The only copywriting tip you'll ever really need
Carolyn Watson
Stubbornly Strategy-First Copywriter For Hire | Brand Messaging, TOV & Copywriting | Co-founder Kingswood & Palmerston | Creative Marketing Strategy for B2B | Ads for Ad Agencies
If I had to choose just one tiny piece of advice to help you write better copy, it would be this:
Do something else. Anything else. As much as possible.
Yeah, I know. We’re meant to write every day. Copy out great sales letters by hand. Read all the business books. Listen to all the podcasts. Find a mentor. Learn all the tips, tricks and headline hacks.
And you should absolutely do those things. But at a ratio of something like 3:1. Or is it 1:3? I really dunno.
(And yeah, I made that up, but it feels about right.)
What I mean is, for every hour you spend studying copywriting, marketing or business, spend 3 more hours of your life living it. Don’t crouch in your copywriting cave until you know everything there is about how to say something… but don’t have much to say.
Listen to all kinds of music. Watch really great TV shows and films with subtitles. Make time for some terrible stuff, too. Read books about history, psychology and throw in the odd thing you pickup at the airport. Make TikTok videos.
Fall in love so hard it leaves a mark (and be sure to have your heart stomped on at least once). Try an improv class. Burn a soufflé. Look for meaning at the bottom of a bowl (or 3) of frozen margherita. Learn to understand someone (or a group of someones) that you hate, until you can at least respect them.
Spend time out in the field, observing the stuff you read about ‘The Humans’ in books. You should also lose yourself in the experience of being out there with them – make yourself available to be observed.
Why? Any copy guru, mentor or coach worth their online course conversion funnel will tell you the same thing – copy needs specificity. Now, I may only manage to pronounce that word correctly 6 times outta 10, but this I know: to make your writing specific to your reader, to write something that resonates, you’re going to need references, examples and to be able to predict their random thoughts.
You need to know how to be human.
If I’m a half-decent writer, it’s because I’m super interested in how other people live, think, feel, make decisions and rationalise things.
I learned that first by living a curious life…
3:1.
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Multi-genre author, mostly Crime fiction. Scottish. Been writing longer than I’ve been wearing big boy’s trousers.
2 年"I learned that by living a curious life." Love it....
?? Direct Response Strategist | Expert in Conversion Optimization & Funnel Architecture
2 年Love it!
Growing people who grow brands
3 年Love it. Copywriters have to be humans first. 3:1. Write the book, Carolyn Barclay. 3:1. It would be as important as reading Claude Hopkins' 'The Science of Advertising'. Because the Art of Advertising comes from living life 3:1. At least more copywriters will end up with a better work-life balance. They can honestly say they are working at being a better copywriter by living a life beyond advertising. Thanks for leading me to this post, Tyrone Tellis.
Corporate Sales and PR
3 年Sumit Roy the lady echoes your thoughts
Content and copy for climate comms | Plain language for medcomms | on-page SEO – Writing from scratch or from French
3 年This reminds me of a scene in a film about Jane Austin's life called Becoming Jane. Some guy finds a young Jane hiding in the library instead of out mingling with the guests her family were entertaining. He asks her why she's cooped up in a corner reading when she could be talking to people. Young Jane replies that she wants to become a great writer so she has to read all the great books. He shakes his head, points at the window and says "If you want to write something great, you need to live out there" or something to that effect. Then he seduces her and breaks her heart. And she becomes one of the great writers. (Did he do it on purpose, I wonder?) Any, thanks for the article Carolyn Barclay. I've heard of copywriters staying on buses past their stop to hear the end of a conversation they'd been surreptitiously listening in on. Not only do you hear what's happening out in the world, see how people say things, the words they use, the references they make, but your back, your eyes, your heart and your head will all thank you for finally unfolding your body and emerging from the bat cave.