The Art Of Wine Copywriting With Richard Bull

"At the age of 55, I became a trainee again."

Dear Drink To That reader,

Wine selling is big business and it’s not just because a bottle gets better with age or because it’s reasonably priced.

It’s because when that product is presented and you feel the urge to buy it, odds are you’ve been prompted through reading the copy in a product description, a catalogue or elsewhere.

Great copywriting is a needle-mover in any industry but it has some interesting applications for wine and other drinks.

Richard Bull, the former head of copy for Laithwates is here to tell you about the mechanics of wine copywriting and how you can apply those lessons to your business.

What was your journey into copywriting and how has it evolved over time?

I knew I’d always wanted to write. Plus I’d always wanted to sell. And I’d always wanted to work in the drinks industry, wine in particular. But it took a little time for these paths to coincide.

My early career involved telesales (selling ad space and extremely high-risk ‘penny shares’ over the phone) as well as stints in retail (for Oddbins and Bordeaux Direct), and as a travelling salesman with Grants of St James.

But I found I lacked the confidence for ‘face to face selling’, nor did I want to manage people. So I turned to journalism, working for Channel 4’s teletext service, then real time news subtitling at ITN.

It wasn’t until a job as a web copywriter came up at Laithwaites, part of Direct Wines (which also runs Averys and The Sunday Times Wine Club) that I got the chance to marry my twin ambitions.

And it was here that I learned that commercial writing - copywriting - is very different to journalism. My journalistic background was useful: curiosity and knowing the principles of who, what, why, where, when and how were helpful for structure. But when you suddenly get into the realm of selling a product you discover you need more than journalistic skills.

And initially it was a pretty brutal experience, aged 40. Lots of ‘red pen’ and ‘constructive’ criticism, as I shifted from descriptive reportage to writing to move customers to do something: namely, buy the product.

Probably my most significant moment was when Adrian Bentham, the MD of Direct Wines, directed me towards Drayton Bird’s Common Sense Direct Marketing, as well as his How To Write Sales Letters That Sell. These two books not only introduced me to the world of direct response copywriting, they ignited my love of it.

I couldn’t get enough of it. From Claude Hopkins and John Caples to the David/Daves (Ogilvy, Abbott and Trott), the Garys (Bencivenga and Halbert) and later people like Ben Settle, Bill Bonner, Mark Ford and the Agora crowd. Because it was all about telling stories to sell. The two things I loved.

That was the biggest difference.

At Channel 4 I was writing for an audience that wanted to learn more about what was on Channel 4, to know what the schedule was, what the programmes or the films were about, what was going on behind the scenes and so on.

Yes, I suppose if you did it well you might be persuading people to turn on and watch. Maybe it should have been! After all, C4 cut their teletext service because it cost some £500,000 a year for no measurable result.

At Direct Wines, it was all about results. Yes, I was writing for an audience nominally interested in wine. But essentially they wanted wine to drink. And they wanted wine in a style that on the whole they knew they liked at a price that gave them what they perceived as good value.

At C4 teletext some people were kind enough to write in that they liked my film reviews. At Direct Wines no-one was interested in whether you’d written an interesting piece about the beauty of the Loire valley and its crisply refreshing whites. You knew if a piece of writing was good if it had shifted several hundred 12-bottle cases by lunchtime.

The way to differentiate Direct Wines’s products from all the others vying to fill people’s glasses, was telling a story about that wine that highlighted what it would do or give the drinker. Something they not only loved, but also a wine they could proudly serve at a dinner party and share the story behind it.

I loved it and stayed for 15 years, eventually leaving as head of copy, having helped fill thousands of wine racks and selling millions of pounds of wine.

So, what was your process for coming up with ideas for selling wine and how did that translate into your copy?