How to Win at Trivia

Written by Aprill on August 24, 2010

As a copywriter, I do a lot of reading. Not only am I constantly practicing my craft, whether it's by writing for the web or for print, I'm always looking at ways to improve it. As well as my daily intake of blog feeds from the movers and shakers in the online communications industry, I read books about writing and marketing. But as a freelance copywriter I read about a lot of other stuff, too.

Copywriters Know a Little About a Lot

One of my main roles is to help you sell. It doesn't matter what you sell—you could be selling a product, a service, or selling an idea. Apart from getting to know something about you and your typical audience, I also come to know quite a bit about what you're selling, no matter what it is.

Lately, I've learnt a lot about automatic transmissions. Considering my ability to drive around unaware of a flat tyre, I had a bit of research to do. Likewise, I'm far more informed on the traditional political spectrum than I was before. Copywriters cover such a wide range of material we make great members for any trivia team.

You Can Know Too Much

A well-written brief can help to provide background information about your business, your offering, and what you expect in terms of tone, word count and the call to action. But, because you know your product so intimately, you might be suffering the Curse of Knowledge. You know it so well that you can easily tell me all the features. You can even tell me why yours is better than someone else's. But the Curse of Knowledge makes it easy to forget what the benefits are for someone who's never considered buying one before. So, while an informative brief does save time for both of us, I will always seek to add to that material by asking you seemingly obvious questions and by conducting my own research.

And next time you go to the pub for trivia night, take a writer-friend with you.

How do you walk the line between being the expert and thinking like your audience?

Photo courtesy of gesteves