Copywriting Handrails
A rough guide to copywriting (written before AI)
You’re an anthropologist: Copywriters are one part anthropologist, a third English expert, and another third mad scientist. Copywriting is about understanding your audiences’ culture, music, food, clothes, habits, world views, and all the things that make them, them (not just their purchasing habits). Work to understand all the things that come together to form the lens in which they read your copy.
It’s a practice, not a profession: As a copywriter, if you ever feel that you know everything you need to know to be a good copywriter, quit. Like a yogi, tango expert, or tai chi master, you should always be learning, forever hungry for more, and never content with your skillset or knowledge. Culture and language are constantly evolving, and so should you if you want to be a good copywriter.
Get thick, really thick skin: You absolutely must be able to give and receive constructive criticism without taking it personally. This is so important because the best creative ideas come from a place that’s somewhere between the obvious and the absurd. Make sure your brainstorming sessions allow room for people to be fearlessly creative and unapologetically wild with ideation. People that don’t take feedback well kill collaboration, because collaboration is far more than simply showing up to meetings.
Read and read more: Read all the time, everywhere you go, and yes, everything—even topics you know or care little about—books, menus, magazines, wine bottles, industry publications, strangers’ tattoos, and even elevator copy for firefighters in case of an emergency. Read it all, critique it, obsesses over it, question it, and understand it. You’ll need a bottomless wealth of arrows in your idea quiver. Strong writers are curious about most things.
Create your writing system: Figure out a system for how you do your work best, then polish it, obsess over it, and perfect it. Every time you crack your knuckles in front of the keyboard to begin writing, it shouldn’t feel like you’re re-inventing the wheel. The industry forces you to be creative on command and consistently produce excellent work. A solid writing system is essential because it allows you to spend more time in a creative mental space, rather than a logistical one, your creative director will love you for it too. It’s no coincidence that so many gifted minds spent their early years in advertising, like famed artist Georgia O'Keeffe and author James Petterson.
What “less is more” means: You hear this all the time and it’s the essence of copywriting, “less is more.” You’re a distiller of emotions first, and secondly, a distiller of words. If a tagline or word is good, it won’t require a lot of explanation in the creative review. If it’s too hard to keep it simple, revisions could be the answer. Think of yourself as an emotion-seeking missile and use words with precision. Sadly, everyone thinks they’re copywriters today because they’ve written texts and emails, and have seen advertising, but they’re not. Be a pupil of clarity.
Punctuation, it’s about the audience not you: If you catch yourself saying: “I just prefer using the {insert punctuation mark},” sit down and re-think your life choices and perhaps your career. Punctuation is for your audience, and your personal preferences don’t matter but your experience and knowledge do. Read “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynn Truss and you’ll know more about punctuation than 96% of the population (it’s actually a funny book that takes a boring topic and makes it fun—just like good copywriting).
Design matters: In advertising, words are accompanied by design so don’t take layouts, copy placement, and all these elements for granted. Design is copy’s dance partner, don’t step on their toes, understand how the two coalesce to create the feelings and emotions that move people, and not just inform them. In some cases, the typography of a word can win people over almost as much as the meaning. Even the best writing won’t ever get read if everything around it is ugly. So always work closely with your designers, trust them, love them, and see them as your closest ally on your flank.
Be. Then write: Method acting is when an actor gets into character through real-life experiences, like sitting in the rain to play a character that’s been walking in the rain for days. Copywriters can borrow some of these concepts. Think about and try the things that your audience is doing. Before reading your copy, did they drink Folders or locally roasted coffee? Are they driving when they see your advertisement? Get in their heads and walk in their shoes. Go undercover and call your client’s helpline as a prospective customer, get on their newsletters and do these things with your client’s competitors too. Learn what it’s like to truly be your audience.
Fresh eyes... priceless: That first time you look at something is magic. It’s so valuable in the creative world and your, and everyone else’s, first time looking at something is valuable currency in the world of ideas. Trying to look at copy for the 47th time with fresh eyes is tough. But there are tricks: change the font, spacing, and kerning. Read the copy in a different room, or maybe even standing—get scrappy, do anything and everything to make copy feel like it’s the first time you’ve seen it, every time.
Use people: Not really... but kind of, just tell them you’re doing it. Your friends, family members, and all the people in your daily life offer endless research and material. Get their reactions to words, phrases, and ideas. Stretch the boundaries of “market research.”
Connotations vs. definitions matter: Look up words you already know the meaning to more often than you think is necessary—the definition might surprise you or correct your subtle inaccuracies. And the way words make people feel is the most important for copywriters. An engaging way to boil down the connotation of a word is to ask yourself or others, “what scenario did you last hear {word/phrase} used in?” Pass that question around the office or home when you’re struggling with a word or phrase choice. This practice will send you flying toward useful insights.
Punch ‘em in the gut: Copywriting should create a gut reaction that’s visceral. You want your audience to feel irresistibly pulled by the words. Move people’s emotions, don’t just inform them. Research says that roughly 80% of decisions are based on emotions, not facts. So, write to their emotions and you’ll have their hearts.
No one cares: Picture everyone who reads your copy as that bored person at a bar scrolling their phone while their friend is taking too long in the bathroom. We live in a world of constant distraction, messaging, and info. Never assume your audience has patience or cares about what the copy says. It’s simply your job to change that with arrestingly good copy.
Have fun: When you’re having fun, the best work comes flowing through you, and everyone else in the room. Find ways to play with your work, enjoy it—the fun aspect of a copywriter’s work is a luxury that not everyone in this world has, so don’t take it for granted. When you’re buzzing with banter from an ideation session and you’ve crafted copy that makes the room say in unison, “that’s it...” you’ve found that sweet spot—remember what it feels like and try to replicate it. There’s research to support this “have fun” at work idea but citing it would just be verbose at this point.
