10 tips to improve your copywriting

Get more sales, followers, and leads.

Copywriting

Over the years I’ve realized, communication is the most important skill. Writing being one of the most effective and important methods of communication.

Here’s why:

• Scalable. You can write something and have it read by millions. Social media makes this fairly easy. I’ve had nearly 10M impressions in 6 months. It’s insane.

• It gives you time to think. Speaking is great for conveying emotion and tone. But to do it most effectively, you still need to write a script. Having the time to sit and rewrite sentences over and over and rethink your argument makes it way stronger.

• The viewer can keep reading it. You say something and it’ll be forgotten quickly. They’ll remember what they want to remember. When you write something down they can keep referencing it and re-reading it to fully absorb and remember your point, not the point they want.

For example, my girlfriend’s co-parent was making our lives difficult trying to plan our first vacation in 3 years. He was refusing to take care of the kids on our proposed dates and was telling my girlfriend to take him to court.

I wrote a letter to him to come from my girlfriend explaining the situation clearly and without judgment. His first reaction was an emotional knee jerk and told her to file the court paperwork.

28 minutes later he emailed again to say “actually, I never wanted to ruin your trip, sounds like this was hard to plan, go ahead, have fun!”

Copywriting is insanely powerful. Here are 10 tips to make it better:

1. Make it about them

Most people focus on what matters to them—their product and its features. Instead, talk about what’s in it for them.

“People aren’t against you, they’re just for themselves”

Think: What are the main problems you solve? How does their life change as a result?

2. Make it relatable

Relate your product to something that they already understand perfectly. It’s a shortcut to comprehension.

Tip: Ask current customers how they explain your product to a friend. Find the analogies they use.

3. Cut the fluff

Remove words that don’t add value. Particularly early on. People have infinite things demanding their attention. You need to hook their interest as succinctly as possible.

Tip: Remove adverbs, adjectives, and filler words—it makes it punchier. Also try restructuring the sentence entirely.

4. Use simple words

Don’t use a $10 word when a $0.05 word will do. Don’t use industry jargon either. Pretend you’re explaining it to a 10-year old or a grandparent.

Tip: This applies even if your audience is highly intelligent. Everyone appreciates it.

#5. Be specific

Don't make them do the work. Spell it out for them and make it easy to picture what they're getting.

Tip: Do audience research to identify the specific things they care about most and highlight them.