Most bad copy fails the same way: it leads with features, not benefits. It’s long when it should be short. It’s vague when it should be specific. And it asks people to act without giving them a reason to.
The good news is that good copy follows patterns. You don’t need to be a natural writer. You need to understand what your reader wants, say it plainly, and make the next step obvious.
These six principles cover the foundation. They apply whether you’re writing a giveaway landing page, an email sequence, a product page, or an ad. Master these and you’ll be ahead of 90% of the copy you’re competing against.
2026 note: AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are now generating a lot of marketing copy. That means generic, committee-approved writing is everywhere. The way to stand out is to be more specific, more opinionated, and more human — which is exactly what these principles teach.
1. Sell Benefits, Not Features
“Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.”
-David Ogilvy
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Sell a good night’s sleep, not the mattress”? Think about all of the mattress commercials and advertisements you’ve seen before. Do they lead with coil count or insulation padding details? Nah. They sell you on how comfortable the mattress is, how well you’ll sleep on it, and how much more productive and enjoyable your days will be when you are well-rested. This same principle applies whether you’re crafting copy for a product sales page, a giveaway campaign, or any marketing initiative. They want you to positively frame their product, envision yourself using it, and negate any potential concerns you may have.
Similarly, you can use this formula in your own copy:
2. Write Plainly
“Copy is a direct conversation with the consumer.”
-Shirley Polykoff
This is a big one. If you don’t speak in the language that your customer relates to, you’ll lose them way before your irresistible offer. Above everything, you want your copy to sound almost like an internal dialogue. It should mimic what a person would say internally when convincing themselves to buy your product or service.
For example, you may want your customer to say something like, Hey, this phone will allow me to take HD video and still fit in my pocket. It’ll be great when I don’t want to carry my bulky DSLR.
If that’s what you want to convey, make it plain. Don’t use literary acrobatics when you could just as easily arrange a sentence to say, Leave the bulky DSLR at home. Record HD video with a phone that can fit in your pocket.
3. Focus on the Headline
“On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.”
-David Ogilvy
The headline is the most important part of your copy. It’s how you capture their attention in the first place. Here are a few tried and true formulas for creating a headline that draws a crowd:
4. Make it Relevant
“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
-Howard Gossage
Do you ever look for ads? If you’re like most people, you don’t seek out ads for fun, because you’re ruthlessly protective of your time and attention. The ads you notice are those that jump out at you because of a catchy headline or visual appeal, but the only ones you continue read are highly relevant to your predicament.
Make sure that you understand your target audience and create an ad that answers what they are struggling with.
It’s a good idea to write down exactly who you want to reach. Create a persona. Make a name, assign an age, gender, and location. Understand why they buy and what turns them away from closing the deal. Then, direct your ad copy to that one persona. Speak directly to them, and by being specific, you’ll increase your ability to reach more people. Learn more about this crucial step in our comprehensive guide to audience research for copywriters.
5. Commit to Research
“I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years.”
-David Ogilvy
Going along with that previous point, you should definitely commit to understanding your customer’s pain points. What drives them? What type of person are they (discovered in the step 4 above)? Why would they even want to read your ad? What’s in it for them? Lead with that information.
As in the quote above, father of advertising, David Ogilvy shared that he spent a great deal of time researching the competitors. Not only did he find out what they sold, but also how they sold, and how the market responding to them.
Competitor research is important, but you also have to be extremely familiar with your own product or service. Rolls Royce was one of the first major accounts Ogilvy won when his agency was in its early years. In his book, he talks about spending a full three weeks reading about the car to come up with one simple headline: “At sixty miles an hour, the loudest noise comes from the electric clock.” This might not seem like the type of detail that would take you three weeks to find, but sometimes you need to give your brain time to let the information soak in.
The research step is crucial in creating a copy that convinces. You have to know who’s competing for the same customer’s attention and what they’re saying. Then you have to determine how to do it better by playing up the benefits of your own offering. Whether you’re writing copy for a waitlist campaign or a referral program, thorough research is the foundation of effective messaging.
6. Clarify the Obvious
“Sometimes the most important job advertising can do, is to clarify the obvious.”
-Jay Chiat
Your audience needs to recognize your product or service as the long-awaited solution to their problem. Are you positioning yourself in that way, or are you passively sharing information in hopes that they’ll connect the dots? Let me be clear– they won’t.
You have to be clear with your copy. If you’re selling yourself as a social media marketer, you can’t simply say, “If you need a social media marketer, I’m your guy (or gal).” You want to actively show your potential clients why they should choose your services (for example, Choose me because I have five years’ worth of experience in improving social media awareness for big brands, like…). Developing a consistent brand voice helps clarify your message and makes your copy more recognizable to your audience.
Related Resources
Ready to put these copywriting fundamentals into practice? Here are some helpful resources to continue your journey:
- Landing Page Copywriting Guide - Apply these principles to create high-converting landing pages
- Audience Research for Copywriters - Master the art of understanding your target audience
- Contest Landing Page Builder - Create professional landing pages with powerful copy
- Brand Voice Development - Build consistency across all your marketing copy
Final Thoughts: Just Start Writing
I’ll leave you with this final thought from William Faulkner, “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything good.”
Take it from someone who writes for a living: Just start writing. Your first idea is probably not going to be a winner, and that’s why you should get it out of the way as soon as possible. Write out all of the ideas you have for your copy, no matter how silly– you may be surprised at what gems come out of a brainstorming session where you don’t edit or criticize your creativity.
Remember, no one will read it until you’re ready. Just give your ideas room to breathe, and they’ll take a life of their own.
Read more Copywriting for Conversions with the next chapter:
3. Audience Research
Before you can write copy that converts, you need to understand your audience.
