How To Write Copy Like the Pros

Copy writing is one of the most fundamental pieces of your business marketing.  Yet most coaches and independent professionals do not pay enough attention to it.  You want to be able to use your written words to create the intention you would like and to move the reader to action.  In your writing that promotes your product, business or ideas you need to get the reader’s attention quickly.  Then you need to keep them reading so that they get to the action you want them to take. 

Expert copywriters will tell you that the purpose of the first sentence is to get the reader to the second sentence.  The purpose of the second sentence is to get them to the next one.  You get the picture.  If you do not write carefully, you will not persuade the reader to take that chosen action.  Today the fundamentals of good copywriting are to write clearly and concisely with simple words.  Don’t worry about rules of grammar, but write as you would speak.  That means including lots of sentence fragments, making lists and making paragraphs that read easily rather than by “the rules”. 

If you haven’t been thinking about your writing, I would encourage you to start reading about copy writing.  One of the best places to start is with Copy Blogger.  This is a blog founded by Brian Clark that is devoted to teaching the use of words to get traffic, make sales and gain subscribers.  There is a wealth of information here and I recommend you spend some time exploring it. 

Another resource is from Pandecta magazine which is a website – no longer a magazine – devoted to “making e-business accessible”.  Click here to see their Copy Writing Tutorial which will give you some principles for being effective with your writing including a little list of “good” and “bad” words.  On the site you’ll also find info on copy-writing for websites and much more business information. 

Let’s talk a little about copywriting basics.  This info is from the Copy Bloggers site where you will find much more info about these points under Copy Writing 101. 

1. Get your first sentence read.  We discussed this wisdom above.

2. Write simply.  Be careful not to overestimate the level of understanding of your audience.

3. Writing Headlines.  Eight categories of headlines include Direct, Indirect, News, How To, Question, Command, Reasons Why, and Testimonials.

4. More on Headlines.  The most read part of your copy so spend the most time on it using the factors of usefulness, urgency, uniqueness and ultra-specific.

5. Structure Your Content.  Be focused on your reader, use specifics in the copy including statistics and references, make the offer and sum it up.

6. Stress benefits not features.  Easy to say, harder to do.  Be careful to find benefits for your offer that your reader actually wants.

7.  Make your offer irresistible.  It should be something your reader can’t help but relate to and you need to state it quickly and explicitly.

8. Include a real guarantee.  This shifts the risk of action from the reader to you and increases the likelihood he/she will act.

9. Length of Copy and Headlines.   The answer to how long your copy should be depends on your audience, product, venue, and much more.  Be sure to do testing to see what works. 

10. Read other people’s copy widely and look at what works.  Keep samples and look for patterns and formulas you can apply to your own work.