What is Copywriting? The Definitive Guide
This is the most complete guide to copywriting in 2024.
So if you’re looking for:
More traffic.
More leads.
More sales.
Then you’ll love the actionable techniques in this new guide.
Let’s get started.
Chapter 1: Copywriting Fundamentals
What Is Copywriting?
Copywriting is the art and science of writing persuasive text that compels people to take action. It can be used to sell products, generate leads, build brand awareness, and more. Effective copywriting is clear, concise, and persuasive, and it speaks directly to the target audience’s needs and desires.
Using words that the target audience actually wants to read can yield positive outcomes.
Why Is Copywriting Important?
In this age of video and podcasts, does copywriting still matter?
In a word: yes.
Before looking at the benefits of copywriting, let’s first comprehend the core duties of a copywriter.
What exactly does a copywriter do?
A copywriter is a professional writing occupation for advertising and marketing purposes. Brands that engage effective copywriters get better organic engagements and increased conversions. We shall cover more about this later.
Learning how to become a copywriter takes time and a little patience. Though it’s a core requirement for most businesses, copywriters with a deep understanding of how to carefully craft words that resonate with the target audience are hard to come by. This explains why this skill continues to be in high demand.
Here are some of the benefits that you can get from becoming good at copywriting:
- Get higher conversion rates on key pages
- Improve the structure and flow of articles
- Get more engagement on social media posts
- Have more people share your content
- Understand your customer’s needs and wants
In other words: copywriting can improve nearly every element of your marketing.
Different Types of Copywriting
There are many different types of copywriting, each with its own unique goals and challenges. Some of the most common types of copywriting include:
- Advertising copy: This type of copywriting is used to promote products or services to a wide audience. It can be found in a variety of media, such as YouTube, television, radio, print, and online.
- Sales copy: This type of copywriting is used to persuade people to buy a product or service. It is often used in direct mail, email marketing, and website landing pages.
- Public relations copy: This type of copywriting is used to promote a company or organization to the public. It can be found in press releases, media kits, and website biographies.
- Technical copywriting: This type of copywriting is used to explain complex products or services to a technical audience. It is often found in user manuals, training materials, and white papers.
What Does a Copywriter Do?
Needless to say, a copywriter spends most of his or her day writing. However, there’s more to a copywriter’s job than putting words after words.
In fact, experienced copywriters spend significant amounts of time learning about their customers. They also invest time in understanding how the product they’re writing about can help their prospects.
If you’re writing copy for your own product or service then you probably already know what it is, how it works, and how it compares to the competition. So your job is to learn about your audience’s thoughts, fears and desires. And how they phrase these things in their mind. That way, you can write copy that speaks directly to them.
I cover more on how to do this in Chapter 2 of this guide.
How To Become a Copywriter
Fortunately, you don’t need any formal training or education to become a copywriter. Instead, you need to get good at the following skills:
Top Tips for Copywriting
To succeed in copywriting, possessing these skills helps you strategize, and give a narrative about your product/service to the target audience before giving a solution that infers the desired goal.
At a minimum, a good copywriter possesses these key skills:
- Customer research
- Sentence structure
- Web copywriting
- Grammar and spelling
- Persuasion
- Content structure
- Online advertising
- Storytelling
To be clear: becoming a good copywriter takes time. But it’s a marketing skill that you can use to get clients as a freelance copywriter or to improve your job prospects.
In fact, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 80.3% of employers want to hire people with strong writing skills.
And if you’re a small business owner (like me), you can use copywriting to improve your marketing and grow your business.
Chapter 2: Customer-Focused Copy
If you want to write copy that converts, you need to master one simple rule:
Write like your customers talk.
When you do, prospects will say: “This product is for me!”.
The question is:
How do you do it?
Use one of the 5 simple strategies from this chapter.
Reddit Threads
If you want to write as your customers talk, Reddit is one of the first places to look.
To use it, head over to a subreddit where your target customer hangs out.
Then, take a look at some of the most popular recent threads:
For example, let’s say that you just launched a new Paleo Diet Bar.
Head over to the Paleo subreddit and search for “bars”.
And look at the language people use to describe what they like and don’t like about the current bars on the market.
For example, I found tons of awesome copy in this one thread:
Copy that would work GREAT for a landing page, email or Facebook ad.
Amazon Reviews
As you’ve probably seen firsthand, people on Amazon don’t hold back:
Ouch…
And you can mine these honest reviews for a killer copy.
For example, check this Amazon review for a standing desk:
Well, if you also sell a standing desk, you just found some killer copy.
And I should point something out:
You can mine Amazon reviews… even if you don’t sell a physical product.
For example, I looked at reviews for a popular book about SEO on Amazon:
And found these golden nuggets:
This is a copy that I can use to describe my next online course or guide.
Customer Surveys
Customer surveys are SUPER helpful.
Specifically, you want to ask customers these questions:
- “Why did you decide to buy [Your Product]?”
- “What was the #1 thing that made you say: Yes, this is for me?”
- “What have you tried before?”
- “What was your experience with those other products?”
Yes, these responses are priceless for customer research, positioning, and creating new products.
But they also help you write copy that speaks directly to your target audience.
For example, here are actual responses from one of my recent customer surveys:
And depending on your product, you can also ask questions about:
- Age and demographic info
- Biggest struggles
- Spending habits
- Business challenges
For example, Backlinko is in the B2B space.
So I ask customers to paint a picture of where they’re at with their business:
Customer Interviews
Interviews are like customer surveys on steroids.
That’s because you can dig deeper with followup questions.
For example, a while ago I hopped on Skype with three people that recently graduated from one of my programs:
(Fun Fact: I was visiting family in Rhode Island when I did this interview. Hence the awesome flower curtains. 🙂 )
And I asked pretty much the same questions that I ask in customer surveys:
- What’s your biggest challenge in SEO right now?
- Where does getting more search engine traffic rank in terms of importance in your business?
- Have you ever spent money on SEO training before? How did it go?
The big difference is that the interviews allowed me to ask follow-up questions.
These follow-ups helped me understand my customer’s challenges WAY better than a one-way survey response.
Here’s an example:
How do you go about choosing topics for blog content?
Well, if there’s a lot of shares on it on social media then you know people are interested in it.
We kind of try to add onto what a lot of people are already writing about and go from there.
Makes sense. Once you pick a topic, how do you know whether to go with an infographic, a guide or whatever?
It depends on the client’s business. Infographics worked really well for one client and they didn’t work so well for another. For example, one client sold pool supplies and infographics worked awesomely.
Can you give an example for an infographic you made for that client?
Social Media
Here’s how this works:
First, search for a competing product on Twitter:
Then, keep an eye out for complaints that crop up again and again:
And if your product has any of these “missing” features, make sure to emphasize that in your copy:
Product Hunt Discussions
You can use “Product Hunt Discussions” to learn how potential customers describe what you sell.
Why? 90% of the people that post a question on Product Hunt already Googled for a solution to their problem. And they came up empty.
So jot down the words people use to describe their problem…
…and create landing pages optimized around those terms:
With that, it’s time for chapter 3…
Chapter 3: Pro Copywriting Strategies
This chapter is a list of seven copywriting strategies that you can use to write better copy from scratch…
…or improve your existing copy.
So if you want actionable copywriting tips that you can implement the right way, this chapter is for you.
The Slippery Slide
The #1 goal of your copy is to keep people reading.
Or as legendary copywriter Joe Sugarman put it:
“The sole purpose of the first sentence in an ad is to get you to read the second sentence.”
– Joe Sugarman
In other words, to us something that copywriters call a “Slippery Slide”:
You can create a slippery slide copy with “Bucket Brigades”:
Little stories:
And Open Loops:
The “AIDA” Formula
AIDA is a powerful copywriting formula that works for:
- Sales pages
- Squeeze pages
- Blog post intros
- Email newsletters
- Video scripts
- And more
Here’s a visual of how it looks:
As you can see, AIDA stands for:
Attention.
Interest.
Desire.
Action.
Here’s a real life example of how I used the AIDA formula in this guide to landing pages:
First, I grab attention with the first line:
Then, I drum up interest with a bold promise:
And I tap into the #1 desire anyone landing on this page has (higher Google rankings):
I cap things off with a call to action that pushes the reader to scroll down:
Benefits > Features
The features are nice.
But benefits sell.
For example, let’s say you just launched a new piece of software designed to help people become more productive.
Here’s how you can turn boring features into tangible benefits:
CoSchedule’s product page does a GREAT job at this.
Yes, they touch on features:
But look at how big part of their copy is focused on benefits:
Very cool.
Strong CTAs
A strong call-to-action is the difference between a page that converts… and one that falls flat.
Seriously.
Here’s why your CTA is so important:
Your prospect is busy. VERY busy.
Which means they don’t have time to figure out what they’re supposed to do next.
So tell them exactly what to do.
For example, check out this landing page from Social Triggers.
This page uses a strong and clear CTA.
Not: “Sign up”. Not: “Register”.
It’s literally:
“Enter your name and email, and click “Download Free Ebook”.”
Use strong and clear CTAs whenever you want your prospect to do something. As you just saw, your CTAs don’t have to be fancy. Just tell them what to do.
Social Proof
According to the Nielsen Norman Group, people rely on social proof when they’re not sure what to do next.
In other words: social proof is important when someone’s deciding whether or not to buy what you sell.
That’s why pro copywriters PACK their copy with results, case studies and testimonials.
For example, Hotjar lets people know that they have 900,000 users:
Instead of raw numbers, at Exploding Topics, we feature companies that have signed up to our newsletter:
How to Solve The “Social Proof Paradox”
You need social proof to sell. But you need sales to get social proof.
I call this “The Social Proof Paradox”. And it’s a real challenge.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to sidestep this problem:
Feature your strongest form of social proof.
For example, let’s say you launched a software product that has a free and paid version. But only a handful of people upgraded to a paid plan so far.
Well, you can show off how many people signed up for your free trial:
Or maybe you only have 20 total customers. But 3 of them got AMAZING results. Feature these 3 results on your homepage:
For example, when I launched my YouTube SEO course First Page Videos, we only had around 10 beta users. Not a ton of social proof.
But 4 of our beta students absolutely crushed.
(Including one student that quickly racked up 200k+ views with his first video.)
So we decided to feature those 4 people on the sales page:
Crystal Clear USP
USP=Unique Selling Proposition.
In other words, here’s where you answer the question:
“Why should someone buy from YOU?”.
Maybe you’ve got the best prices.
Maybe you deliver faster than anyone else.
Or maybe you guarantee results.
Either way, your copy needs to scream your USP at the top of its lungs.
And if you don’t have a USP?
Well, you’ve got bigger problems than copywriting. But that’s another story…
For example, in a clever ecommerce marketing tactic, the eyewear site Warby Parker lets you try on frames at home… and return any pairs that you don’t like.
And they feature this super unique USP all over their site.
Sense of Urgency
How do you get customers to buy NOW?
Urgency.
Here are some easy ways to create a sense of urgency in your copy:
- “Limited time offer”
- “Quantities limited”
- “Only 47 left”
- “Sale ends on August 31st”
- “Doors close on Thursday”
- “Don’t miss out”
(Needless to say, these statements should be backed up with real limitations. Otherwise, you’ll lose people’s trust.)
For example, this email from one of my product launches has a clear deadline (down to the minute!) that creates a super high sense of urgency:
Chapter 4: How to Write Amazing Headlines
You’ve probably heard the old adage: “80% of people read the headline, and only 20% read the copy.”
Is that number accurate? Who knows!
But what I do know is that your headline is SUPER important.
Fortunately, writing awesome headlines isn’t as hard as you might think.
All you need to do is follow the simple techniques in this chapter.
Be Insanely Specific
Your headline needs to be insanely specific.
In other words:
Your headline should tell your prospect EXACTLY what they’re gonna get.
For example, check out this blog post headline:
Not horrible. But not nearly specific enough.
Look at how much better this super-specific headline sounds:
And this rule doesn’t just apply to blog content.
For example, Snap.hr cites a specific timeframe for getting a result:
Use a Number
Numbers FORCE you to write insanely specific headlines.
For example, look at what happens when you take this bland headline…
…and add a number to it:
It’s MUCH more compelling… and specific.
Which is probably why an industry study from Moz found that number headlines got 327% more clicks than question headlines:
In fact, that’s exactly why I use numbers in most of my blog post titles:
Strong Emotions
The best headlines tend to be emotional headlines.
The question is:
How do you create emotional headlines?
First, add emotionally-charged words to your headline copy.
Here are a few examples:
- Crazy
- Now
- Fast
- Mistake
- New
- Breakthrough
- Amazing
Obviously, you don’t want to go overboard.
No one’s going to believe a headline like “New Crazy Amazing Breakthrough That Works Fast!” 🙂
But adding one or two of these words to your headline can make it more compelling:
Second, pop your headline into the American Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer.
And it will give you a score from 0-100%.
I try to get my headlines to at least 30%… especially for sales pages and landing pages.
Use FOMO
FOMO can make your headlines 10x more powerful.
That said:
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) doesn’t work for every situation.
But if you can use FOMO you should use FOMO.
That’s because FOMO triggers a strong emotion in your prospects…
…an emotion that makes them want to hear what you have to say.
For example, this Facebook ad headline from HubSpot includes the phrase “Limited Time Savings”:
Answer: WIIFM?
Let me know if this sounds familiar:
You land on a site.
And the first thing you see is a headline that’s all about THEM.
Who. The heck. CARES.
Instead, you want to write headlines that are all about your customer.
In other words, your headline should answer the question in your customer’s mind:
“What’s in it for me?”
For example, this homepage headline is:
Is the headline fancy?
Nope.
But if you’re looking to grow your Shopify store, this headline lets you know that you’re in the right place.
Chapter 5: Master The Lead
The lead is VERY underrated.
In my experience, your lead is JUST as important as your headline.
(And in some cases, MORE important.)
That’s because your prospect uses the first few lines of your copy to decide whether or not to keep reading. And if you lose them here, you’ve lost them for good.
With that, here are simple strategies that you can use to write compelling leads.
Start With a Hook
The first sentence of your lead is HUGE.
So make sure your first line grabs people by the eyeballs.
For example, this lead from one of our sales pages is designed to grab attention with a compelling stat:
And here are some “copy and paste” first lines that you can use in your leads:
- “Does this sound familiar?”
- “Now you can now [benefit] in [timeframe] without [common solution]”
- “You know the feeling…”
- “New study finds [surprising result]”
- “Introducing: [product name]. A new way to [benefit] backed by [proof]”
- “I struggled with [problem] for [X years]. Until one day…”
Use Mini-Stories
Stories are a great way to hook people… and keep them reading.
The problem is:
Your lead should be short and sweet. This means you don’t have a lot of room to tell an epic story.
Enter: Mini-stories.
As the name suggests, mini-stories condense a story into 4-5 lines.
For example, I kick off the sales page of my flagship course with a super short story:
Note: This lead is based on a real exchange with a prospective customer. I knew that lots of people related to how John felt. So I literally copied and pasted his message into the sales letter.
Complement the Headline
Sometimes your lead can just complement your headline.
In other words, you use your headline to grab their attention:
And drum up interest with your lead:
(Yup, that’s the “A” and “I” from the AIDA Formula.)
For example, the lead in the sales page for my YouTube SEO course builds on the promise in the headline:
8 Lines or Less
Whether it’s a blog post, video script, sales page or email newsletter, you want your lead to be SUPER short.
(8 lines max.)
Remember:
The goal of your lead is to grab someone’s attention so they keep reading.
And once you’ve done that, it’s time to transition into the meat of your page.
For example, I keep my blog post introductions to around 6 lines:
That way, I hook the reader with a strong lead… then jump right into the content itself.
Chapter 6: How to Write Compelling Copy
In this chapter, I’m going to show you EXACTLY how to write awesome copy.
So if you want to write better:
- Blog posts
- Emails
- Social media posts
- Ad copy
- Sales letters
Then this chapter is a must-read.
Write Like You Talk
This is the ultimate copywriting superhack.
For example, check out this paragraph from one of my recent newsletter emails: