Copywriting Lessons From My College Writing Students’ Attempts at Copy

Photo by J. Kelly Brito: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-using-white-laptop-computer-4067125/

Is copywriting an art?

The general consensus about writing is that it requires skill, regardless of genre or format. But does that make it art?

I wouldn’t necessarily call the final products of copywriting “art” in the same sense as a beautiful and meaningful novel or poem, but I do think there is an art to writing effective copy. 

The question came to me after teaching my students a bit about copywriting. The First-Year Writing program at my university aims to teach students multimodal writing, or writing in different modes (written, oral, non-verbal, visual, etc.). The goal is to help students learn the mental processes of writing so they can write effectively across disciplines and in any form. Projects include not only traditional essays but projects like podcasts and blog posts, depending on the instructor.

This semester, I decided to add something a bit new. At least one project needs to cover the concept of circulating, or learning to disseminate your writing/views so you can contribute to academic or public conversations. While brainstorming project ideas, I realized there’s actually a huge gap in English and humanities curricula: copywriting (and marketing more generally). 

So many English majors enter their majors with particular goals based on popular ideas of “English major careers”: professor, novelist, poet, journalist.

Times are changing, though. Even if we look at academia more broadly rather than just English (or other humanities) majors, there are far fewer tenure-track jobs available compared to the number of people who earn doctoral degrees. And the humanities often suffer more as they face decreased funding in a world that values STEM and business far above the humanities. 

Some lucky few humanities PhDs land tenure-track jobs within the first few years after they graduate. Some PhDs eventually land those coveted jobs after many more years of being used and abused by the system in their roles as adjuncts. And even more PhDs either exhaust themselves in a system that relies on underpaid and overworked part-time employees or abandon the academy altogether for other industries.

So why don’t we teach students about careers that might be more realistic and provide them with the skills they need for those?

I’m not in a position to make big changes. I can’t add an entire course on Writing for Marketing Purposes to the registrar, but I can give students a brief glimpse into types of writing outside of what the academy teaches them.

To that end, I taught them some general principles of copywriting and some common formulas, and then I ran a workshop where they practiced and received feedback.

The quality of their practice copy surprised me — while they weren’t great, they also weren’t as bad as I’d expected, considering the quality of essays I’ve seen over my years as a college writing instructor. 

Here’s what they (and I) learned in the process:

Copywriting vs. Copyright

This won’t be new information for those of you looking for copywriting advice, but it was indeed a correction I had to make.

To get a feel for what students already knew, I had them write a quick reflection telling me what copywriting is and what they know about it. I received more than a few confident statements about copywriting involving establishing rights to content like books or music.

In reality, this isn’t a ridiculous mistake. Copyright and copywrite are homophones, meaning they are pronounced exactly the same but are spelled differently and mean completely different things.

The students learned the difference between the two words, but what did I really learn from this honest mistake?

I learned that kids aren’t taught much or anything about many real-world applications of the skills they learn in school.

This frustrates me, actually. We’re really only taught about a handful of careers during K-12 and our college years, and schools don’t teach some things that might be truly useful after graduation, like understanding marketing (and how it affects you) and writing effectively in new media (an essential tool for a generation that spends increasing amounts of time reading online rather than reading books).

As for copywriting specifically, it’s a helpful skill to learn because it teaches writers how to be concise and how to be more effective in both their writing and their speech.

Which brings me to the next lesson…

We’re All Wordier Than We Think

Even when we’re told to say what we want in as few words as possible, most of us tend to use a lot of words.

I could tell students were trying to write short, punchy copy, but most of the time, they would cut out things that actually worked well to save on word count while completely missing wordier phrases that they could have condensed.

Sometimes I recognized that their chosen phrases were actually fairly common in everyday speech, so they wouldn’t have known that the phrases were unnecessarily long unless they were trained writers (trained far more than just in my one semester of writing classes). 

This also reminded me that while it’s easy to correct mistakes and wordiness in others’ writing, it’s much harder to do when it’s your own. I know damn well I’m still sometimes too wordy. I have to go back and re-read my own writing, and the companies I work for often have editors who check and revise the work of (still quite competent) writers.

Sometimes, it’s Okay to Be Ungrammatical

This is difficult for an English major to say.

I don’t like ungrammatical writing. Sometimes, though, even I have to admit that it can be effective — if done well. 

One example might be when you’re drafting opening questions meant to grab a reader’s attention. For example, I had some students write things like, “Are you interested in all things horror?” (Their topic was monstrosity.) 

I suggested many of them make this simple change: Remove the “Are you.” If you phrase it as “Interested in all things horror?”, it’s snappier and yet still reads as natural and “correct.” Yes, it’s technically grammatically incorrect, but not in a way that’s jarring. It’s a small change, but it can be effective, depending on the context. 

Consider What’s Necessary and What’s Not — Seriously

I can’t tell you how many times I told students a sentence just wasn’t necessary — or the opposite, that they’d focused on “grabbing attention” but somehow left out any and all specific details that would help readers know if they were actually interested in what the copy was offering.

Here are some helpful steps:

1. Before drafting, consider what information the reader needs, what they don’t need, and what might get their attention.

2. RE-READ your drafted copy, asking yourself after each sentence whether or not that sentence was necessary and whether you’re still missing information the reader needs.

Copywriting Truly is an Art That Requires Practice

In the end, I learned to appreciate the intellectual work that I and so many other writers do while drafting effective copy.

Yes, I could give my students a few tips, tricks, and formulas, but that didn’t lead to particularly great copy. In the end, like all writing, copywriting requires a certain level of artistic maneuvering and experimentation in the drafting process — practices I hadn’t truly recognized I was participating in.

I hope all you copywriters out there recognize the art and skill you’re practicing!

Learning From the Pros: Email Copywriting

Photo by J. Kelly Brito: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-writing-on-notebook-4067126/

Do you struggle with copywriting impostor syndrome?

I know I do. Despite my early successes in the copywriting world, I still only have about a year of copy-specific experience under my belt. As a freelancer, I spend a fair amount of time trying to build up my business, and one of the strategies that other copywriters often suggest is writing a blog focused on copy (and content) writing.

I’ve put that task off for a while now because I felt I didn’t “know enough” about copywriting or didn’t have something useful to contribute.

To fight off that impostor syndrome and encourage a community of writers who want to learn their craft, I’ve decided to start a new series called “Learning From the Pros.” I’ll tackle copywriting and content writing topics and provide some helpful advice for you all, but from the perspective of a student. There are so many professionals out there who want to help others develop their skills and business, so I will learn from them and share with you what I learn!

First topic of the series is email copywriting. I’ve had some experience writing email copy through my first gig as a freelancer, and I actually found it pretty fun. It’s a great way to work your creative brain on short assignments.

So with no further ado, here is what I learned from from the pros about email copywriting!

The Benefits of Emails as Part of Marketing Strategy

My primary source for this post was Sarah Turner, and she makes some great points about why emails are important for any marketing strategy. According to Turner, email is one of the most effective strategies for driving conversion and building customer relationships, and I can understand why.

In the tech age, emails are one of our best sources for direct engagement with customers. On top of that, Turner points out the following benefits:

• Potential ROI (Return on Investment) of 4200%

• Allows for stronger audience targeting (i.e., different email lists based on audience interests and preferences)

• More cost effective than other strategies, such as social media ads

• Increased automation for emails that go out based on certain customer actions

• Cut out the algorithm middle man: Your clients are yours, and you won’t lose them if Facebook or Instagram go down for a day again

But is email copywriting really any different, in terms of skills and approach, from website copywriting?

According to CopyHackers, yes! Website copywriting, they explain has to be more general, but email copywriting can utilize personalization. On top of that, website copywriting is often more driven by design rather than text. And finally, email copy allows for more continuous engagement than website copy alone.

Email Strategy: One Formula

Like any other type of marketing, emails work best when you use a clear strategy. Turner suggests the following as a starting point:

Opt-In Incentive (Awareness)

Provide an incentive (like a discount code or freebie) for anyone who signs up to your email list.

Welcome Email (Interest)

Build a relationship by introducing the brand and some of their offers.

Newsletters (Decision)

Build on established interest with newsletters that provide value to the audience and introduce some more offers. This step helps you build authority with subscribers.

Promotional Sales (Action)

Promote actual products. But Turner reminds brands to balance promotional material with content that provides value for customers so they don’t feel bombarded by sales material.

Post-Purchase (Loyalty and Retention)

On top of providing purchase information, build customer satisfaction through these emails. This might include more offers/deals, social media information, and/or a sincere thank you to your loyal customers.

If you notice a brand is missing one of these steps, that can be a great “in” for you - pitch it to them!

The Body of the Email: Copywriting Formula

Hook

Storytelling is a great strategy!

Offer Introduction

Use this to transition from the hook to the offer.

Call to Action (CTA)

Explain how the offer can fulfill a desire for/create benefit for the customer, and end with a direct CTA (for example, a direct link with a shorter CTA that encourages them to click and purchase).

Subject Line Formulas

• Benefit-Driven

• Urgency/Scarcity (i.e., “Sale ends soon!”)

• Personalization (i.e., using the customer’s name)

• Questions to boost curiosity

• “How-to _________”

Metrics & Testing

One aspect of copywriting that I didn’t pay much attention to as a newbie was metrics. We writers often want to focus on words, and for some of us, numbers seem intimidating. But learning how to be a successful marketer requires learning how to measure your growth and effectiveness. Even if you’re not directly working with the metrics, you should know what your clients mean when they mention random acronyms like OR, CTR, or RPR.

According to CopyHackers, the most important metrics you should consider (and their acronyms!) are:

• Unique Open Rate (OR): How many people opened the email

• Unique Clickthrough Rate (CRT): How many people clicked the link(s) in the email

• List Growth: How many subscribers you gain

• Revenue Per Recipient (RPR)

• Revenue from Email/Total Revenue: Track how much of your revenue is driven by email copy

• Bounce Rate: Unengaged sessions, which essentially means a session that didn’t either last longer than 10 seconds, lead to a conversion event, or include a secondary page view on the site

And finally, don’t forget to conduct some testing! This is especially helpful for determining the success of specific types of subject lines. Conduct A/B testing, where A is your “control” and B is the new type of subject line you want to send. Use OR metrics to determine which subject line works better.

Conclusion

Email copywriting is way more than just a fun way to earn money - it’s an essential piece of the puzzle for marketers and brands hoping to build a loyal customer base. Approach it with a strategy in mind, and pay attention to the fruit (metrics) of your labor.

Check out Sarah Turner and CopyHackers for more excellent advice - I’ll definitely turn to them for more “lessons” in the future!