10 Basic Copywriting Guidelines For Success

Last updated on January 8th, 2026 at 01:23 pm

Copywriting can give you a competitive edge.

Here are ten basic guidelines that you should follow if you want to write persuasive copy:

#1: Conduct Extensive Customer Research

The most effective copywriters aren’t the ones that are the most talented, they are the ones that understand their target audience the best. That’s why customer research is the foundation of all copywriting!

You can learn a lot about your dream customers by figuring out where they hang out online and then observing the conversations happening there.

That can mean:

• Subscribing to subreddits
• Registering to online forums
• Following relevant hashtags on Twitter

…etc.

It’s also a good idea to consume the content that your dream customers consume such as social media posts, articles, podcasts, videos, books, etc.

Consider looking at the discussions around that content as well, such as conversations happening in the comment sections or the sentiments expressed in book reviews.

The goal here is to get to the point where you understand your dream customers better than they understand themselves.

You want to know everything about their:

• Values
• Fears
• Struggles
• Ambitions
• Dreams

You should also pay attention to the words, phrases, and metaphors that they use to express all of the above.

It might make sense to invest in text analytics software that allows you to analyze vast quantities of data such as all tweets with a specific hashtag or all posts on a particular subreddit.

This can help uncover insights that would be impossible to extract with manual analysis of textual data.

Keep in mind that the other nine guidelines in this article are predicated on you having done extensive customer research.

So don’t skip it even if it seems tedious. Do your homework!

#2: Create a Dream Customer Avatar

We humans have evolved to live in small tribes so we are great at empathizing with individuals but terrible at conceptualizing large groups of people.

This becomes a problem when you need to write copy that makes the reader feel that you are speaking directly to them.

How can you pull that off when they are a nameless, faceless stranger, just a random person in your target audience?

This is where customer avatars come in. They are fictional characters designed to represent either your target audience as a whole or one of its subsets. You can think of them as customer archetypes.

Say, if your target audience is professional women between the ages of 25 and 35 that live in New York City, it might be helpful to create a customer avatar called Jane that represents this demographic.

That way, instead of writing copy with the nebulous “professional women between the ages of 25 and 35 that live in New York City” in mind, you can write as if you were speaking directly to Jane. How would you persuade her to click on the ad, open your email, or buy your product?

This whole concept of customer avatars might seem pretty weird if you have never heard of it before but using them does make copywriting much easier.

So give it a try and see if it works for you!

#3: Focus on the Benefits of Your Offer

One of the most important copywriting principles that you need to understand is the difference between features and benefits:

• A feature is a quality or a function of a product (e.g. “These shoes are waterproof!”).
• A benefit is the value that the customer will derive from that product (e.g. “These shoes will keep your feet warm and dry!”).

People make purchase decisions based on benefits, which is why you should always focus on the benefits of your offer when writing copy.

As for the features, the general rule is that the more expensive the offer, the more attention you should give to its features.

Say, if your offer is a free ebook, then simply making it clear that it’s an ebook is enough, no need to list any other features.

Meanwhile, if your offer is a $2,000 online course, then you should provide a detailed feature breakdown so that the potential customer would understand exactly what is included in the price.

However, regardless of the price, the main focus of your copy should always be the benefits of your offer, not its features.

Also, when it comes to benefits, the most obvious benefit may not be the most important one.

To continue with the waterproof shoes example, the most obvious benefit is that they will keep the customer’s feet warm and dry, but the most important benefit may be something else.

Some people might be looking for waterproof shoes because they want to be able to go hiking in rainy weather while others do so because they want to be able to go outside and play in puddles with their small children.

Customer research should help you figure out what the most important benefit of your offer is so that you could then emphasize it in your copy.

#4: Have a Headline That Conveys the Value of Your Offer

The headline is the most important element of any copy, whether it’s ad copy or email copy or sales page copy. Why?

Because you only have a few seconds to grab the potential customer’s attention before they get distracted by something else. So how can you do that?

There are several approaches to writing compelling headlines but the most straightforward one is to emphasize the #1 benefit of your offer in the headline.

The aim here is to ensure that the potential customer immediately knows what’s in it for them. It doesn’t have to be fancy but it does have to convey the value of your offer!

For Example:

The headline of the “Double Your Freelancing” online course sales page is literally just the name of the course with one additional word. But it works because what freelancer doesn’t want to double their rate?

#5: Have a Sub-Headline That Provides More Information About Your Offer

While the purpose of the headline is to grab the potential customer’s attention, the purpose of the subheadline is to provide more information about the offer.

A headline followed by a subheadline is a one-two punch because someone who read the headline will almost certainly read the subheadline as well because that’s just how human attention works.

This gives you an opportunity to convey the most important information about your offer in just a few seconds which should be enough to get the potential customer interested in learning more about it.

For Example:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the “Double Your Freelancing Rate” headline is followed by the “Make the transition from Hired-Gun Freelancer to Highly-Valued Consultant in less than 30 days” subheadline.

So if you land on this sales page, you will immediately know that this offer can help you double your freelancing rate in less than 30 days.

If you are a freelancer, this will probably make you interested in learning more so you will feel inclined to scroll down and read the rest of the copy.

#6: Use the Hook, Story, Offer Framework

We recommend using the Hook, Story, Offer framework for all your copy:

1. Hook – Grab the potential customer’s attention with a compelling headline.
2. Story – Tell them a captivating story that resonates with them on an emotional level.
3. Offer – Transition from the story to the pitch for your offer and then to the call to action.

Here’s how our co-founder Russell Brunson explains it:

This framework can be applied to anything from ads to emails to landing pages and sales pages.

The implementation will differ depending on the length of the copy but these three key elements should still be there.

In case you are wondering how it’s possible to tell a story in an ad where space is extremely limited, remember that a few sentences are enough to create a narrative structure.

Also, if you only have one sentence, you can get creative and allude to the story instead of telling it.

If you want proof that a single sentence can have an emotional impact on the reader, here’s what Hemingway came up with when he was asked to write a short story that only had six words:

“For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Sorry for ruining your mood but you get the point, right?

#7: Preemptively Address Potential Objections

It’s important to preemptively address potential objections to buying in your copy.

For Example:

Here are the most common objections to buying our software:

• “I don’t want to sign any contracts”
• “I’m not a technical person”
• “What if this doesn’t work for my business?”

That’s why we immediately let potential customers know that:

• They don’t need to sign any contracts and can cancel anytime.
• They don’t need any tech skills to use our software.
• Our software works for every type of business.

#8: Provide as Much Social Proof as Possible

Social proof is a psychological principle that says that whenever people are unsure of what to do, they look at what others do in order to determine the correct course of action.

In the business context, it means that whenever the potential customer is unsure of whether to trust you, they will consciously or unconsciously seek indications that other people trust you.

The term “social proof” is also used to refer to these indications of trust.

There are two types of social proof:

• Direct social proof that relates to the offer in question. Typically, that means customer testimonials.
• Indirect social proof that relates to you as an individual if you have a personal brand or to your business if you have a company brand. That can mean mentioning relevant credentials, accomplishments, awards, media features, previous customers, etc.

We recommend incorporating both types of social proof in your copy whenever possible.

Also, if you don’t have any social proof to speak of, you should go out there and obtain it because it can help you increase your conversion rates!

#9: Eliminate Financial Risk

Let’s say that the potential customer is almost sold on your product or service but they are still a little bit hesitant due to the price. How can you overcome this obstacle?

The best way to reassure them is to provide an unconditional, no-questions-asked 90-day money-back guarantee.

This removes all financial risk from the purchase decision and consequently makes people much more likely to take the leap. After all, worst-case scenario, they can always get a refund, right?

You should display this guarantee right before the call to action to give people who are still on the fence that last nudge.

Don’t worry, if your product or service actually delivers the value that you promised, very few customers will ask for a refund.

And if you feel that your refund rate is too high, it might be a sign that you need to improve the quality of your product!

#10: Have a Clear Call-to-Action

Copywriting is persuasion via the written word.

That means that every piece of copy that you write needs to have a clear conversion goal. What do you want people to do?

• Click on an ad?
• Subscribe to your email list?
• Click on the link in your email?
• Purchase your product or service?

You need to tell the potential customer what you want them to do next, then present them with a call-to-action link or a call-to-action button.

Want to Learn Copywriting FAST?

When it comes to making money online, copywriting is the most important skill that you need to learn.

But you probably don’t have the time to invest years in mastering it. You have a business to run and you need to make money RIGHT NOW.

That’s why our friend Jim Edwards wrote a book called “Copywriting Secrets” in which he distilled the most important principles of copywriting.

You can read it in a few days, learn what you need to know, and start implementing it in your business.

Do it right and you’ll see IMMEDIATE results! 💰

Get “Copywriting Secrets” for FREE!