ontents

Secret #1 Never Write from a Blank Page

Secret #2 Verb is the Word

Secret #3 Customer Copywriter

Secret #4 Shorten the Distance to Value

Secret #5 Keep it Sticky, Stupid

Secret #6 Write Short

Secret #7 Plug and Play

Secret #8 Something New

Secret #9 Raise the Stakes

Secret #10 (Social) Prove It

Secret #11 Meet at the Crossroads

 What are the ingredients of good copywriting?
Words like clarity, persuasion, and engagement come to mind. The best
copywriters are like the best sales people. They know just the right stories
to tell, words to use, and ideas to explain to make prospects say, “Yes!”

Great copywriting is one of the most powerful marketing tools.

And as far as I can tell, people aren’t born great copywriters. Copywriting is
learned through regular writing practice, feedback from customers, and by
paying attention to the psychological triggers that make people want to pull
out their credit cards.

Many books have been written about persuasion, sales, and copywriting. I
won’t pretend that I can summarize all that value in one playbook. Instead,
I wrote this playbook to equip entrepreneurs, marketers, and beginning
copywriters with plug-and-play techniques for writing good copy.

Learning to write copy that sells is one of the best investments you can
make in your business. It doesn’t just help you clarify your offering and
make your ideas more persuasive. Clear copy can help you:

Improve sales Foster trust

Increase leads Increase your average order value
Shorten customer service calls Raise money to support an important cause
Inspire brand loyalty Teach a complex subject with simplicity

I’d know. I’ve seen copy accomplish all of those things—and much more.

I’ve been writing copy for over seven years (two years in-house and five years
as a full-time freelancer). I wrote this playbook to condense my eleven favorite
copywriting secrets into a brief yet comprehensive guide for great copywriting.

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 The tactics you’ll find in this playbook are intended to help you in several ways.
Yes, they’ll enable you to write more persuasively and hopefully improve your
sales. But also, I believe many of these tactics simplify the writing and research
process, helping you get more (and higher quality) writing done in less time.

These tactics are meant to inspire you to explore new mental models as you
write.

This guide does not focus on one specific form of copywriting. Some tactics
can be used broadly across website copy, billboards, and marketing pamphlets.
Others will help you write stronger long-form content like white papers, ebooks
(like this one!), and blogs. My goal is to help the entrepreneur, marketer, or
freelancer who needs to write anything and everything for their business. By
design, these methods can be broadly applied.

These tactics are not hard-and-fast rules. There are many ways to write
clear and persuasive copy. These are simply tactics that have worked for me
throughout my career as a SaaS copywriter. I only wish that I’d learned some
of them sooner. It might have saved me hours of agony staring at a flashing
cursor.

Hopefully it saves you from the same.

Here are my 11 copywriting secrets you can’t afford to miss.

Alexander Lewis
Lewis Commercial Writing

Lewis
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SECRET #1
Never Write from
a Blank Page
 A blank page is a terrible (and unnecessarily difficult)
way to write anything.
Writing good copy becomes much easier when you begin with a research-
based structure. Structure eliminates guessing games. It keeps you focused on
writing the copy that matters. And it helps your final copy look the way it should
on the page.

In other words, structure provides coherence.

Plus, structure makes the actual writing process much faster. If you use
structure correctly, all you have to do is fill in the content gaps.

Structure eliminates the most common

beginning copywriter mistake
A lot of first-time copywriters skip the most obvious question: What does good
copywriting look like?

I’m not talking about the words. I’m talking about aesthetics. Before you write a
word of website copy, for example, you should understand what good website
copy looks like. Before you write a blog post, you should consider what they
look like.

This is where structure comes into play. Let’s stick with the website copywriting
example.

If you’re writing website copy, first ask yourself: How do the best websites in
my industry structure their information?

You’re not stealing anyone’s language or website layout. All I want you to do is
realize how words are structured on a website and then emulate that structure
in your preferred word processor.

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 For example, in my niche of SaaS, the most user-friendly websites usually
present their information in a structure following this basic formula:

Header (large text that describes a benefit for the reader)

Body (smaller text that provides more context and information to support the header)

Button (call-to-action)

Here’s an example from AppSumo’s website:

When I start a new copywriting project, rather than starting with a completely blank
page, I’ll open Google Docs and begin by outlining the website I’d like to create. I’ll
simply write “Headline” or “Body” to fill space. I often use the Insert > Table feature
to build structured sections into the doc and capture the basic flow I desire for the
finished site.

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 Pro tip: To make the lines of a table disappear, right click > Table properties >
Table border > set color to white to make the table blend into the page

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 Why does structure matter?
Beginning with structure accomplishes three important things for your writing process.

Structure ensures that your messaging is communicated quickly,

simply, and in a user-friendly format that is familiar to the reader.
Many first-time copywriters create walls of text that are hard to read
(and slow at getting to the point). By starting with a structure that
reflects the best practice of other websites (or ebooks, blog posts,
etc.), writing copy becomes a process of simply filling in the gaps.

Structure makes writing faster and easier. Many people are intimidated
by a blank page. You’re trying to create something out of nothing. It’s
much more efficient to begin with content already in place. Even if your
words just say “headline,” it’s easier for you to envision the real text that
ought to be in that spot. So, beginning with structure speeds up the
writing process (and makes your fear of the blank page irrelevant).

Structure makes handoff a delight. Clients and designers consistently

tell me they love when a web page has structure like this—because they
can really see how a web page is going to come to life. This makes
feedback and collaboration easier for everyone.

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SECRET #2
Verb is the Word
 One of the most common copywriting mistakes people
make is making themselves—or their business—the
focus of their copy.

It’s helpful to remember that most customers visit your website with selfish
motives. They’re not there to support your business (though that might be the
outcome of their visit). Every visitor on your website is there to solve a problem,
be entertained, or learn. That means it’s your job to help them achieve their
goal as quickly as possible, which starts by putting the customer at the center
of your copy.

When a customer arrives on your website, your copy should be in full service
to their mission. They are on your website for a reason, after all, and your copy
should help them fulfill that mission with the least amount of friction. Reducing
friction in your copy starts with customer-centric messaging.

The simplest way to use customer-centric messaging is to write in the second

person, starting your core headlines and body copy with a verb. This places
readers at the center of the action you want them to take on your website.

Example

Business-focused: “We provide elegant makeup solutions for brides on

their wedding day.”

Customer-focused: “Walk down the aisle with a flawless, radiant glow.

Hire a professional makeup artist who matches your vibe—and budget.”

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 By putting customers — and their goals — at the center of the action, you make
it easier for them to buy from you. You’ve empowered them to quickly solve
their problem, resulting in a better user experience for the customer and a
faster sale for the business.

Customer-centric copy is better for everyone.

Use verb-first language (like I just did here)

One of the easiest ways to improve your website copy is remembering to start
your headlines with a verb.

Starting with a verb forces the reader to insert an understood “you” at the
beginning of the sentence they’re reading. This one rule helps copywriters
avoid some of the slipperiest slopes in writing. Rather than talking about the
company, you’re forced to talk about the value the company offers the reader
(or customer). The reader is the focus of the sentence.

Instead of saying, “XYC Landscape exists to offer lawn mowing and weed
eating services around the Baltimore area” you are forced to talk about the
customer. You might instead say, “Eliminate weeds forever. Get the soft green
lawn you’ve been searching for. Get a free lawn quote today.”

See what I did there? Sure, it’s not the most clever copy you’ve ever read, but
the second example achieves the goal of putting the customer first.

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 Finding the right verb
How do you find the right verb for the job?

In one sense, any verb will do. But keep in mind that the more powerful the
word, the better. Especially with headlines, the verb you choose may be the
very first word they read on your website. You want to make an impact, which
means thinking carefully about the action site visitors want to take.

You can take this in two directions: Practical or powerful.

To be practical, start with a verb that describes the core action the reader
will take. If you’re marketing a newsletter, for example, your sentence may
look something like this: “Subscribe for weekly tactics about growing your
business.”

Nothing flashy, the copy gets straight to the point. It’s fast and practical.

The alternative is powerful, flashy, and is intended to empower the reader — to

make a lasting impression.

This year my partner was helping a women-focused nonprofit organization with

their email signup form. Instead of “Sign up to never miss an update,” she used
customer-generated copy to write the headline “Rejoice in the sisterhood!”

(Want to learn how to get customers to write your copy? More on that in the
next chapter.)

Instead of some more practical or expected copy, she used customer language
to add a moment of connection and excitement around subscribing to the
newsletter. With a bit of body copy to explain what people were signing up for
(a newsletter), this copy is a powerful headline—and adds a brand moment to
their home page.

There isn’t a right or wrong version. Both types of verbs have their place. Which
type of verb will you use on your website?

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SECRET #3
Customer Copywriter
 I have some bad news. You are not the best
copywriter for your business.

Okay, then. Who is the best copywriter for your business?

Your customers.

As soon as you have worked on a project, you take on the bias of

understanding that product from the creator’s — rather than the customer’s —
perspective. What are the most important benefits? How would a customer
talk about your product to a friend or colleague? It would likely be very different
from how, say, the developer or CEO talks about the same product.

In other words, the best way to write powerful copy is to simply listen to how
customers talk about your company, product, and services. Then use their
exact language in your actual marketing copy.

I’ll show you what I mean.

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 The power of customer language
One of my favorite examples of borrowing customer language was for a
website copywriting project in 2020. A tech recruiting firm needed copy to
go along with a full website rebrand. They hired me and my partner Sarabeth
Lewis for the job.

We requested case studies, information about their firm, and any customer
reviews the recruiters had received over the years.

We wanted to find language that captured both the practical and emotional
side of recruiting—something I knew very little about as an outsider. What
problems do recruiters solve for customers? Hiring, yes, but is there something
deeper?

While browsing one of their case studies, I came across a story from one of
their clients, a medium-size tech company. Before working with recruiters, the
client had tried to perform all hiring on their own. They kept running into the
same big problem: the people they wanted to recruit kept getting snatched
up by members of the almighty FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix,
Google).

One particular loss became the final straw. As the client explained in the case
study, “We were tired of missing out on top candidates.”

There it was. The client did the work for me. I tweaked the phrase slightly
and turned it into copy for the recruiter’s above the fold. The first line of their
website now reads, “Stop missing out on top candidates.”

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 How to gather customer language
So, how do you uncover customer language to use in your copy?

Here are the most common places I turn to find customer language:

Talk to customers: Get them on the phone. Before the call, come up with a
series of questions about how the customer discovered your product, what
problems it solves for them, and what they enjoy most about using your
product. Record the call (with their permission) and then listen carefully to how
they discuss your company and product. Their words will help you understand
things from the customer’s perspective, giving you new language from which to
write.

Mine online reviews: The most obvious reviews to read are of your own
product. If you’re a software product, check places like G2, AppSumo, and
Product Hunt to find the language people are using to talk about your offerings.
If you’re a new company without customer reviews, you can instead read the
online reviews of your competitors.

Read article comments: When I’m writing about a service, product, business,
or industry that doesn’t have many online reviews, I rely on the comment
section of related articles. For example, for a recent sales deck about the fast
food industry, I scrolled to the bottom of multiple New York Times and Fox
News articles related to the subject. These turned out to be a treasure trove of
language from people emotionally invested in the subject.

Read case studies: Like online reviews, case studies can be a goldmine for
uncovering customer language. Specifically, you want to look for exact quotes
from customers. Case studies are often structured in a way that gives you
a glimpse into before, during, and after a customer used your product. This
shows you the pain they experienced before discovering your product, what
onboarding was like, and how your tools are helping the customer today (or
helped them in the past).

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 Structure your copy with customer language
As I showed in the recruiting example above, you can use a customer’s exact
words to write your copy. But even before you put their exact words on the
page, you can also use customer language to structure the information you
want to present.

During customer interviews and review mining, you can begin to create an
information hierarchy doc. This is essentially a list of your most important
product features, as categorized by your customer preferences and how often
they talk about them. If all your customers say they use your product for the
same two or three features, then it’s important to structure your copy in a way
that puts those features front and center.

Let’s pretend you created a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) for real
estate agents. As you read customer reviews for your product online, and listen
to customers in interviews, maybe you begin to notice that every customer
talks about how much they love the automated email tracker. Oh, and they also
love the Important Dates feature that reminds them about upcoming birthdays,
anniversaries, and so on.

Your customers have just told you their favorite features. Now as you structure
your landing page or brochure, you can keep those points at the tippy top.

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 Use customer language to write the copy
Once you’ve structured your copy based on customer feedback, you can use
their exact language to help you write the copy. This goes back to the story I
told about the tech recruiting client.

I’ll usually create a doc or spreadsheet and copy-paste my favorite words,

sentences, and stories to have everything in one place. As I begin writing my
copy, I’ll have the customer language doc open on one screen and my draft on
the other.

Armed with powerful customer language, I can usually fill in the copy pretty
fast. Customers have already done the hard work for me. All I had to do was
listen.

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SECRET #4
Shorten the Distance to Value
 From the customer’s perspective, what is the
purpose of a call to action?
In my opinion, a call to action should shorten the distance to value. If I’m on
your website looking for shoes, the call to action might say, “Shop shoes.”

A bad alternative—if you’re looking for sales—might say something like: “Learn
more about how we sell shoes.”

Why doesn’t the second call to action example work? Because it adds one
more step between a customer and what they’re trying to accomplish. Every
call to action either extends or shortens the distance a customer is from
where they want to be. You should always try to shorten the distance. This
makes it more likely that your customer actually buys.

The purpose of a call to action

On the web, most calls to action appear in the form of buttons on an ad or
website. The copy above the button is the build up. The button (and call to
action) is the punchline.

A great call to action delivers value fast. It takes into consideration the reason
most people come to your website, and then hands that value to them as soon
as possible.

So when you’re thinking about what to write as your call to action (CTA),
consider what action would shorten the distance to the value the customer
is looking for. Don’t beat around the bush. Be straightforward in helping the
prospect.

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 Another way to think of this: You want to design your website (and write your
CTA) in such a way that the easiest thing a customer can do on your website
is buy from you. By making the intended action clear, you reduce the friction
between a customer learning about you and making their first purchase.

Most of the time, this means avoiding phrases like, “Learn more” or “Read
more.” These phrases have what Nielsen calls low “information scent.” In other
words, they don’t tell your customer very much at all.

To the customer, these CTAs sound like taking the scenic route when they’d
rather take a direct one. Instead, use a phrase that shortens the distance
between a customer and their goal. “Start my 15-day free trial” or “Download
the free guide” are more direct and helpful. The customer can get what they
want, without any fuss.

Pro tip: If you know your customers share a common objection,

consider putting a counter to that objection in the CTA with a dash,
for example: “Download now — it’s free” or as a small bit microcopy
just below the button. (“No purchase necessary.”)

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 Think like Thumbtack
One of my favorite examples of a company that shortens the distance to value
is Thumbtack.

Thumbtack is a local project outsourcing website. You can post jobs like
painting, moving, and lawncare—or just browse their site for nearby service
providers.

As soon as you arrive on Thumbtack’s website, you’re presented with a search

bar. The call to action is to search for the specific service you’re looking
for. Notice the call to action doesn’t say, “Learn more about Thumbtack,” or
“Launch Thumbtack.” They have the build up (Find local professionals for pretty
much anything) and then a location-based search bar to help you immediately
type in the service you’re looking for.

It’s the absolute shortest distance to value: a search engine for professional
services.

They even include a toggle for professionals looking for work. Generally
speaking, Thumbtack knows they have two customers: service providers and
the people who hire them. Thumbtack has determined that the primary user of
their website is people shopping for professional services (“Hire a pro”), so they
made searchers the focus of their primary call to action. But the secondary call
to action isn’t far behind (“Find customers”).

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 Avoid the opposite: extending the distance
Now let’s define more clearly what you should avoid when creating a call to
action. If shortening the distance is the goal, then anything that extends the
distance between a customer and value will cost you customers.

The most common culprit of extending the distance is the phrase “Learn more.”

There are contexts in which “learn more” works as a call to action. But for most
companies, “learn more” as the primary CTA will cost you money. “Learn more”
sounds like I’m being directed to an informational resource. What if I want to
simply buy or subscribe?

Consider how Substack prioritizes the ideal call to action, while still giving
readers an opportunity to take the scenic route. You can tell that Substack’s
top priority is subscriptions. The more people who subscribe, the more revenue
they generate.

However, they know subscriptions are often dependent on first giving an author
a test run. So their secondary call to action is “Let me read it first.”

Primary CTA

Secondary CTA

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 “Let me read it first” is one more step between Substack and getting a new
subscriber. It’s a necessary alternative to their ideal call to action. Now imagine
if Substack eliminated the “Subscribe” call to action from this landing page.
They’d probably lose a very high percentage of subscribers.

And that’s exactly what happens to businesses when they use calls to action
like “Learn more,” “Read more,” or “Find out more.”

Yes, some buyers want more information. The problem is, those buyers are
usually willing to click around your website a while to find the information
they’re looking for. You want to prioritize meeting the need of someone who is
ready to buy or subscribe, which means giving calls to action that move people
toward the ideal next step.

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SECRET #5
Keep it Sticky, Stupid
 I borrowed the term “sticky” from all-star
copywriter Joanna Wiebe.

While taking one of her masterminds last year, she reviewed some website
copy I was writing for a client. Her feedback centered around one of my
headlines, which she described as not being “sticky.”

She was right. I was using jargon that would have gone in one ear and out the
other.

Sticky words and sentences form memories in our minds. We carry them like
images or stories as we continue to scroll the page. When a phrase is not
sticky, we read a line and almost immediately forget it.

Finding sticky language is a particular challenge for B2B and technical

businesses. The opposite of stickiness is jargon, which slips out of the
mind almost as soon as it enters. Sticky language is visual. It latches onto
something in the brain that ensures the reader holds onto the idea as they
scroll further down the page.

If I tell you that my company offers “business solutions for streamlining

processes,” I’ve given you a bunch of jargon. You know nothing new about my
business from that sentence.

Resist the (often strong) urge to ship copy like this. Just don’t do it.

So, what’s the alternative?

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 Answer “What’s in it for me?” for the customer
One of the most common causes of jargon is simply writing things your
customers don’t care about. This comes down to what many marketers call the
difference between features and benefits. Features are specs. Benefits are how
your features positively impact the customer.

This is the famous iPod slogan, “1,000 songs in your pocket,” in action. While
other music players were talking about gigabytes and storage, Apple cut to the
chase. They named what mattered to their customers: being able to listen to all
their favorite songs, wherever they go.

So the next time you write a sentence or paragraph about your product,
imagine your best customer could read that line. Would they get excited about
what you just wrote? Or would they grimace and ask, “What’s in it for me?”

Benefits have an impact on people’s lives. They are felt. So if you have a list of
features to write about, you just have to uncover that benefit and write about
that instead of just the feature. Start by asking:

What can the feature help people do?

What will it feel like to enjoy that feature?

Example
“Hand-crafted porcelain plates” are nice, but “Throw a dinner party for the
ages” is going to really catch someone’s attention who is curious about buying
a snazzy new dinnerware set.

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 Trade vague for visual
A lot of jargon is the result of speaking in generalities instead of specifics. The
carwash down the street isn’t marketed as “a water-based transformation
solution for vehicles.” It’s called a carwash. It’s the clearest, simplest, and
most visual term for what is being offered.

When you’ve written a sentence about your product or company, do the

visualization test. Look at each word in the sentence and determine if your
words have a visual counterpart. As soon as you do this, words like “synergy,”
“solution,” or “tactical” are the first to the chopping block.

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SECRET #6
Write Short
 Let me get straight to the point: How quickly
can you communicate the value of your
product to a reader?

That should be your goal as a copywriter. Keep it as simple and short as

possible.

Here are some tactics for writing shorter copy.

Short words
“Never use a long word where a short one will do.” — George Orwell

In college, most of us learned to write with a thesaurus. Our goal was to write
academically, which meant finding erudite words that made our argument
sound loquacious.

Ugh.

The first thing you should do to improve your copy is burn your thesaurus.
Scrub your brain of the desire to sound smart. Go with the short and natural
word rather than the one you might memorize for the GRE.

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 Short sentences
Many great authors can write long, beautiful winding sentences that draw
us to the edge of our seats. As a copywriter, don’t ever try to show off your
“wordsmithing.” Your goal is to write with the greatest possible simplicity and
clarity. This means short sentences are key.

When you find a long sentence in your copy, try breaking it down into two or
more sentences instead. Yes, good writing contains variety. But the shorter
your sentences, the easier it will be for readers to understand your copy — and
hopefully make a purchase.

Simplify your writing

Many B2B companies struggle with using too much jargon. Product creators often
use certain technical terms that customers don’t necessarily understand. One of
the best things you can do to strengthen your copy is simplifying it.

How do you write more simply?

Well, other than using the advice above, here are a couple hacks you can borrow.

Write your copy in an email draft instead of a word processing tool. Writing in
a word processor can intimidate people. It causes many people to try to make
their writing sound important. This leads to long sentences and jargon. Instead,
write your copy in an email draft. Since email tends to feel more casual, you
may find yourself writing more clearly this way.

Use the Hemingway App. This is a freemium tool that tries to help you write
more simply. You can plug in some text, and the algorithm will tell you which
words to delete, sentences to change, and give you a rating as to the simplicity
of your writing.

Read your copy out loud. One of the most common tricks I use to simplify my
writing is reading my content out loud. If your sentences are tongue twisters
or you have trouble pronouncing any words, change them. It’s an easy way to
make your writing sound more natural.

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SECRET #7
Plug and Play
 Can you keep a secret?

Many of the best copywriters in the world owe some of their best work to
formulas that were invented decades ago.

Good copywriting isn’t just about the words you choose. It’s about the greater
story you’re telling. Great copywriting often follows a narrative that builds upon
itself, and eventually nudges people to take the intended action.

Often, these narratives are plug-and-play formulas that anyone can master
through a little practice.

These formulas can be used to write entire sales pages, a short advertising
script, or an individual section on a website. Here are two common copywriting
formulas:

AIDA
AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

It’s pretty straightforward, but let’s break down some of these words and how
they can be applied:

Attention: This is often called the “hook.” This is the sentence that draws the
reader in from the first moment they arrive on your blog or website. Great
hooks come in multiple forms. Sometimes it’s a surprising fact, a fascinating
story, a question, or a subverted idea. The more curiosity you can inspire in the
first sentence, the more likely you are to keep readers, well, hooked.

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 Interest: Once a reader is hooked, you want to carry that curiosity further down
the page. This can mean continuing the story, posing additional questions, or
explaining a complex or unconventional phenomenon. Most importantly, you
want to convey why this message or narrative is interesting to the reader.

Desire: Now, you turn interest into desire. “Imagine…”, “what if…” — this kind
of language invites readers to open themselves up to something they want.
Readers begin to picture their lives through the lens you’re creating for them
using your copy.

Action: You’ve kept their interest and fostered their desire. Now it’s time to
present them with an opportunity to turn that desire into real, tangible value.
This is where you call the reader to action, so that they can take the necessary
step to realize the value you’re offering.

PAS
PAS is an acronym for Problem, Agitate, and Solution. Here’s a breakdown:

Problem: There’s a problem, and your opening statement should name that
problem with an archer’s precision. The more clearly you can describe the
problem your customer is facing, the more likely the reader will believe you
have a solution to their problem. You foster trust from the very first sentence.

Agitate: It’s not enough to simply name a problem. What are the ramifications?
What is it costing the reader to continue with their current situation? The reader
should understand the full weight of the problem at hand. This is where you
agitate the problem, diving deep into the ramifications and feelings that go
along with the reader’s problem.

Solution: Now that you’ve shown the full weight of the problem, it’s time to
present the solution: Your product or service. This is where you talk about
the value of your business and how the reader can access that value. It’s a
breakdown of your products, followed by a clear call to action.

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SECRET #8
Something New
 Picasso supposedly once said that “Good artists
copy. Great artists steal.” Copywriters took this
a little too far.
The internet is full of lazy, stolen copy. One blogger published a stat, then
everyone else republished the same stat until it was on every top answer to a
Google search query.

Can we get some originality around here?

The truth is, surprising a customer is one of the best ways to stand out as
a brand. And one of the best ways to surprise someone is by producing
something original: An original story or data point.

Some of the best copy and articles contain new information at their core. If you
want your new white paper to get media attention, then publish something that
journalists have never read before. If you want customers to remember your
product, then tell them a story or idea they’ve never heard before.

Give us the goods. Here’s how.

Tell me a good story

Narrative sells. It also holds our attention, stirs our curiosity, and turns boring
information into tales we think about long after we’ve heard or read them.

One of the best ways to improve your website copy, case study, or blog post is
by telling new stories.

Tell your founding story. Interview a customer. Think about a story from a
lesser-known book you love. Great stories are all around us. The more work you
do up front to uncover these stories, the more interesting your writing will be
when you click publish.

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 Crack a great joke
Laughter is a response rooted in surprise. That’s why people say it’s all about
timing. When you crack a well-timed joke, it connects with people. And in the
case of copywriting, a well-placed joke can at the very least keep a reader
engaged, and at the very best, make your website or blog post memorable. The
surprising nature of laughter makes moments of humor easier to remember.

I’m not going to attempt to teach anyone comedy. (Probably not qualified,
anyway.) But if you find opportunities to crack a joke or drop a pun in your copy
that doesn’t distract or steal from you larger goals, then go for it. Make ‘em laugh.

Give me the numbers

Everyone loves a good stat. If you’ve got them, flaunt them. If your company has new
data about your industry or product, one of the best ways to leverage that data for
sales or downloads is to use it in content.

This can be gated content to encourage site visitors to give you their contact
information. Or it can be public data that’s meant to drive backlinks and publicity.
Either way, if you want to quickly get the attention of journalists, bloggers, and
customers, then publish some powerful data from your product or a recent survey.
Humans will eat it up.

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 How? Put on your journalist hat
The best way to find something new is to step away from the internet.

You need to find primary sources who aren’t writing blog posts. Find the people
who are writing books, publishing in magazines, or best of all: not publishing
anywhere.

Let’s start with those first two sources: Books and magazines. These are
awesome sources for good stories. For one thing, they had to pass a higher
barrier to entry than a blog post to be published. It’s much harder to get a story
published in book form than web form. Same goes for magazines. If you’re
looking for an interesting fact or story, then turn to sources that aren’t yet
available on the web.

Read books on the subject or magazine articles. Then, source the stories that
you find exciting or the data you find surprising. These make powerful hooks that
keep readers wanting more. Plus, you’ll stand out among all the other websites.
Most of them are just pulling stats and stories from one another because it’s
easier to Google a question than crack open an article or book.

But the best source of new stories and data is going direct to the experts. Get
on the phone with people who are experienced in their field. Most experts aren’t
writers or speakers, they’re simply skilled people doing their job day in and day
out, with little recognition beyond their colleagues and personal network. Connect
with these people and ask if you may interview them to write a story. Often,
people will be more than happy to provide some stories or facts.

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SECRET #9
Raise the Stakes
 I adore nonfiction.
However, one of my complaints about most nonfiction writing is that authors
tend to be bad at raising the stakes. It’s one thing to tell a story. It’s another to
make people feel like something is truly on the line. It takes patience and literary
skill that is hard to match. Erik Larson nails this in his writing, which is why he’s
become one of my favorite nonfiction authors.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be Erik Larson to raise the stakes for your
customers on your website. Often, accurately naming the problem is more
important than naming the solution. If you can accurately name the problem, then
most potential customers will feel so understood that they’ll begin to believe you
have a remedy.

Borrow tactics from your favorite thriller

and horror novels
Stephen King would likely make a solid copywriter. He knows how to keep
readers turning the next page, desperate to know what happens next.

One way to describe a copywriter’s job is to maintain interest. Your first sentence
should drive enough curiosity that the reader must read the next, and so on.

Since suspense and thriller books know how to keep readers glued to the page,
there are understandably a few principles we can borrow from these genres to
keep readers hooked.

Lewis
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 Let readers know what’s at stake
Fear and pain can sell a lot of products. Don’t go over the top. Fear mongering
is not the same as pointing out real challenges and pains people experience
before using your product. Your product is solving a problem for someone. How
does your customer experience that problem before it’s solved? Do they have
anxiety? Maybe they don’t have the right tool to make a good decision quickly.
Are they tired of doing monotonous tasks? Maybe things should be automated.
Are they concerned their sales numbers won’t be high enough to achieve the next
promotion or bonus? It might be time to get a stronger CRM.

Fear, when leveraged well, can be a great driver for sales. More than that, it shows
the customer that you understand them. When a company correctly names the
pain their customer is experiencing, the customer is a lot more likely to believe
that company also has a solution for them. By naming the pain, it’s assumed you
have the remedy.

In horror and copywriting, the stakes must be high enough for readers to maintain
a vested interest in what you’re selling. The best way to do that is to understand
some core human motivations: fear, excitement, hunger, social pressure, or our
desire to maintain a certain appearance.

You’re never just selling a product or service. You’re selling the emotions behind
the reader’s search for your solution.

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 Tease something valuable
The other side of raising the stakes is getting people excited about something.
Often that “something” is simply a better, happier, or more productive version of
themselves.

Imagine: satisfying your customer’s wildest dreams while earning more money!

See, I just did it there.

It’s not enough for customers to fear a negative outcome. Customers should also
have something to look forward to, a dream that your product helps them fulfill.

Ask yourself how your marketing can help customers start dreaming about how
great life and work will be once they begin using your product. Prompt the spoken
or unspoken “What if…” in your marketing copy.

The protagonist of any scary story must have a will of their own, something to
pursue. What experience, treasure, or outcome causes them to keep going, no
matter the fear or odds?

Without this element of purpose, a character comes across as a prop that only
exists to eventually be consumed by a monster lurking in the dark. The reader
might as well root for the monster since it at least has motivations: hunger,
murder.

The same is true in copywriting. Does the reader get to the bottom of your
landing page and shrug, “So what?” That’s a sign that the reward wasn’t clear
enough.

Lewis
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 Show, don’t tell
Maybe this one is simply a personal preference. When I read a scary story,
I don’t like to hear all the gory details. Too much detail can steal from the
more horrifying picture my mind dreams up on its own.

I prefer stories that are matter of fact. They don’t go over the top to drive
home a point. Copywriting is similar. A little hyperbole never hurt a sales
page, but it’s better to show than tell.

Don’t say, “This is the most amazing product ever created.” Instead, let me
decide that it’s the most amazing product by showing me how the product
solves the problem I need it to solve.

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 Make people hungry (then give them the feast)
Not all great inventions catch on right away. In the case of light bulbs,
Thomas Edison struggled to convince (potentially crooked) politicians to
finally allow his bulbs to replace lamps in New York City.

To finally convince them, Edison hosted a long speech and invited all the
politicians he needed to influence. Edison intentionally gave an extremely
long talk at night. By the time the talk was over, the entire crowd was
extremely hungry. Then Edison led the attendees up the stairs to a pitch
dark room. When everyone had entered, he flipped on his Edison bulbs to
reveal a massive feast.

The next day, the politicians announced that Edison’s bulbs would light New
York City.

You can use similar tactics in copywriting. Get someone “hungry” for
something, and then give it to them. One of my favorite examples of
this is from Ramit Sethi. Ramit Sethi teaches many courses around
entrepreneurship, personal finance, and professional development. Some
of his landing pages for courses include “what if’’ language — which is
exactly what it sounds like. Ramit makes his readers hungry by stirring up
their imaginations from the first two words. What if you didn’t have to worry
about your finances? What if you could start a business that helped you
earn enough money to surpass your salary?

Those are my sentences, not his. But you get the picture. By using “what if”
language, Ramit is asking you to imagine the best case scenario.

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 I’ll occasionally use a similar tactic when speaking with new prospects.
While hearing about their project, I’ll ask: If this project achieved your
wildest dreams, what would it look like?

In this case, I’m doing two things at once. On one hand, I’m asking my
prospect to open their imagination up to me. By requesting this, I’m making
a subtle hint that I’m the person capable of bringing that to life. I’m also
getting the prospect to reveal any additional dreams they have for the
project that they may not have revealed yet. I get more informed (and build
some additional trust along the way)

Lewis
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SECRET #10
(Social) Prove It
 One of the most powerful forces in
copywriting is social proof.
This is when you show that people are buying your product. Or better yet,
not only that people are buying, but that they’re raving about your product
— they can’t get enough. Social proof looks like concert tickets selling out
in 90 seconds. Or having to book a restaurant reservation 4 months in
advance. Social proof signals that demand is on the rise. Other people want
what they’re selling, so you better get in line fast.

Social proof comes in many forms. I’ll cover some of the best forms of
social proof you can use on your website.

Customer reviews
One of the most common forms of social proof is the customer review. Any
positive review of your services will do, but if you have several to choose
from and don’t know which one to display, use this filter. The best reviews
contain one or more of these elements:

Data about how your product or services helped the customer

A before/after story to highlight the problem and outcome
When a reviewer expresses why they chose you over your competitors
When a reviewer names the exact service they used and what their
experience was like using it

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 Logos
For B2B companies, a logo bar is one of the easiest ways to show
prospects that you’re trusted by Big Deal companies. If you’ve earned
publicity over the years, it’s also an opportunity to show logos from top
media brands who’ve interviewed you, quoted you, or published your ideas.

A logo bar simply shows the various websites and media companies
who’ve featured you. It’s a sign of vetting by other companies that trust you.
Think of it as a trust bridge. A new prospect may not know or trust you right
away, but they trust the companies on your website.

Put another way: The companies that they trust also trust you.

On my copywriting website, I use two forms of logo-based social proof. The

first includes logos from select companies I’ve had the pleasure of working
with over the years. I’ve been on multiple first-time client calls in which
the person on the other end said they contacted me because they saw I’d
worked with a company they respect.

Similarly, a little further down my home page, I also have a logo bar to
showcase some of the publications that have featured or talked about
my business over the years. Many people associate major media outlets
with prestige. By showing that I’ve appeared in prestigious media, I
communicate an implicit idea: The media that you respect also respect me.

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 Customer success stats
Tell us how many customers you serve. Tell us how many people subscribe
to your newsletter. Numbers speak volumes about your ability to deliver
value.

The key here is specificity and context. You want to be specific in your
numbers and give readers context for why those numbers matter. If you
run a lead generation company, your numbers might show the average by
which you decrease the advertising cost per lead for clients. If you run a
CRM (customer relationship management software), your numbers might
show how much your targeted messaging improved leads, conversions,
and TrustPilot scores.

The customer success stats on your website copy tell future customers
what results they can expect from working with you.

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 Social proof tools
When you walk past a busy coffee shop, there are multiple clear socially-
powered cues that communicate high consumer demand. The bustling
noise. The packed seats. The long line. As a passerby, these signs tell you
something about the business: Other people enjoy the product.

In fact, the longer the line for coffee, the more you begin to wonder about
the quality of this establishment’s coffee. It must be good if people are
willing to wait this long. Physical lines are a clear sign of social proof.

But this begs the question: How do you make the same impression on the
web, where physical lines and bustling stores can’t be directly replicated?

Several months ago I interviewed Jarrod Morris, founder of Evidence.io,

about this exact subject. I was working on an ebook for AppSumo called
Everyone’s Talking About Social Proof.

During our conversation, Jarrod told me that this exact situation happened
to him outside a few taco food trucks in Phoenix, AZ. Everything like price
and variety were equal across the food trucks, but one in particular had a
much longer line than the others. Where do you think Jarrod and his family
ate? Of course, the one with the line, because of the clearly higher demand.

This event later inspired Jarrod to create Evidence.io to replicate this

experience online. The tool works by using targeted “toast” notifications
to replicate the experience of being in a busy line. These notifications pop
up with small messages like, “Tyler from Chicago just bought this item.”
The message disappears, until a few seconds later when another flashes,
“Dominique from Austin just bought this item.”

These simple popups serve as social proof that’s meant to mimic the social
nature of going to an in-demand coffee shop or food truck.

Lewis
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SECRET #11
Meet at the Crossroads
 Thanks to the web, the average customer has
greater access to information than ever before.
That means better information about competitors and solution alternatives.
You’re not the only product solving this problem on the web. So… how do
you convince an educated researcher that your product is better than the
competition?

Find language at the crossroads of your product and your best competitors.
You want to show customers that your competitor’s greatest weakness is
your greatest strength. That differentiation — often called the USP (unique
selling point) — is communicated in the copy.

Let’s explore how to find these crossroads and then how to showcase
these differences without name-dropping your competitor’s names and
products in your ads.

The value of the crossroads

Naming your unique selling point — finding your crossroads — is one of
the best ways to position your product within the context of your industry.
For the avid researchers who know all about your competitors, this is your
opportunity to show your product as the best alternative.

When someone arrives on your website, they may be shopping based on

the weaknesses of other brands. For example, if this customer would like a
lot of hand-holding, but your competitors don’t offer support, then you can
talk about your award-winning customer experience team.

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 How to find crossroad language
My favorite place to find these crossroads is by looking at the 2-4 star
reviews on your competitor’s products. For SaaS products, sites like G2,
Capterra, and Product Hunt are great for reading reviews. You can also
simply Google “[competitor name] review” and likely find good resources.

You want to focus on the middle reviews (excluding 1 and 5 star reviews).
The middle review tiers show you the opinion of people who are somewhat
satisfied with the product, but they have reservations. These reservations
are your fodder for great marketing copy that differentiates you from the
competition.

Open a doc or spreadsheet on your computer. Every time you see a

negative review about your competitor that overlaps with one of your
strengths, write it in this doc. You’ll likely start to see some overlap. Three
or four commenters might complain about the same issue. This is your
opportunity to turn their pain into your product’s main selling point. Write
copy that speaks to these pain points to distinguish yourself from your
competition.

Of course, the catch here is that you should actually add value where your
competitors seem to be lacking. Don’t claim you offer great customer
support unless you’ve got the rockstar team to back it up. Otherwise, it’ll be
your reviews that will be scathing.

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 How to implement crossroads copy
Okay, so how do you actually turn these reviews into strong marketing
copy? There are two formulas I like to use: Pain framing and solution
framing.

For pain framing, you’re calling out the pain itself in the message. So,
let’s say you find multiple reviews about competitors about how slow
their product is. In a negative framing, you could say, “Stop missing sales
opportunities because of a slow dashboard.”

A solution framing would be similar: “Get more sales with a faster

dashboard.”

In both instances, you’re making a clear distinction between your product

and the industry standard. It’s a powerful way to show yourself as a market
leader — even if it’s leadership in just one element of your product.

Lewis
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When it comes to running a successful business, copywriting is one of the
most important skills you can master. Good copywriting comes in many
shapes and sizes. Hopefully this guide offers you some simple plug-and-
play advice for selling more products, delighting customers, and ultimately
getting more reach out of your content.

Now, go write
One of the hardest things about copywriting is just getting started. Tackling the
blank page intimidates a lot of people — and writing clear, impactful copy is even
harder.

I hope this guide helps you bring your best copy to every project. I tried to include
techniques that make the whole copywriting process easier, faster, and maybe
even a little fun.

If you have any questions about copywriting or marketing, feel free to email me at
alex@lewiscommercialwriting.com any time. I look forward to hearing about your
progress.

Also, if you want weekly tips about copywriting,

freelancing, or starting a career you love as a
writer, jump on my email list:

The Craft and Business of Writing

About Lewis Commercial Writing
Lewis Commercial Writing is trusted by Fortune 500 companies and some
of the fastest-growing B2B SaaS companies in the world.

We craft clear, personality-driven copy that delights readers, makes Google

proud, and nudges site visitors to make a purchase.

Behind the scenes, we’re just a simple husband and wife team. We provide
a suite of writing and consulting services, all meant to empower your brand
with copy that converts, guides, and helps customers find you online.

You can check out our website here: lewiscommercialwriting.com