How To Write Marketing Copy (featuring pro tips)

(feat. the answer to “why do I need to learn this crap anyways”)

Have you ever opened a document and realized you needed to spend four hours looking through paragraphs to find what you were looking for? Watching the time pass as you skim through page after page? Luckily, this is not that. Welcome to “How to Write Marketing Copy”, based off content from Ian Lurie’s “Learning to Write Marketing Copy” (Lurie, 2014).

The layout of this content is SparkNotes-esc. and will break content up into clean, easy-to-follow, and easy-to-reference notes.

Step 1: Overview

Before you can write good copy, you need to understand what and why you’re writing. To start, what even is copywriting?

Copywriting: “Writing copy for the purpose of advertising or marketing” (Lurie, 2014).

Elements to Good Copywriting:

1. The actual writing (this is about writing after all)
2. The attention-getter (grab your readers attention ASAP so they keep reading)
3. The handshake (the first and last thing a customer sees. Make it count)
4. The creative visuals (people “eat” with their eyes)

(Lurie, 2014)

Important Reasons to Create Copywriting:

1. Communicate a call to action (example: buying your product!)
2. Deliver significance (inform your audience about your product)
3. Appeal to the right audience (you can’t target everyone, use copywrite to target your market)
4. Deliver value (no one wants their time wasted! Make every minute count) 

(Lurie, 2014)

Pro Tip: Remember, marketing’s about delivering value, not selling! If copywriting for the purpose of marketing, good copywriting delivers value to the consumer. Delivering value is KEY!

Elements of Copywrite:

• Collateral (brochure vs webpage)
• Medium (printed vs online)
• Style (the vibe of the writing)

(Lurie, 2014)

Confused about the difference between collateral and medium? Think of a burning building and you’re a fireman. The hose (the medium) transports the water (the message) from the truck to be sprayed through the nozzle (collateral) on the burning building.

Conclusion/Takeaways:

 Copywriting is about delivering value to the right audience. It’s usually the first and last thing a customer sees so it needs to grab and hold attention. Elements of a copy are: collateral, medium, and style.

If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comments section down below!

Sources:

Lurie, I. (2014, May 30). Learning to Write Marketing Copy. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-to-write-marketing-copy/