It sounds a simple question…

Yet a survey in the 1980’s revealed that FOUR out of every five senior marketing people in Britain thought the most important reason for advertising was something other than selling.

And if they did a similar survey today, the numbers probably wouldn’t change that much.

Much talk of long-term strategy, brand building, brand awareness and the like.

And there may be some value in those things.

But not the same value as hard cash.

Money from sales.

Many, many decades ago, Advertising was described as “Salesmanship in print” and (even though we’ve got TV, Radio and the Internet now) that definition still seems the most valid today.

I’ve said before that copywriting is the art of writing words that sell.

It’s a “conversation” on the page or on the screen which persuades someone to take the action you want them to take.

And so many people who do marketing don’t seem to grasp this.

Then they wonder why they’re not getting the results they want.

If we consider other skills, we might say:

If you wanted to make things well in wood you’d learn how to do carpentry.

If you wanted to be able to bake brilliantly you’d learn how to bake – maybe from a family member, a “how to” book, or through professional training and mentoring.

If you wanted to be able to paint with some flair you might go on a weekend or week’s course to learn the basics first.

In every case…

If you want to be good at something you need to train yourself or find someone who can train you.

Otherwise you might be better off leaving it to someone else.

And simply hire someone who can already do the job – to do it all for you.

Or just pay for the end product.

Buy a wooden table, buy a cake, buy a painting.

It’s no different with advertising.

If you can write great copy, great.

If you can’t, you could get training.

Or just hire a copywriter to take all the hassle away from you.

Because a professional copywriter knows that it’s all about selling, all about results.