June 3, 2022

👉 I bet it just flows out of you. 

That’s what Overit CEO Dan Dinsmore said right before I admitted how long it really takes me to write this letter or create content. 

The truth is, rarely do words just flow out of me.

I side-step with phrases. 

Question my self-worth with every strained sentence.

And even after the initial fight, I spend hours (yes, hours) rearranging my words and sentences around the page like furniture in a space I haven’t figured out yet. 

Writing is difficult for many of us. But well-vetted tips and techniques can make it easier (and faster!) 

Here are the six writing tips I give to clients and friends (but not foes).  

Rule #1: Just start

That cursor blinking at you, mocking you? It’s intimidating enough to kill the strongest writing mojo.  

Don't overthink your early words. No one is checking your version history to see what stuck around for the final draft.  

Let yourself write an ugly first draft. My first few paragraph attempts never make sense. Sometimes they’re completely unrelated to the topic at hand. I'll type a grocery list to get my fingers moving. 

💡 Get on with the writing process and open the gates for your real words to flow- the ones you’ll keep and use to woo others.

When they do, allow them to fall naturally.

Anne Lamott, a wonderful novelist and nonfiction writer, says your first draft is the ‘down draft.’ You just have to get it down and let the words fall out. The second draft is the ‘up draft’ where you fix it up. 

Get it down. Then fix it up. 

Rule #2: Write to one person

Writing means putting yourself out there. Be it a landing page, a sell sheet, or a product description, you’re packing up part of yourself and giving it to someone else to consume and critique. That takes chutzpah.

💡 Simplify it: Don't write to thousands. Write to one. 

Keeping 'you' as the focus of your writing helps you speak to a single person.

• It puts that single person’s wants and needs center in your mind.
• It reminds you to address their roadblocks and objections to ease specific concerns.
• It changes your tone. You arrive as friend and advocate, not Slimy Marketer.

 That’s the kind of relationship I want, and I think it’s the one most audiences want.  

Rule #3: Take yourself out of it

The secret to writing great content is to write what your audience needs to read, not what you want to write. When you’re starting to pen anything, ask yourself: 

• What specific problems are they facing? 
• What benefit does my product/service provide?
• How do we help move them forward?
• What kind of content would meet their needs or intent?

Copywriting gets messy when we add too much of our own likes and dislikes into the sauce. We're not the ones eating.

💡 Think of copywriting as problem-solving vs. creative expressive.

It changes how you attack the words. 

• Suddenly, you’re not selling your bells and whistles. You’re selling outcomes. 

• You’re not overcomplicating things. You’re saying what it is.

• You’re not letting customers build up objections. You’re knocking them out.  

H/T Marketing Examples

• You’re giving them something to rally behind. 

H/T Marketing Examples

 Your copy is for them.   

Rule #4: Break the rules

If your copy sounds the way you were taught to write in 10th grade, break it, so it doesn’t. 

💡 Writing the way your audience speaks makes your copy easier to understand and more persuasive.  

Do:

• Write in short choppy sentences. Back to back. Then throw in a longer sentence that gives you enough room to tell a story and piques your audience’s interest to see where it's going. Close with something short.  
  
  
• Let words live out of their proper order. Break proper grammar and syntax. Make words rhyme in memorable ways. 
   
• Crush cliches. Adore alliteration.  
   
• Remove qualifying statements. You don’t “help” people do something. You are how they do it. You are not a pest control company. You are the pest control company. 
   
• Make your point as quickly as you can. Say things as simply as you can. 
   
• Read your words aloud until your tongue stops getting stuck. 

Overit’s Michelle Dinsmore recently wrote about how brands can find their place in the world. Her insights are keen, but her voice is unmistakable. She mimics the internal dialogue we have as we consider how our brand fits into the larger scheme of things. Her voice is our voice repeated back.

Rule #5: Rearrange words like furniture

I can write myself into corners. All the elements are there but it still feels…not fun? The copy is accurate, but…I hate it, maybe?

Your words should be enjoyable. It should help the reader learn. 

If you’re feeling stuck, shake it up.  

• Make your opening paragraph your closing line. 
• Swap your subhead with your headline. 
• Kill the darlings that are unnecessary to your point. 
• Make an unusual comparison.
• Strip out fluff.

💡 Improve your copy by removing distractions that muddle message clarity.   

Smooshing stuff around and putting it in reverse order can help your story identify itself.

Rule #6: Don't let perfection prevent progress 

Even if the words don’t flow with firehose veracity, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a message worth sharing. 

💡 Copywriting is communication. Work the muscle.

Get to work solving their problems through ad copy, website pages, downloadables, product descriptions, and other opportunities that present themselves. The more you write to solve your audience's problem, the more in tune you become with that problem. What matters to them becomes increasingly important and obvious to you. 

You become a better writer, marketer, and partner.

The best piece of writing advice is simply to start.

Not sure where? Drop me a line. 

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Thank you for reading and continuing to share this newsletter and tagging me on social media when you do. It means a lot.

I'll be back in two weeks. 

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