What is Copywriting?
Don’t be ashamed. If you’re anything like I was, when you hear the word copywriting, it may conjure thoughts of laws regarding the legal use (or lack thereof) of certain particular pieces of art or other intellectual properties.
Boy does that sound exciting.
Well, luckily for us, that is copyRIGHTing not copyWRITing.
CopyWRITing, is the practice of writing public materials for the purpose of influencing a person or group of persons to take a particular action.
In other words, writing ads.
That is what I have studied and practiced for the past month.
This post is a breakdown of the methods I used to learn this skill as well as the projects I completed along the way.
The Psychology of Copywriting.
Psychology is the main principle of copywriting. Learning how people think. What makes them want to read what you’ve written, what makes them enjoy reading it, and what you can do to influence them through your writing.
There are so many tips out there on how to accomplish those objectives through your writing and over the past month, I have studied quite a few of them.
When learning to write effective copy, most all of the tips and theories I have read have been and will be useful in one way or another.
However, there are far too many to list here. Luckily, most of the rules and theories that I have seen, can be condensed into three main points.
- Short, Sweet, Clear.
- Use the Correct Verbiage.
- Personality and Memorability.
Short, Sweet, Clear.
This refers to the structure of your writing. You want sentences to be short. Clear. Simple. And to the point. Be specific. But don’t let your writing get bogged down with details. Using these methods will make your writing easier and more enjoyable to read and understand.
Use the Correct Verbiage.
By this, I mean, write like you talk. It is super easy to get caught writing like we all did in high school and college. Using big, flowery, words in an attempt to prove how smart we are and bump up that word count. Forget that when it comes to copywriting. People don’t want to read some stuffy paper. They want quick, simple, easy information. If you write the same way that you speak, your writing will sound more fresh, personable, and simpler.
Personality and Memorability.
You want to also want to make sure to include personality in your copy. Adding personality helps make your writing more memorable, engaging, and of course, personal.
There is so much information on the psychology of copywriting that you would be writing for hours to explain everything and write it all down but those are at least some of the basic practices that lend to writing strong copy.
Projects.
After studying and learning the best methods to write good copy, I completed several projects in order to practice it and demonstrate what I have learned. Below is a brief rundown of all the projects I did over the course of the month.
Hand Copied Ad.
One of the best ways to learn how to write is to imitate others, study their work, and build muscle memory by copying their work. Copywriting is no different.
With that in mind, one project I did was to take a classic example of well written copy, this Rolls-Royce ad from 1959, and I copied it word for word by hand. Taking special care to try to make it look exactly like it did in the original. I paid close attention to the author’s word choices, any psychological triggers that may be present, and the word emphasis throughout the ad. Really studying this great ad gave me a great foundation for later projects.
Welcome Email Creation.
My first real project that I attempted using my newly gained copywriting knowledge was to create a “Welcome Email” for my personal newsletter. Basically, whenever you sign up for a newsletter you receive an automated message from the company or writer, welcoming you to their newsletter. I didn’t yet have one, so I created one. You can check it out here.
Rewrite Old Writing.
The goal of this project was to revisit an old piece of my writing and rewrite/revise it using better copy.
I decided to rewrite my mock sales email from awhile back.
I had never tried to write a sales email before, so my original attempt left a lot to be desired. It was super long, not overly specific, and in general had more of a blog post layout then a sales email.
So, I went back through it and rewrote the entire thing using the copywriting principles that I learned, and the revised edition turned out much better.
You can check out the original here and my revised edition here if you’d like to.
Flyer Ad.
The last project I took on was to create a simple ad for a small business. I chose to go the route of creating one with a flyer type design that you might be able to hand out to people to spread the word about your business.
I chose my current employer as the subject business and got to work. Using Canva to create a layout and my new copywriting skills, I was able to create this flyer Ad for Jake’s Floor Care.
Conclusion.
Copywriting is a super important part of any business. Whether it’s used for marketing, selling, or just communicating clearly and effectively within the company.
Learning to write good copy will give me a huge leg up in my career as well as life in general. I still have a lot to learn about it all, but I intend to continue studying and practicing my current skills and techniques.
As with any other artform, it takes lots of time, study, and practice to truly become proficient at it. But if I keep at it, I know it will pay dividends later on.
Travis McCoy 
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