How To Handle Copycats Gracefully
Help! A competitor stole the copy you and I worked on together, and it reads almost verbatim!
This is the essence of the message I received from a copy-coaching client.
Having navigated this in my business and with clients in the past, I had some words of wisdom. And I probably don’t need to tell you that words of wisdom are much different from legal advice.
I appreciate how frustrating it can be to discover that someone has taken something you’ve worked hard on and tried to pass it off as their own.
I’ve been made aware that other copywriters have taken website copy and programs and passed it off as their own.
The language there is intentional — I say “made aware” because I don’t follow the work of others in my industry. Their work is theirs, and I only focus on mine.
When people tell me about the copy-kitties on my own work, I visit their site and sometimes it looks like they took my content, then copied and pasted on their site after changing a bunch of words to make it sound like them.
What I do when it comes to copycats:
Nothing. I’ve never personally reached out to anyone to call them out. Here’s why:
If it’s an idea they “borrowed,” I know they're going to do it differently than me.
Taking people's work is a low-vibration way to do business, and I can instead stay focused on managing my energy instead of engaging.
There will always be people taking other people’s stuff — I stay in my lane and focus on myself. That’s literally all that matters.
Here’s more you can do:
If you know people are creeping on your creative work, unfollow and block them. If you’re following people on social media only to see if they’re copying you, you’re eventually going to find your answer.
Unfollow, unsubscribe, or mute people in your industry so you can curate the content you see in your feed and focus on your own creations.
Every day, create something, anything — before you read or consume anything from anyone else.
Reframe the idea of “competition” and trust that there are more than enough clients for all of us to go around.
I’ve been on the accused end, too.
Back in my food blogging days, I received an email out of the blue from someone I’d never heard of. She said she came across my then-website, which was about plant-based food, and she said that I had copied her website and requested I take it down.
She provided the link to her website, which I had never seen before, and looking closely, I didn’t see any similarities at all. I asked some people for an objective review — and they all came to the same conclusion — not at all the same. Being new to the online writing world, I took this seriously. And looking back, I probably took it more seriously than I needed to. I spent too much time worrying and obsessing.
I politely replied, telling her that after close review, our websites were vastly different, wished her well, and never heard from her again.
In the future, if I get another email like that and quickly realize our copy is like night and day, I’m going to delete the email and move on with my life.
Itching to say something to a copycat?
My copy coaching client was in a highly niche industry and wanted to make the copycat aware. In most cases, a quick message is usually all that needs to happen before they stop doing it. Most people are embarrassed once they get feedback and make the changes.
Here’s a sample email I worked on with the client that you can take (and, ahem, make it your own). In case it happens to you, and know that instead of looking for people that might be doing that to you, shift your attention to your own work.
Hi [copycat name],
It was brought to my attention that several pieces of copy on your website are exactly the same as copy on my website. I was hopeful it was just a coincidence because we are both in the same industry and seeing the same struggles from our [industry] clients, but after seeing the same sentences and phrasing on several pages of your website, it made me think it may not be a coincidence.
If the copy on my website inspired you, I request that you revise or remove any copy that was originally written by me.
I'm happy to see someone else providing this type of service to audiences in our [industry] because they absolutely need the support right now. I welcome the competition; however, I don't welcome plagiarism.
In the end, my coaching client wasn’t worried that a "competitor” used the copy we worked on together. In the end, her business is fully booked with a waitlist, and really, someone taking her copy wasn’t affecting her revenue.
And because we used her words, they're uniquely her.
Copycats are like flies. Annoying and attracted to light but disappear when you swat them away or even just wait a day.
It was an annoying lesson, and I'm grateful I could help her through it.
And, her copy was 🔥 enough for someone to try to borrow and pass off as theirs.
She's keeping her head high and focusing on her work.
And she later provided me with a great testimonial:
“Jacq Fisch helped me write copy SO GOOD my competitors started stealing it.”
Want some more templates and swipe files? Check these out:
