Writing Copy That Sells – 10 Tips from a Professional Copywriter
If you’re a business owner wearing all the hats (including the writing one), you know that sometimes the words just…don’t work.
You sit down to write your website, a sales page, or even a super simple email, when suddenly you realize that everything feels clunky or vague. Sometimes it feels like – despite how good you are at what you do – you have no idea how to talk about.
What should have been a quick IG caption turns into a blinking cursor that kind of feels like it’s mocking you. You’re left wondering: “Why is this SO hard?”
If this is happening to you on a regular basis, please know it has nothing to do with how good you are at your job – it’s got everything to do with the fact that writing copy can be really tough.
There’s a lot of debate about what makes great copy. But I 100% believe that if you’re a business owner who wants to connect and sell to the right people, the only standard of “good copy” is how well it talks directly to who you want to talk to.
Think about it like this: Good copy hits your specific people in the gut so they feel seen, heard, & understood.
If your copy isn’t doing that right now, these ten rules will help you every time you sit down to write words that connect with your audience.
LIL KEY TAKEAWAYS: THIS BLOG AT A GLANCE
Make ideas concrete. Vague concepts don’t stick! Turn abstract ideas into something people can touch or picture.
Let your brand voice lead. Personality beats perfectly optimized robot copy every time.
Start with feelings. People buy because of how something makes them feel, not because of the bullet list of features.
Figure out your messaging first. If you don’t know the what stuff, the writing part is always going to feel harder than it should.
Write to one person. Not an audience, not a crowd! One dream client you actually want to talk to.
Keep a Bad Words Doc. The messy ideas deserve a place to live while you figure out what actually works.
Don’t make people guess. Clear copy always beats clever copy.
Speak on your audience’s level. Your expertise is higher than where they’re standing; meet them where they are.
Show the before and after. The transformation only works when people can see the full journey.
Write from the “you” perspective. It’s not about your offer, it’s about what your offer does for them.
10 Copy Rules to Follow – Tips from a Professional Copywriter
Rule 1: Make Your Ideas Concrete, Not Conceptual
Abstract ideas are incredibly hard for people to grasp. If your ideal person can’t picture something that helps them click with it right away, the idea might go over their heads.
That’s why strong copywriters like to turn abstract concepts into something tangible and touchable – something people can relate to and understand.
For example, when I say “brand voice is your brand’s personality and it’s the thing that people remember,” that’s technically accurate. But it’s just a concept. If you’re new to the idea of brand voice, it’s just sort of an idea that doesn’t express just how important your special personality is.
When I talk about “sticky brand voice” instead, it takes that concept and gives it a touchable, concrete visual. You can see it. You can feel it. You can instantly understand why a brand voice matters – it’s what makes your people stick around.
The best copy takes a big, conceptual idea and translates it into something people can immediately understand and remember. If your words are feeling sort of abstract or you find that people glaze over when you start talking, take the first step to make the change and ask: How can I make this idea more concrete?
Rule 2: Let Your Brand Voice Lead
When you’re writing words for your brand – especially your website copy! – there’s always a delicate balance between using words that fit your personality and words that will help you rank better on search engines.
Both matter! But in a pinch, it’s always my advice to let your sticky brand voice win.
Yes, your keywords matter and need to be strategically used in your copy! But connection and personality matter more.
Your audience remembers the brands that sound human, not the ones that read like a search engine checklist. In fact, prioritizing keywords over voice often weakens your messaging and makes your content harder for real people to connect with.
Your brand voice is the thing that makes your business recognizable, relatable, and memorable.
When someone lands on your site, the whole goal is for them to say: “this brand gets me. And you know what? I like them.” Obviously, your site has to be optimized enough for them to find you in the first place – but your personality needs to shine through so they remember you.
Because honestly – what’s the point of getting website traffic if nothing you say connects with them?
Rule 3: Lead With Feelings – Not Features
Features of your offers and services matter, but they’re rarely what people remember. And they’re hardly what makes someone give an empathetic hell yeah to working with you.
Your audience probably won’t recall:
the exact number of modules in your program
your payment plan structure
the technical details of your service process
But they will remember how your offer made them feel. Did what you said about your offer make them feel hopeful? Relieved? Confident? Excited about what’s possible?
Good copy leads with the emotional transformation first (feelings!) and fills in the logical details second (features!).
Because when people imagine a better version of their future, they’re far more likely to take action.
Rule 4: Define Your Message Before You Write Anything
One of the biggest copywriting mistakes people make is jumping straight into sitting down to write before even figuring out what they’re trying to say. That’s like hopping in the car, buckling your seatbelt, and kicking your roadtrip off in style – without any idea where you’re actually going.
Before you write a single sentence, you need to walk through your messaging. Messaging is what I like to call the what stuff – and it’s how you map out what you say and who you’re saying it to so that it connects with the right people.
You can start by thinking through questions like:
What is the main point of this page?
What problem are you solving?
What transformation are you offering?
If you’re struggling with how to come up with your what stuff, you just need a shakeup. Messaging doesn’t have to be hard – you just need to start with frameworks that help you get to the root of what matters (and what to talk about).
Personally, some of my favorite messaging shortcuts start with these hacks:
Your messaging is what guides what you write. Without it, you’re far more likely to get stuck staring at a blank document.
** Pro Tip: Need help with your messaging? I help brands tackle messaging and brand voice strategy all the time with a 1:1 approach. But I also have a quick, 12-min training called Mini Messaging Marker that you can DIY to find a hot jolt of inspo for what to say to sell your latest and greatest thing.
Rule 5: Write to One Person, Not a Crowd
Your audience may be made up of hundreds or thousands of people – but that can be hard to wrap your head around. My advice? Don’t speak to the masses. Think about the ideal client you can possibly muster. Think hard about who they are. Envision them. Get to know them. Heck, give them a name.
When you sit down and write to them – not just the idea of them – what you’ll say becomes a lot clearer than if you’re writing to a generic “dream audience.” (If you don’t know who that is, how can you do that, anyway?)
But when you write to a specific person, everything becomes instantly clearer:
their frustrations
their goals
their language
their decision-making process
The more specific your reader is in your mind, the more natural your writing will sound. The goal isn’t to appeal to everyone or speak to everyone, it’s to make the person you most want to work with feel like you’re talking directly to them.
Rule 6: Open up the Bad Words Doc
Every professional copywriter has rough drafts. Lots of them. (I would love to show you mine).
We don’t write well because we simply don’t have bad ideas – I, personally, have plenty of them. But what helps is freeing your brain of ideas without spending mental energy to hang onto them.
Instead of deleting ideas that don’t work, try creating a separate document where you keep them. Think of it as your Bad Words Doc – the place where all the messy stuff lives.
Why does this help?
Because when you know an idea isn’t disappearing forever, it’s much easier to experiment and edit freely. Plus, you can give your brain a break knowing that if that idea is really “the one,” you didn’t toss it in the trash. It lives in the Bad Words Doc and is ready for you to revisit it any time you want.
That can be exceptionally freeing for your brain and make room for even better copy.
Rule 7: Don’t Make Your Audience Connect the Dots
It’s your job to make everything make sense for your audience. It’s your job to make sure they’re not lost in the process or confused about what to do next.
If your audience has to stop and ask themselves what you mean or where to go for the next step, you’ve already lost a bit of momentum.
Your copy should clearly answer questions like:
What is this?
Who is it for?
Why does it matter?
What happens next?
When we ask our people to do all the connect-the-dots work themselves, we lose them.
Rule 8: Speak On Your Audience’s Level
You probably understand your industry in a lot more detail than your ideal client does – that’s why you’re the expert!
That’s normal, of course, but it also means it’s super easy to accidentally talk from an expert perspective instead of a customer perspective – and how you’re talking matters a ton.
Think about it like this: You’re a pro standing on the balcony of a penthouse. Your dream clients are on the ground level, looking up at you. You’re shouting down to them as loud as you can. They’re shouting up at you. But no one can hear anyone.
You both desperately want to reach eachother, but the gap is too big.
As an expert in your field, you’re at the top of the world where everything makes sense. But they’re dealing with a problem at a ground-floor level and can’t relate to what you’re saying.
Your audience isn’t thinking about your service in technical terms. They’re thinking about their problem or their wants.
Instead of saying something like: “My brand needs a strategic messaging architecture.”
They’re more likely thinking: “Why isn’t my website converting?”
Good copy is all about meeting your audience where they already are. If they don’t know what you’re talking about, they definitely can’t relate to it.
Rule 9: Show the Full Transformation
Transformation is one of the most powerful tools in copywriting. But it only really works when you show both sides of the story.
The before:
frustration
confusion
stuck results
The after:
clarity
confidence
momentum
Without the “before,” the transformation feels unrealistic. Without the “after,” the offer doesn’t feel worth it. The journey between those two points is what makes your messaging compelling.
Rule 10: Shift From “Me” to “You”– the Me Me Me Pov
This is one of the simplest and fastest ways to improve your words immediately – swap over to the Me-Me-Me POV.
Many businesses accidentally write from a “us” perspective:
our services
our process
our story
our experience
But great copy focuses on what those things mean for the customer. It’s not about your offer – it’s about what your offer can do for them. There’s a whole lot of psychology behind why this is the case (and I’ve got a whole blog on the Me-Me-Me POV for you to read).
Ultimately, instead of talking about what you do, talk about what your work makes possible for them. In other words, your copy should answer the question every reader is subconsciously asking: “What’s in this for me?”
Better Copy Just Hits – How to Give Your Audience an Emotional Gut Punch
There’s a whole long list of qualifiers for what makes “good copy” – but I genuinely believe the best copy makes people feel something, click with it, and think “I could invest in this.” It’s really that simple. If you think your copy needs a bit of a helping hand to tackle that quest, I’m here to help with 1:1 copywriting services and tons of DIY copywriting resources, templates, and more.
