How to stand out online, trailblazing women in advertising & copy resource of the week

Hello, my friend. Welcome to Issue #4 of The Subhead, a bi-weekly newsletter about copywriting, marketing & media, and a look at some of the women who make it great.

Here’s what’s on deck in today’s edition:

· What a USP is, why you need one ASAP to succeed in business, and how to create one (This is how you stand out online)

· Trailblazing women in advertising: Caroline Jones

· Copy Resource of the Week: No-cost Copywriting 101 Course

What a USP is, why you need one ASAP, and how to create one for your business so you can get more business, bookings & sales

In this 3-part blog series, I share guidance on how to create your USP (unique selling proposition, or as I prefer to think of it, your “meaningful difference”), so you can stand out online and attract your ideal clients and customers …

… instead of drowning in a sea of sameness along with the 5,387 other people who do what you do.

(Of course, no one does exactly what you do, exactly the way you do it, my creative friend, and this 3-part series is meant to show you how to uncover and convey that fact.) 😊

Discover the magic of creating your USP here.

Trailblazing women in advertising: Caroline Jones

Why do we so often hear about famous men in the ad world, but so seldom about women who made a big splash in advertising?

Hmmm …

Today I want to share a little bit about Caroline Jones.

In the early 1960s, Caroline Robinson Jones became the first African American to work as a copywriter at one of the nation’s leading ad agencies, J. Walter Thompson, when she was just out of college.

In 1968 she became co-founder, vice president and co-creative director of Zebra Associates, a black owned full-service agency, and one of the first African American owned advertising agencies in the U.S.

Think about this – how rare it was in the Mad Men era for an African American woman to found and run an ad agency. It’s not even that common today, in the year of our Lord, 2023.

Other career highlights:

:: She was the first black female Vice President of well-known ad agency BBDO from 1975-77. 

:: While working for the Campbell Soup Company in the 1970s, she advised that the advertising should focus on people’s emotions rather than simply highlighting the products. So smart! And something every copywriter worth their salt understands.

(This reminds me of something I shared about ad agency exec Laurel Cutler in a previous issue – Cutler advised Chrysler to stop aiming its ads at car dealers and instead talk directly to consumers. Again, of course this is what you should do!)

:: Jones agency's ads “used African American models to show how the soup fit into the lives of everyday families. The campaign was so popular among Black consumers that Campbell's decided to adapt it for its national campaigns (in the process replacing the Black figures in the ads with white models).” 😡

:: Her agency developed the KFC slogan, “We Do Chicken Right!” which KFC began using in all of its national ad campaigns.

:: Her other clients included McDonald's, American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Prudential, Toys ''R'' Us, and the Postal Service. 

Learn more about Caroline Jones here, here, here, and in her own words, here: Advertising Pioneer Caroline R. Jones: Breaking Down The Game (1994).

Copy Resource of the Week

This week’s copy resource comes to us from copywriter, author, and business owner Neville Medhora.

When folks aren’t ready to hire a copywriter just yet (and I don’t recommend doing so when you’re first getting started selling your thing online), BUT they still want to write copy that gets results, I often recommend this F*R*E*E (👈 don’t want to trigger those spam filters!) copywriting 101 course.

It’s just 40-ish minutes long, and comes with a downloadable AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) copy formula template and a handy copywriting checklist.

Great for beginners and DIY-ers who want to optimize their copy before their next promotion!

Check it out here:

A Free Copywriting Course (Learn Copywriting Basics In a Few Minutes)

And that’s all for this week, my friends.

Be well. Stay curious. See you again on December 3.

Warmly,

Kimberly

P.S. If you need copy support, I offer custom copywriting services to creative business builders, which you can learn more about here, and to ecommerce and healthcare brands, which you can learn more about here.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to discuss a project.