Reason A: You’ve been writing copy for a while and you’ve hit a wall. You’re having trouble carrying on and you need inspiration.
Reason B: You’re looking for new ideas, new techniques to add to your writing skillset. You feel like you need to freshen things up.
Reason C: You want to learn more about your industry. You want insights from the people who know about marketing. The pros who’ve done it and written the book about it.
Reason D: You want to increase your copywriter salary. More money means more freedom, right?
If you relate to one, two or all four of the reasons above, then you’ve likely thought of one solution.
TED Talks.
TED Talks are amazing. They’re a great way to gain new knowledge. They’re platforms for people to share ideas and the facts they know.
What better way to grow than to hear from the experts themselves. Those who’ve been where you are and done the research needed to improve.
The thing about TED Talks though is that there are so many of them.
You’re not sure which ones to watch. You don’t know where to start. You don’t want to waste your valuable time when you’re looking for something specific.
Good thing we watched a ton of TED Talks related to copywriting and compiled a shortlist for you, huh? We spent hours so that you could spend minutes watching the best TED Talks about copywriting. Depending on your reasons for being here of course.
So make yourself comfortable and enjoy the next six videos before you get back to writing.
TED Talks on Writing
How Blogs Are Building a Friendlier World
If you’re going to watch a TED Talk about online writing, it might as well be from one of its pioneers.
Mena Grabowski Lazar (f.k.a. Mena Grabowski Trott) is the mother of the blogging revolution.
She and her ex-husband Benjamin Trott co-founded the software company Six Apart. This led to the creation of:
- Movable Type, a weblog publishing system released in 2001.
- TypePad, a blog hosting service launched in 2003.
- Vox, an internet blogging service launched in 2006.
Here she talks about her blog and her reasons for writing. How blogs are records of who we are and our personal stories. She also shares stories from other bloggers.
This is a brilliant TED Talk for writers. It shows how authenticity is engaging and appealing. How putting your true self out there leads to connections and a better world.
I have always decided that I was going to be an expert in one thing. And so I am an expert in this person and so I write about it.
Mena Grabowski Lavar
Declaring War on Bland: Copywriting as Fresh Literature
Jean Tang is a copywriter and CEO of MarketSmiths, a copywriting services agency. She is also a former corporate lawyer and a travel and food writer.
Here she talks about how many businesses have “boring” descriptions on their websites. How it’s better to have engaging and captivating content.
She also shares her 6 step system for writing great copy:
- Define
- Explore
- Challenge
- Percolate
- Humanize
- Edit
This is great advice for all copywriters. If you’re not raising your hand after this, we don’t know what to tell you.
Businesses seem to have lost track of the cardinal rule of captivating literature. And here it is: show, don’t tell.
Jean Tang
TED Talks on Marketing
Life Lessons from an Ad Man
Rory Sutherland is the Vice-Chairman of Ogilvy UK. He is also the co-founder of a behavioral science practice within the organization.
Rory studies consumer behaviors. What leads people to make their purchasing decisions.
Evonomics calls Rory Sutherland “one of marketing and advertising’s most original thinkers.”
Here he talks about branding and the perceived value of products. He gives his solutions to a few issues he mentions like high-speed trains and education. And he also shares stories about great branding throughout history. Like how the Prussians came to accept the potato as a staple food in the 18th century.
It’s an insightful and funny talk.
Persuasion is often better than compulsion.
Rory Sutherland
What Physics Taught Me About Marketing
Now we know what you’re thinking: What does physics have to do with marketing? How could the two relate?
Well according to Dan Cobley, you can learn quite a bit about marketing from physics.
Dan is a managing partner at Blenheim Chalcot and Chairman of Salary Finance. He is also the former Managing Director of Google UK and Google’s Vice President of brand solutions. He held this last role for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In his TED Talk, Dan uses laws of physics to explain known branding concepts.
Newton’s Law: the force equals mass times acceleration. […] But if we rearrange this formula, we can get to acceleration equals force over mass. Which means that for a larger mass it requires more force to change its direction.
It’s the same with brands. The more massive a brand, the more baggage it has, the more force needed to change its positioning.
Dan Cobley
TED Talks on Creativity
Where Good Ideas Come From
Good ideas aren’t easy to come up with. They’re elusive. You only get one every now and then. There’s no proven technique of coming up with good ideas. This is a fact.
Or is it?
In this TED Talk, writer Steven Johnson tries to find out where good ideas come from. In which surroundings do we get our good ideas?
Steven is a best-selling writer who focuses on popular science and innovation. TED states that Prospect magazine chose Johnson as “one of the top ten brains of the digital future.”
Here Steven presents ideas as not one thing but as networks. He looks at how collaboration between people can lead to good ideas.
If you’re struggling to get that next good idea for your work, watch this.
A new idea is a new network of neurons firing in sync with each other inside your brain. It’s a new configuration that has never formed before.
Steven Johnson
How to Get Your Ideas to Spread
Once you have an idea, you need to know how to spread it. How to make it popular.
This is where Seth Godin’s TED Talk comes in.
Seth is many successful titles. He’s an entrepreneur, a speaker, a teacher, and a best-selling author. He’s also a marketing genius.
He’s so good at marketing that he’s in the Marketing Hall of Fame!
This isn’t even his only TED Talk. He has three of them.
So who better to inspire your creativity when you’ve got your idea but need to push it out?
In this video, Seth talks about how remarkable ideas are the ones that stand out. The ones that spread.
We’re now in the fashion business. No matter what we do for a living, we’re in the fashion business. And people in the fashion business know what it’s like to be in the fashion business. They’re used to it. The rest of us have to figure out how to think that way.
Seth Godin
He also talks about how it’s important to market to the passionate ones who want your product.
We know you’ll enjoy this talk.
Get Better at Copywriting
Now that you’re inspired and ready to write again, consider your copywriting skills.
Yes, you’re motivated more than ever before to put pen to paper or fingers to keys. But you know you can always improve your copy. You can always do with some helpful tips. You should always invest in yourself.
