In the article that introduced this series, I described the time a non-marketer student of mine heard me talk about “copy” and asked, “What is copy?”

As a person who deals in copy all day, every day, I stopped in my tracks. Not because I don’t know what copy is, and not because I was surprised he didn’t know.

Because copy is so many things, and, above all, it’s more than just words.

Now, that would have been the easy answer: “When I say ‘copy,’ I mean the words someone writes for advertising or marketing purposes.” And then I could have moved on.

But this oversimplified – and incorrect, by omission – response would do copywriting, one of the very things I teach about, a huge disservice.

When you’re talking about copy, you’re talking about more than the words on the page (or in the video, or on the audio). You’re talking about the intent behind them, and you’re talking about the impact they should have on the reader (or listener, or consumer). Marketers write copy to persuade an audience to take a desired action.

So, first and foremost, copy is persuasive.

Words have power. The power to communicate, the power to translate, and the power to make people feel something. And when you make someone feel something, you stand a better chance of making them take action.

Look no further than this quote from David Ogilvy, the father of advertising: “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” He’s saying we need to use our copy to sell, to create the transaction, to ask for the desired response. Being cute might get attention, but not making the big ask could mean missing the big sale.

(When I say “sale,” I don’t just mean retail sales. I mean donations. I mean votes. I mean pledges. I mean protests. I mean marches. I mean action. Good copy – persuasive copy – convinces people to take these actions.)

I’ll add one more voice here: Bob Bly, author of “The Copywriter’s Handbook,” says, “[T]he goal of advertising is not to be liked, to entertain, or to win advertising awards; it is to sell products.” Again, I use “products” generically to also mean candidates, nonprofits, missions, movements… The most persuasive things you’ve ever heard were probably made up of well-crafted words.

Let me recalibrate quickly. Copy isn’t just words. Words without intent to persuade are just words, not copy. Copy isn’t always cute. Cute gets attention, but cute doesn’t always sell.

So, how do you persuade your ideal customer to take your desired action? I’ll do a whole series on each of these tenets of success, but the short answer is:

  • When you know your “why,”
  • And when you know your ideal customer’s fears and motivations,
  • And when you can offer a solution to that person’s problem,
  • And when you can align those three things in your copy,

that’s when you’ll be your most persuasive.

Let’s try out an example. If I’m Mars Wrigley, and: 

  • I believe that our company “why” is to “put smiles on people’s faces and create better moments,” 
  • and there are potential customers out there who are afraid a moment of bad breath could cost them a lifelong relationship, 
  • and I make chewing gum with long-lasting, breath-freshening flavor,
  • I’m going to write advertising copy that says something like, “For the first-date kiss you don’t want to miss, chew Wrigley’s. [2 for 1 today at Git-N-Split]”

With that simple formula, you’ve aligned your core values with your customers’ concerns, you’ve provided a simple solution to their underlying problem, and you’ve given them a way to take action and a justification for it.

That’s more than words. That’s copy.