Part 3 (of 6) Redefining Good Copywriting
HERE'S WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT COPYWRITING:
Part 2 (of 6) Is Copywriting worth the effort?
Your website copy will never be “perfect.” Aim for done because perfection is a myth.
Only your fifth-grade teacher judged your grammar. The online world is different.
We need to stop creeping our competitor’s websites.
We have so much powerful information available today right at our fingertips. This is fantastic! We can learn anything our hearts desire with a few tappity taps.
There’s so much great information out there that you want to consume it all.
So you try.
Maybe you...
Listen to podcasts and race through audiobooks at 1.5x speed — must get through as much information as I can
Skim books quickly without absorbing a thing just so you can add it to your Goodreads finished bookshelf
Buy online courses when they’re on sale or when there’s an irresistible affiliate offer adding to your piles of videos to watch and lessons to complete
Only buy courses that offer lifetime access — just in case you get busy and don’t finish it
Consider this: You don’t have an information problem — you have an implementation problem.
There’s no point in reading a book, giving it a 5-star rating (“Amazing! Highly recommended read!”) only to not take a single action step and implement even one learning. How many times have you invested a week into reading a book, loved the insights, only to not change a damn thing? Hello, self-development industry,
I know this because I spent a good decade or so doing this.
Highlighting books isn’t action.
Taking courses isn’t action.
Checking out a dozen books to read them, bring them back, and then do nothing isn’t action.
Saying you just love learning and acquiring knowledge is an excuse — and it’s keeping you stuck.
I’m not saying you need to stop learning and go live in a hole. I am saying that the old way of doing things — devouring content through the firehose, and moving onto the next firehose before even digesting your first meal of the day.
Knowledge is power, but implementation is more powerful.
You need to stop learning and start doing. Action trumps learning every single time. You’ll learn more by taking an imperfect action than reading the top gurus’ books, attending their events and summits, and thinking you just need one more thing to take you over the finish line to be able to achieve success.
How many successful CEOs and business owners do you think consume information all day without taking action?
It would sound like this:
Sorry team, I’ve got to finish watching these 18-minute videos and do the homework in this PDF before I can tell you what to do next.
Even worse, do you think that CEO is gonna sit there and wait for their people to finish reading just one more book before they can launch their Facebook ad strategy or write the code? Hell no!
You need to put your writing out there, test it, and tweak it.
Good copy is copy that works. It will break grammar rules, it will feel good to write, and it will connect with your idea readers. Your copy will change and evolve with you and your business. And the only way to let that happen is to publish something — anything.
Now, I’m not saying you need to write a pile of crap, put it out there, and wait for your Lambo to roll up.
The very first step is to put your “good enough” copy out there and see what lands with your readers. Whether your website sits unpublished or you know the words you have up there need to change, it’s about getting your pretty good words out there.
My definition of “good enough” is 80%. Your bar may be lower, but please don’t make it any higher. Any higher and you’ll just bump into the perfectionism trap again.
By putting out 80% good enough copy, you’ll:
Notice what kinds of customers and clients you attract
Have the insights you need to adjust your language to turn off the people you don’t want to work with and turn on the people you do want to work with
You’ll be taking action — imperfect action
Have a great jumping-off point when it’s time to update your website copy because editing is so much easier than starting from a blinking cursor and blank page (which you already know)
Okay great. Exhale a sigh of relief that you can drop the idea of perfect copy and share your pretty darn good copy.
Let’s redefine “good” copy.
If you’re worried that writing pretty good copy would be a stretch for you and you’re thinking your writing is “pretty shitty” let me tell you something:
We’re all our own biggest critics — your writing is almost always better than you think
Someone else’s pretty good writing may look pretty shitty to you — but do you care if they’re selling you a solution to their problem? I’m guessing no. And, are you going to email them to tell them their writing is shitty?
In 15+ years of writing and editing corporate copy, coaching hundreds of business owners on their copy, I have yet to meet a page of words that was complete garbage.
Usually, all their copy needs is a little rearranging, and some sweeping ideas to bring in a conversational tone, swapping some fancy words for ones that their people actually use, and then they're done.
Good copy is what feels like you — speaking naturally, to your favorite client.
Here are some of my favorite ways to create copy that feel and sounds like you:
Try using a talk to text app and notice the words you naturally use — Otter.ai is my favorite tool for this
Open up your email, start writing an email to your favorite customer — search old emails if you don’t have anything important or helpful to say right now
Read it aloud
And then, keep on writing. Writing is a practice, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll become.
Maybe you’re worried now that putting your “good enough” writing out there is going to feel scary.
You’re afraid...
You’re going to sound like someone else
You’re going to offend someone
Your opinion will change later
Your voice will sound too much like someone else — a mentor, coach, peer, or competitor
This is just a small sampling of things clients say to me about why they haven’t shared their words publicly yet. And I hear you.
I also have to tell you that when I first started blogging, I had ALL of these same thoughts. In my early days of food blogging (which used to be a plant-based food blog), I worried that...
My opinion wasn’t original.
That I didn’t sound smart enough.
I wasn’t a doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist, so who am I to talk about food?
And you know what I did? I did it anyway. It was scary but I didn’t die.
I was also afraid when I switched gears and realized that I didn’t care about food except to eat it — when I quit my corporate career after 13 years to become a copywriter, I wondered, who was I to tell people what they should write?
Well, I had all that corporate experience, surely I was doing something right.
Even if you don’t have a decade of experience in your industry, you probably know more than you realize.
You have everything you need to write and share your writing with the world. Your voice matters and the world needs to hear your words.
You don’t find your writing voice, you create it.
This is good news, because no teacher, course, or author will show you where to find your voice. You are the expert in your voice.
Good copy comes from being a good listener — reflecting back the exact words that your favorite kinds of people use.
Here’s the only thing you need to know when it comes to how to create copy that people want to read:
Use the words they use
It really is that simple.
Where you’ll find those words:
In your emails from prospective clients
On social media complaining about the problems that you know how to solve
At networking events, in the actual words that come out of people’s mouths
On consult calls and virtual coffee chats
In their testimonials and private feedback
And, your voice will change and evolve. Just like you have, your words will evolve too.
Let go of perfection — your audience wants to know if you can help them, NOT if you have perfect prose.
So you’re ready to jump in and now you’re starting at the blinking cursor. Now what?
Read the next page to discover my thoughts on writer’s block.
Next: Part 4 (of 6) Busting Through Writer’s lock
SUBTEXT
Connection is more important than creativity or cleverness.
There’s no magic formula, course, guru, or game-changing book that will give you what you need.
We’re consuming too much information, and taking action is the only way to get out of drinking from the firehose.
