting Services offer magazine copywriting on a freelance basis.