Copy is 50% of your creative. While your imagery captures attention, copy drives viewers to click, engage, or purchase. As a marketer, that's what you care about. Of course, writing copy that converts is a scientific art of its own, requiring more than just testing. It requires creativity, strategy, and technique. We've previously discussed what creativity is and how to get good ideas, so this article will cover strategy and technique. We asked 20+ copywriters for insights into their strategies and techniques.
Copywriting Strategy
Copywriting strategy encompasses high-level insights to keep in mind as you write copy - the dos and don'ts of copy, universal principles and words to never write.
The Dos of Copywriting
- Write so that a child can understand you
- Have one message in mind when writing
- Have one person in mind when writing
- Include a Call-to-Action
- Answer the five whys
- Tell a story
- Be concise
- Induce curiosity
- Test Everything!
The Don'ts of Copywriting
- Promotional Selling
- Too much information
- Overly Company or Product-Focused
- Lying
- Generic
- Passive voice
- Callous meme, pop culture usage
Overall Copywriting Strategy
Those are some of the basic dos and don'ts of copywriting according to 20+ experts. To illustrate the points above, below are a couple 'copy transformations'.
Copy Example One
"We are offering services in your area."
This copy is is weak because it's generic, tells rather than shows, has no call to action, and uses the passive voice.
Transformation
"Tired of paying for slow internet in [area]?"
This copy is stronger because it details a specific problem that you can solve, hits the audiences' pain point, calls out the target, is written in simple language, and delivers a single, clear message.
(Example partially provided by Rob Sanders of Socially Found.)
Copy Example Two
"Peter Griffin will tell you how he reduced his obesity by 10 lbs using our Slimming Diet product only!"
This copy is weak because it uses passive voice, an unnecessary pop culture reference, focuses on the product, and 'tells' rather than shows'. It's also a bit long.
Transformation
"Find Out How Peter Griffin Lost 55lbs in Just Two Weeks!"
This copy is stronger because it's concise, has unique style but simple language, focuses on the audience, makes the audience curious, hints at a story, adds urgency, and addresses a single specific problem.
(Example partially provided by Scott Jones of Pupster Passion and Irene Lopez of Online Optimism.)
Copywriting Techniques
Where strategy is high-level, technique is low-level, close to reality, immediately practical. There are literally hundreds of techniques to try out. Some techniques work better than others, but they all need testing for your specific products and audiences.
That being said, a few techniques perform well across industries:
- Audience call outs
- Open Loops
- Emotion-driven stories
Here's an example that uses all three:
"Musicians Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano, But When I Started to Play!"
This ad by John Caples was written in February 1927 for U.S. House of Music. I added a call out from 'They' to 'Musicians', but the open loop i.e. the curiosity from the open story is still palpable.
A better audience call out:
"To Housewives Who Buy Condensed Milk."
Another ad written in the 1920s, this one by Claude Hopkins, emphasizes a hyper specific target audience, eliminating all others in order to better appeal to the people most likely to buy.
Copywriting Resources
Copywriting is a practice that dates back to at least the 1870s. In all that time, the science has developed in medium and form more than substance and style, primarily because people generally think with the same heuristics as they did 200 years ago. Brains have not evolved. What has developed are the systems and structures given to ad writing. Below are a few excellent resources for generating new copy good enough to test.
Copywriting Books
- Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins, 1923
- Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples, 1932
- Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy, 1942
- Breakthrough Advertising, Eugene Schwartz, 1966
- Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, Luke Sullivan, 1998
Copywriting Blogs
Copywriting Swipe Files
For full responses from 20+ copywriters, click Sources below.
