The Simple Way to Write Copy

Leave the clever wordplay to the impoverished novelists. We’re in the business of selling.novelists. We’re in the business of selling.

People often ask me what it takes to become a copywriter.

What I tell them is this…

to be a great (or just good) copywriter you don’t need to be able to write like Hemingway.

But you DO need to be understood.

Your writing needs to be easy to read.

And it’s the strength of your arguments, rather than strength of your words, that wins the sale.

Leave the clever wordplay to the impoverished novelists. We’re in the business of selling.

So how can you make writing copy simple?

Take this page as an example.

I’m using short sentences. Simple words.

Without chunky paragraphs to wade through, your eyes glide down the page.

This style of writing would make your English teacher go nuts.

But your reader’s brain loves it.

Because it doesn’t have to jump through hoops to understand it.

This article teaches you another lesson about simple writing.

What is it?

Simple.

Your “Subheads” Summarize Your Message

Seriously.

Even brains battling brain fog and a sugar deficiency at 4pm on a Friday can understand what this page is about from the subheads.

And this is important.

Because most people won’t read a page before they skim read it first.

People are busy.

You’ve got app pings, Facebook chats and YouTube to compete with.

All of them screaming for attention.

So if someone is going to read your page they have to know it’s worth their time.

Skimming the sub heads can reveal this to them.

There’s a third lesson I wanted to teach you in this article.

Your Copy Must Focus on the Reader

I haven’t tried to sell you anything.

Because I know you’re reading this because you hope to gain some useful information.

Not to be upsold to.

From this post, I hope that you’re learning that writing copy doesn’t need to be complicated.

It can be simple.

And if you’re still reading, I hope that proves my point.

It enables me to demonstrate a fourth lesson.

The more time you keep a reader engaged with your writing the more time you have to earn their trust.

A great way of earning trust is what Eugene Schwartz called ‘Gradualization’.

It works like this…

If you make simple statements the reader agrees with early on then when you make bigger claims your reader is more likely to accept them as fact.

This is just one way of influencing the reader.

Another way of convincing a reader is what Schwartz called ‘Mechanization’

This is a logical explanation of why something works.

Because results is what ultimately matters

My hope is that after reading this article…

The result will be that you find writing copy easier.

Because writing copy doesn’t need to be complicated.

You don’t need to be a creative genius.

You just need to understand your reader’s problem.

What solutions they’ve tried in the past.

What their objections are to trying something new.

Why your product is better.

And how you can prove it.

Then offer it to them.

That’s it.

Writing copy is not rocket science

When you strip away the ‘power words’, ‘open loops’ and other copywriting tricks, it comes down to one thing…

presenting a solution to your customer’s problem.

When you do that it doesn’t feel like you’re tricking someone into buying something.

You’re helping them.

So there you go.

Writing copy is simple when you follow these principles.

Think how you can write something that’s easy to read, focuses on helping the reader solve a problem and builds trust.

Selling your product is then the easy part.

Hemingway once said, “Writing’s easy. Just open a vein and bleed all over the page.”

Maybe in the literary world. But it doesn’t have to be that soul draining to write convincing, high converting copy

P.S. People often read the P.S. straight after the headline. So use yours to summarize your offer or what they will gain from reading the page.

Disclaimer – This post is a total rip off of a Frank Kern post. Here’s the original:
https://frankkern.com/blog/how-to-sell-in-articles/

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