Infuriating, isn’t it?
You follow a few blogs about writing.
And diligently read their posts.
You even devoured a few books about copywriting.
But when you try to implement the advice?
You feel overwhelmed.
Where should you start? What’s the most important advice?
Today, I’ve gathered the 5 most important copywriting rules—as taught to us by legendary copywriters.
You may think it’s weird that I’m sharing rules from old chaps who’ve passed away a long time ago.
Hasn’t the world changed?
Hasn’t our attention span shortened so much that even a goldfish has a longer attention span?
Yep, that’s true. The world has changed. Humans have changed.
Instead of watching TV, we’re netflixing tonight. We write LOL instead of How funny! Rather than a Rolex, we choose the latest Apple iPhone as a status symbol.
The symbols, the words, and our activities might have changed, but our basic human instincts have remained the same. We’re still looking for belonging, comfort, love, freedom from fear.
That’s why the most essential copywriting rules haven’t changed in the last 100 years. Whether you’re writing a sales email, a landing page, or a direct mail ad the basic rules are the same. These rules have withstood the test of times.
Even when you follow only these 5 essential rules, you can turn average content into persuasive copy.
Sound good?
Further reading
- Rule 1. My post A Simple Trick to Turn Features Into Benefits explains how to seduce your readers by asking So What?
- Rule 2. Joanna Wiebe explains and demonstrates how to write with your ears by stealing messages from your readers
- Rule 4 is explained in more detail in these posts about killing wordiness and tightening each sentence.
- Rule 5. Andy Crestodina writes about how to design a button, and Peep Laja writes about what to call your call to action.
The truth about writing your own copy
To write compelling copy, learn how to listen well.
Listen to the phrases your clients are using. Hear what desire, what they’re keen to do, what they’d love to have. Understand what they’re struggling with, what feels like a time suck to them, what irritates them.
When you truly want to understand your clients, you learn how to listen well and write well. You become more persuasive. You sell more. Without extra effort.
Listen more.
Write less.
I have to say I’m a bit frustrated with the amount of links each of your articles contain…which lead only to more links. It’s like going down a never ending rabbit trail. I signed up for the (had to back and look as I’m 4 or 5 links deep into it already with a window open for each) 16-Part Snackable Writing Course.
I somehow managed to find my way to your “How to Write Persuasive Sales Copy” only to find a 12 item link list. That sent me here, where I find…5 more links. Could you just write an article with information and not an never-ending deluge of links to more and more links? It’s overwhelming and the backtracking is exhausting. It’s like chasing the proverbial carrot.
Hi A.L.,
I’m sorry you’re feeling overwhelmed.
I try my best to present helpful information, and I’m sorry I’ve failed you, and that you’ve not found my SlideShare presentation in this post helpful.
“How to Write Persuasive Sales Copy” is a collection of articles because readers have asked me for my top articles on a selection of topics. It’s clear that it’s not working for everyone. I’ll think about how to improve it.
This is such good advice thank you!
Nice slide-show! Your tips somewhat make me think of the book “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie.
I’m not surprised. Good copywriting is about persuasion and influencing, too, isn’t it?
Hi Henneke,
Awesome post and slideshow.
Many people don’t know this but before I fell into blogging, I so badly wanted to be a copywriter. Any writer position actually, but I fell in love with copywriting after reading up on stories about John Caples and Eugene Schwartz and Gary Halbert.
I became a person obsessed and started getting various copywriting books to learn to write copy. Anyway, point of all this is this, excellent points and rules you have here.
I like the advice given with the Eugene Schwartz example or “Do Write.” Makes no sense over-complicating things and using language no one really understands. Talk the language of your readers/customers.
Also, for Victor Schwabs’ advice, you do have to ask for it. People rarely take an action unless they’re told to do something.
Excellent post, Henneke.
– Andrew
Thank you, Andrew. Those old copywriting handbooks are still hugely valuable, aren’t they?
I’ve found that understanding good copywriting helps a lot with blogging, too. Or any kind of communication. Whether you’re speaking at a conference or writing a blog post, the principles of persuasion and engaging your audience remain the same.
Happy writing!
Slide 37 says it all, Henneke 🙂
I like how clean and easy it is to read. The message comes across very clearly too.
Thank you for sharing these insights; I hear the wisdom of the sages in the wind …
Louisa
Feels good to listen to the old sages, doesn’t it?
Glad you liked the presentation, Louisa 🙂
What a fun presentation Henneke! Really enjoyed this 🙂
Thank you, Julia. It was fun to make, too 🙂
I enjoyed the slides, Henneke!
Re: using your ears. I had a great idea the other day — I’m going to add a message to my autoresponder simply asking my readers what they’re struggling with.
I’m used to broadcasting that question every few months, but I bet it’ll be much more effective to ask while they’re still warm. 🙂
I haven’t stopped by in a while — happy belated new year!
Happy new year to you, too, Vince!
Yes, I think it’s a good message to include in your autoresponder series. Often people include it in their “welcome” message.
Good to see you again 🙂
Hi Henneke
Brilliant simple to understand Slideshare that nailed your message – excellent.
Cheers
Mark
Thank you, Mark 🙂
‘Listen more. Write less.’
You could have just written that 😉
Haha, yep, perhaps I can bin my blog and just write a big announcement ‘Listen more. Write less.’ 😉
Beware of someone that claims they have NEW fundamentals. Fundamentals are old. That may not be a direct quote, but it comes from the late Jim Rohn, who spent decades speaking about personal and professional success.
While technology is ever changing, try to keep up, what motivates us as humans is still pretty much the same.
I enjoyed this post, and gained from it, Henneke. I’ve been reading, learning, and enjoying your blog for a long time.
Thank you.
Yes, so true. I hadn’t thought it that way, but that seems totally true to me – fundamentals are never new, because that’s exactly why they’re fundamentals.
Thank you for stopping by to add your thoughts, Scott. Good to see you’re still around 🙂
Awesome slideshow, Henneke! And I’ll soon be writing a sales page for myself. Bookmarking this come to back to because it’s a lot easier to write copy for clients than yourself 🙂
It was so much fun to create this slideshow.
And yep, I agree with you – writing our own sales pages is much harder. Almost as hard as writing our own About page 😉
Good to see you again!
Hi Henneke,
I like that you compiled your older posts into this article, thank you for the reminder!
I always refer to your site when I’m writing and learn a lot from you. 🙂
Avivit
I sometimes even forget myself how much I’ve written 😉
Thank you for stopping by again, Avivit
Hi Henneke,
What a lot of superb advice. Last week I implemented some of your advice in my blog. For the first time I really got some positive comments from readers. That felt so great.
You’ve taught me so much about blogging already. I’ll keep on following your advices in 2015 and make them my own.
Thank you so much, Henneke,
Karien
That’s great to hear, Karien. So happy that it’s working for you.
Here’s to a great 2015!
Hi Henneke,
I love your slideshow. My little pigeon brain copes much better with pages that only have one sentence on them, possibly two, but one is better. 🙂
Yep, I’m the same! One tiny step at a time 🙂
Hi Henneke,
I’m glad you decided to go back to the sources on this one 😉
There is some old wisdom worth reminding and you explain it with clear examples.
Great post and presentation!
Perfect sync with your enchanting writing course.
Thanks for the great nuggets of wisdom.
Yes, somehow we tend to focus on what’s changing, and we forget that many things remain unchanged. Not sure why that is. Or is it only me?
Glad you enjoyed the post!
Nope.
Not only you. People tend to read processed information.
But they don’t know one crucial thing.
Each interpretation misses some of the points in the original writing. Making the material shallower. And when it reaches you it might be stripped off of most of the value.
That’s why benefit the most by going back to the sources.
You read the originals with nothing omitted. Without losing details in interpretation. And you learn everything there is to learn.