True love is the greatest thing in the world. Except a nice MLT — a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe!
– Miracle Max, The Princess Bride
I just love great copy.
Great copy is a thing of beauty, evokes a feeling, conveys a value, makes you happy or sad or angry, and you remember it beyond the few seconds after you read it.
…but it isn’t easy to come by…or is it?
It would be fun to compare great copy to true love and say that you know you have it when you come across it, but it isn’t as clear…as true love is 🙂
Great copy can come from anywhere and anyone, and you sometimes don’t even realize you have hit the nail on the head until someone else brings it up to your attention, makes a comment, laughs, gives a second look, and digs a bit deeper which helps you fine-tune even more.
You could be simply brainstorming, trying to say things differently, or improvising into great copy, but as great as the feedback may be…you just don’t know what will actually hit until you go live.
You end up with viable feedback and decide on which good copy (that’s good, not great) you will run and test with, and only based on real-world feedback including responses, clicks, conversions, and so on would you know if the copy is great, or good, or…neither.
So you may assume and have a hunch of how great your copy is, but until it’s live and working IRL, you can’t be sure it’s great.