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I started my marketing career as a junior marketer in the community. I should have been pretty ready for work. I spent £50,000 on a marketing degree and four years of study.
However, just a few hours into my first day, I realized that I was not well prepared. I was terribly incompetent.
Right after lunch, my manager asked me to create one-pagers, blogs, email headlines, and case studies. “This,” he described, “is bread and butter marketing.” And yet, I had no idea where to start.
My degree claimed I could do marketing, but I had no idea how to write persuasively, persuade customers, or use words to get attention.
However, all of these new assignments involved persuasive copywriting, something I knew nothing about.
Fortunately, I quickly discovered the behavioral sciences. I learned how psychology can reveal the secret of persuasive copywriting. Later, I interviewed experts like Richard Shotton, Rory Sutherland and Jonah Berger, asking them how they write better texts.
Over a decade, I’ve discovered dozens of copywriting tips that work. A treasure trove of tactics I wish I’d known about all those years ago. So, just in case you’re in the same position as me, here are eight copywriting tips I wish I’d known when I started in marketing.
Copywriting Insights I wish I had from day one
1. Write specific copy
In his book (in 2023), Richard Shotton shared arguably the most important study on copywriting.
In 2021, Richard and his colleagues Mike Treharne and Leo Burnett showed participants vague phrases and concrete phrases and asked them to recall both.
Concrete phrases like “fast car” were recalled with 6.7% accuracy, while abstract phrases like “innovative quality” were forgotten, with only 0.7% recall.
Here is the specific entry. Do not use vague or abstract terms in your text. Instead, use specific phrases that readers can visualize.
This copywriting tactic will not only help with recall, but also increase sales. A 2022 study (cited in Magic Words) suggested that changing the Oreo product description from “150 grams per pack” to “15 cookies per pack” would increase sales.
Specific descriptions made Oreo’s benefits more salient and made customers more likely to buy.
2. Solidify your requirements
Huel, a fast-growing protein shake company, knows how to use specific phrases in their ads.
Instead of using technical descriptions (left of image), they use easy-to-visualize examples such as eggs, oranges, salmon fillets, and bananas (right of image).
But can you spot other tactics they use?
Each of their concrete examples acts as an anchor. Readers know that salmon fillets are high in omega-3s, so the anchor makes Huel’s drink even more nutritious.
One study of San Francisco residents (cited in Blindight) found that the average political donor sent $64 to their candidate during the election campaign.
But simply telling the donor “someone else offered $400” increases the average to $143. Like Huel’s “salmon filet,” this anchor changed the perception and behavior of donors.
Read more:
3. Don’t hide the effort
U in 2003researchers Chinander and Schweitzer showed students two different presentations: one on electronic ink and one on optical switches (both were as boring as they sound).
Half of the students were told that the electronic ink presentation took eight hours to prepare, while the optical switch presentation took only 30 minutes. The other half were told the opposite: that it took eight hours to prepare the optical switch presentation, while the electronic ink step was mixed in 30 minutes.
In both scenarios, the presentation was the same.
Hearing that it takes more time to prepare the presentation made the presentation more interesting. Just learning that effort was put into it made students rate it more highly.
This discovery can easily be applied to your copywriting. Simply highlight the work you put in, like I did with this Reddit ad. I adjust my copy to say, “I spent 480 minutes listening to marketing experts… Here are the six best marketing lessons I heard,” increased my click through rate by 45%.
4. Be very specific
Take a closer look at the last ad. You’ll notice I said “480 minutes,” not eight hours or one work day. I was very specific on purpose.
or in 2006 the study compared ads with non-specific numbers versus ads with specific numbers.
Researchers Schindler and Yalch found that ads for a law firm performed better when it said it had served clients for “10 years” rather than “a decade.”
Advertisements suggesting that the fictitious deodorant lasted exactly 47% or 53% longer were judged by 199 participants to be more accurate, compared to the nonspecific claim “50% longer.”
Maybe that’s why Heinz reminds customers of its 57 varieties, while KFC raves about its 11 secret herbs and spices.
5. Present Tense Persuades
U in 2023bestselling author Jonah Berger conducted a study analyzing 500,000 product reviews.
Jonah and his team compared reviews written in the present tense (“soup is delicious”) with reviews written in the past tense (“soup was delicious”).
They found that reviews written in the present tense received 26% more upvotes, making readers 12% more likely to buy.
It is a vital discovery that many forget. This Tesla post (reposted by Elon Musk) would have been more persuasive if it mentioned how the company was growing, not how it was growing.
![[alt] Copywriting insight example: Tesla](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/copywriting-insights-7-20240730-3897043.webp)
6. Almost always illiterate
Participants in a 2022 study (quoted in The Illusion of Choice) one of the two proverbs is shown. Half were alliterative proverbs, the rest were non-alliterating proverbs with the same meaning.
Some participants read that “taking a break will help you move forward.” Others read that “a break will help you blossom.” Some read how “barking dogs rarely hurt”, while others read it “barking dogs rarely bite.”
Later, the participants were asked to recall the proverbs. Alliterative versions were 22% more impressive.
Maybe that’s why so many companies opt for alliteration in their slogans. Nestle claims “Good food, good life.” KitKat says, “Take a break, have a KitKat.” While Jaguar tells customers “Don’t dream it. Drive it.”
But this tip isn’t just for fancy slogans. Expert copywriter Harry Dry shares how to apply this advice to a typical website call-to-action.
Read more:
7. Don’t be afraid of negations
Negative words like nobody, nobody, no, nothing and nowhere attract attention.
Two researchers in in 2022 analyzed 15,608 posts on Facebook and Xu and found that posts with negative words received more engagement.
A tweet promoting a newsletter was 17.8% more effective if negation was used, while a Facebook post loaded with negation received 17.6% more engagement.
Maybe that’s why this famous IBM line has been around for decades.
8. Pronouns of the second person
U in 2022a group of three researchers studied thousands of brand posts on Facebook, comparing their engagement and impressions.
They found that posts containing second-person pronouns (you, your, you) boosted post performance.
It wasn’t just Facebook posts. Blog titles that included “you” and “you will” made readers feel more engaged and made the brand behind the post look more favorable in the reader’s eyes.
Next time you write a post, consider adding a “you”.
These 8 tips field what you should craft convincing a copy. Now don’t forget it took me away 10 years to find these tips, but only 8 ½ minutes to read this post. So bookmark this blog, you might want to save it for a rainy day.
This blog is part of it Phil Agnew’s Marketing Cheat Sheet series where he reveals scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast, Nudge, which is a proud member of the HubSpot Podcast Network.
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/copywriting-insights
