copywriting

Was macht copywriting?

A working method for writing copy that gets read and believed. It is distilled from The Copy Book: How Some of the Best Advertising Writers in the World Write Their Advertising (D&AD / TASCHEN), in which 53 advertising writers each explain how they actually work. See "Source" at the end.

The stance

Hold these four ideas before you write a word. Everything else follows from them.

1. The reader owes you nothing. You are an uninvited guest in their attention. Every line has to repay them or they leave. Adrian Holmes frames all copy as a deal: the reader keeps going only while you stay interesting.
2. Writing is the last ten percent. The work is knowing the product and one reader well enough that the words become obvious. David Abbott's rule: dig first, then write.
3. The idea is a truth, not a turn of phrase. A good line is a clear expression of something true about the product, seen from an unexpected side. Clever wording on top of nothing is decoration.
4. Being believed is harder than being noticed. Facts persuade and claims do not. Plain words in a human voice beat anything that sounds like advertising.

Workflow

Scale this to the job. A tagline may need steps 1 to 6 and 11. A landing page needs all of it. Do not skip step 4 for anything.

1. Get the brief

You need five things:

• Product: what it is and what it does, concretely.
• Reader: one person, not a segment.
• Job: what the reader should do or believe afterwards.
• Space: format, length, where it appears, what sits next to it (image, video, page, inbox).
• Facts: numbers, proof, specifics, the awkward truths.

Look before you ask. Read the files, the site, the reviews, the earlier conversation. If something essential is still missing, ask for it in one short message. If it is minor, state your assumption and carry on.

Never invent facts. The whole method rests on facts being more believable than claims, which only holds if they are true. If a number or proof point would make the line and you do not have it, write the line with a marked placeholder such as [number of customers] and say what you need.

2. Dig

Gather more than you can use. Interrogate the product with what, where, why and how. Tony Brignull's ratio is one word for every thousand facts. Look where others would not: how it is made, what it replaced, what its users complain about, what the makers find boring because it is so familiar. Paul Fishlock's check: picture the moment of choice. People care far less about the product than its makers do, and the copy has to work at that moment of indifference.

3. Pick one reader

Throw away the demographic. Picture one real person and write down what they want, what they fear, and what they already believe about this kind of product. Assume they are at least as bright as you and more sceptical. Start from their self-interest, never from what the company wants to say.

4. Find the truth

Write one plain sentence that is true about the product and matters to that reader. No sentence, no copy. If you cannot write it, go back to step 2.

Useful places to look: what people already assume about the brand (and whether you can admit it), the one fact a competitor could not say, the real reason people end up choosing it.

5. Find the angle

Ask how the truth can be said sideways. Abbott: things you cannot say literally can often be said laterally. Options that recur in the book:

• Admit something. A small confession earns large trust.
• Show it instead of saying it. A demonstration, a single concrete fact, a scene.
• Flip the register. Write the bank like a car, the car like a bank. Serious picture with a light line, or the reverse.
• Take a side. A position beats a hedge.

6. Overproduce

Write far more headlines or openings than feels reasonable. The obvious ones come first and have to be cleared out of the way. Abbott reworked a headline 50 or 60 times. Write at least 20 privately before choosing. Keep the one that surprises you. Dan Wieden's bar: if it is not startling, it is not finished.

7. Fit the space

Decide what the reader sees before or beside the words, and never write what the picture already says. Assume most people read only the headline: the top line plus the visual must carry the whole message alone. Check the length against the real container (characters, seconds, lines) while writing, not after.

8. Decide the ending

Know where the argument lands before you start. Holmes compares it to a telephone line: plant the poles first, then string the wire. A dependable shape is statement, development, return to the opening idea.

9. Draft as a letter

Bob Levenson began every ad with "Dear Charlie", wrote to a friend, then crossed the greeting out. Do the same. Plain, familiar words. Say "you" about three times for every "we" or "I". Write it fast, in one pass.

For voice, either give the company a personality you could meet at a party, or pick a role (friend, expert, wit, teacher, alarmist) and hold it. See references/tensions.md for when to use the brand's voice and when your own.

10. Build the argument from facts

• State claims as facts. "Fast" is a claim. "Loads in 0.4 seconds" is a fact.
• If you have many facts, turn the list into a story so it does not read like a spec sheet.
• For longer copy, the order that works: get attention, intrigue, single out the reader, show why it is better, prove it, create desire, add credibility, ask for the action.
• Pay the reader back in every paragraph with something useful, surprising or funny.

11. Edit

Leave it, then run the tests below. Expect to cut about a third. If the result is only good, start again and write it better.

The tests

Run these on every draft. They are quick and they catch most problems.

Test	How
Removal	Delete each sentence in turn. If the copy still works, it stays deleted.
Read aloud	Say it. Fix every place you stumble or run out of breath.
Party	Would you say these words to a stranger at a party? Would they stay?
Deal	Is the phrasing original, is it concise, does each part repay the reader?
So what	After each claim, ask "so what?" from the reader's side.
Product hero	Will they remember the product, or only the ad?
Effortless	Does it read as natural speech, or as someone trying to write?

Failure modes to catch in your own drafts

These are the habits that make copy read as generic or machine-written. Each one breaks a principle above.

• Adjective stacks ("powerful, seamless, intuitive"). Replace each with a fact or delete it.
• Claims with no proof. Every "best", "leading" and "trusted" needs a fact behind it or it goes.
• Company-first sentences. "We are excited to announce" is about you. Start with the reader.
• Over-seasoning. Stacked puns, rhetorical questions, exclamation marks. Plain prose makes the one flourish land.
• Formula rhythm. Tidy triplets, "not just X, but Y", a neat summary line at the end. It fails the effortless test.
• Repeating the visual. If the image shows it, the words say something else.
• Hedging. "Can help you potentially" persuades nobody. Take the position.
• The forced ending. You do not need a pun or a moral. Stop when you are done.

Output

Unless the user asks for something else:

1. Give the recommended version first, ready to use.
2. Give two to four real alternatives that take different angles, not rewordings.
3. Add one line naming the truth and angle you built on, so the user can redirect.
4. List any placeholders or assumptions.

Keep commentary short. The copy is the deliverable.

For a critique, name the three biggest problems using the tests above, then show a rewrite. Do not list every flaw.

Reference files

Read these when the situation calls for them, not by default.

• references/principles.md: the twelve recurring principles with the writers behind each. Read when you need the reasoning, or the user asks why.
• references/tensions.md: where the writers disagree (long or short, whose voice, plan or discover) and how to choose. Read when the brief pulls two ways.
• references/formats.md: applying the method to short video, landing pages, email, social posts, product pages and taglines. Read for any format beyond a print-style ad. These adaptations are extensions, not content from the book.
• references/writers.md: writer-by-writer signature advice. Read when the user asks for a particular writer's approach or you want a different way in.

Source

Based on D&AD. The Copy Book: How Some of the Best Advertising Writers in the World Write Their Advertising, compiled by D&AD and published by TASCHEN (first published 1995, updated 2011 and 2018; ISBN 978-3-8365-6852-4). This skill is an independent, paraphrased summary of the book's ideas, built from public sources about it. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by D&AD or TASCHEN, and it is no substitute for the book, whose reproduced ads are half the lesson.