It’s a beautiful, sunny day … and I’m currently stuck doing one of my least favorite things as a copywriter.

Responding to the edits made by one of my client’s “editorial” teams.

This process makes me want to pull my hair out.

(And I don’t even HAVE hair, so …)

Anyway.

A little bit of background.

The situation with this client is such that I have to have all copy reviewed and signed off by their team (for compliance and accuracy reasons) before it goes live.

It’s frustrating, but I get it.

I do a lot of work in the personal finance space which is a highly regulated industry.

Typically it’s not a problem. The clients are great. And I welcome the feedback.

But every once in a while, there’s a client so “old school” that their advertising ideology seems to have been fossilized with the dinosaurs.

This is one of those clients.

Everything must be done “the way it has always been done” (aka the same way since the 1990s) because their “readers respond best to a serious and somber tone.”

Unfortunately, I can’t reveal what the client does …

But I call B.S. on this claim.

As a copywriter, I’m not just a practitioner of writing.

I’m a practitioner of advertising.

And one of the most important parts of advertising is understanding what claims and format will elicit an actual, finger-clicking response from a reader.

This, of course, is driven by market sophistication.

I really don’t care if you think the market “responds better to a serious tone.”

I care about the data.

I care about testing.

And I care not about the way things have always been done.

If you know anything about market sophistication, then you know that a claim (or tone of voice, for that matter) that worked for a period of time doesn’t always remain to work.

This is classic advertising theology.

It’s the “whiter-than-white” idea that Gene Schwartz talks about in Breakthrough Advertising.

And if your market has already been exposed to the same claims over and over — especially by competitors — then you must up the ante.

I’m sure this market once responded to “serious and somber.”

But I’m also sure — based on data, testing, and observation — that this market is far beyond that tone and will no longer respond to it in the same way.

Sometimes, clients are just stuck with the dinosaurs.

As a copywriter, it’s YOUR responsibility to do the necessary research on the market so that you can write in a way that elicits a response.

So the next time a client asks you to change things up and “do it the old way” … remember this post.

It’s your job to push back (and push to test).

Of course, if they have research to back up their ideas, don’t throw ’em under the bus.

Some clients do provide solid research and test data.

But a lot don’t.

So do you research and push back when you need to.

So here’s my tip for today:

If you need a boost on how to find what claims competitors are making in their advertising, you can always use the Facebook Ad Library.

Just Google “Facebook Ad Library,” enter a few keywords or the names of competitors in your niche, and voila: you’ve got a solid base of competition research and claims to pull from.

Take a look at what your client’s competitors are saying about their product.

Get a sense of the language and tone that they use.

Then determine if you believe the market is “saturated” with those claims and that style.

This is a helpful bed of research that you can point to when your client doesn’t like they way you’ve written something.

Because if they want results, they need to trust the professional copywriter.

It’s time to put the fossils back in the museum.

David Patrick

P.S. — I have a *very* special offer running right now for copywriters who sign up to my email list. I won’t tell you what it is here … but you’ve probably never seen anything like it.

It’ll help you become a better copywriter in just 20 minutes, and you don’t even have to pay me for it if you don’t want to. Sign up below.