Copywriting ideas don’t always come easily to entrepreneurs… In fact, most people in my community say that copywriting is hard for them… which is tricky because if you want to attract your ideal clients, there’s simply no way around the copywriting part of your online business.

This post will help you with 5 simple copywriting ideas for entrepreneurs, not just to get you started with your marketing copy, but to actually demystify the process of writing for your business so it doesn’t have to be so dang hard anymore.

First: What exactly is copywriting?

“Copywriting” simply means “writing stuff” (lol – why do copywriters have to make it all so cryptic when it’s so simple?!).

More specifically, “copy” in terms of what we mean for entrepreneurs is the words you use in your marketing, advertising, really all the wording and language you’d use anywhere in your business, including:

• On your website
• On a sales page
• In conversations with your prospects (though spoken word is not technically “copy”)
• In your marketing & advertising materials
• In your emails, blog posts, social media posts etc.

My first truly successful online business was my marketing copywriting agency… I ran that for about a decade and had awesome high-level clients who helped me get my start online. A lot of real-world practice, plus my degrees in English and Commerce (with a concentration in Entrepreneurship), plus a genuine passion I have for writing, made that business lucrative and fun for me, until I started to transition into online business management and then coaching.

…But although copywriting comes fairly easily to me, I know that’s not the case for most online entrepreneurs…

That’s why I’m giving you my 5 best copywriting ideas to make it easier to attract your ideal clients, so you spend more time growing your biz and way less time starting at a blank screen and a blinking cursor… 😒

My 5 best copywriting ideas & tips… Let’s get started:

Tip #1: Listen to your prospects.

This one tip will simplify your marketing and totally revolutionize your online business, if you let it…

It is SO simple but it is the thing I see people screw up the MOST…

My tip-within-a-tip:

Don’t overcomplicate this. Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

This tip is so powerful for one simple reason:

Most entrepreneurs struggle to come up with ideal client language… but you know who doesn’t? Your ideal client!

Your peeps are out there, speaking their natural language effortless and fluently. All YOU have to do is tap into that…

Here’s what you do:

Set up a conversation with a current client, a past client, a potential client, or even a friend/family member who is similar to your ideal clients…

Then ask them these 2 questions:

1) When it comes to <what you do in your biz>, what do you most want?

2) When it comes to <what you do in your biz>, what do you most struggle with?

…Then just let the conversation flow naturally.

Your job during the conversation is just to listen and record, listen and record, listen and record.

Don’t filter what they say to try to make it more succinct or polished or “marketing-y.”

Just listen. They will give you the words you need for everything you need to market your business, including:

• Benefits
• Pain points
• How they describe themselves (aka your avatar description)
• What they’ll buy
• Where you can find more of them

Listen and don’t filter. If you stop reading here, this one tip can change your business forever.

Tip #2: Rinse & repeat.

I don’t know why we do this to ourselves, but you don’t need to be as innovative as you think you do.

Maybe it’s because we entrepreneurs tend to have these creative little hearts that are fed by inspiration and innovation, so we feel like everything we write needs to be fresh, new, never-before-seen…

Not true.

In my “Copywriting Quickstart” class, I teach you the 5 categories of copywriting you need to figure out. Once you have those nailed, you don’t need to come up with a bunch of new fresh stuff anymore. You can just rinse and repeat.

In the Copywriting Quickstart course, we actually work on getting this copy together for you, but here’s all you really need for your copy:

1. Ideal client benefits & pain points.
2. A benefits-oriented bio of you.
3. A simple, straightforward way to handle people’s objections.
4. Your 30-second “elevator pitch.”
5. How to title things (blog posts, email subject lines, course titles etc.)

That’s it.

Once you have these 5 pieces, everything else you need to write – emails, sales pages, blog posts, everything – will flow from it.

Tip #3: Look and sound like a human.

One of the biggest mistakes I see when it comes to copywriting ideas is this myth that your copy needs to be perfect and polished.

It doesn’t. It just doesn’t.

We try to use professional language to help enhance our credibility and legitimacy as a business, but the reality is that when we do this, in most cases, we are actually repelling our perfect customers.

The people we are trying to serve in the world need to know 3 things in order to be ready to buy from us:

1. They need to feel like we understand where they want to be.
2. They need to feel like we understand where they are now.
3. They need to feel like we have the path to get them from where they are now to where they want to be.

Can you see what a ginormous deal this is?

It’s not enough to just show people we’re credible. We have to actually show that we understand where THEY are RIGHT NOW because that’s how we also show we can meet them where they are and lead them where they want to go.

Can you see how if you use really sparkly professional language, that can make you feel out of reach and unattainable, as in, “Sure, she obviously knows what she’s talking about, but I doubt she can help a real beginner like me.”

Conversational trumps polished to perfection every day of the week.

One small caveat is you do want to do your best to avoid spelling errors and typos, but the occasional mistake will be forgiven if your overall message is friendly and approachable.

Tip #4: Stay narrow, go deep.

When we are great at something, we have a tendency to underestimate how valuable that knowledge truly is. There’s a cognitive bias called “the curse of knowledge” that partly explains why:

In essence, when we’re an expert (or even very good) at something, we can very easily forget what it’s like to NOT have that knowledge baked in to us. As a result, we tend to undervalue what we’re sharing in our copy and so instead of deeply teaching one small thing, we try to throw in everything and the kitchen sink in an effort to deliver on value.

Over-delivering in the value department may sound good on the surface, but it’s actually usually a problem because:

1) People get too much and then get overwhelmed and feel like they’re beyond help (see Tip #3), OR

2) People get too much and then feel like they have everything they need and can DIY from here on out, so they don’t end up actually buying anything from you, OR

3) It’s a lot more work for you in the copywriting department because you feel the need to write more and burn through broad ideas quickly, then feel like you’ve run out of things to write about.

In reality, it’s actually less work and MORE effective for you to stay narrow on a topic when you’re writing. For example, imagine you’re writing an email all about tips to become happier. Instead of telling everyone everything you know about all the ways you can become happier, narrow topic ideas might be:

• 1 simple trick to make your bedroom happier
• The best morning routine for a happier life
• 5 happiness tips for busy parents
• Feeling blue? 3 things you can try right now to boost your mood
• The #1 myth about happiness – busted

If you’re worried you wouldn’t be able to write a whole email on one of the above topics, all you have to do is go back to the 5Ws you learned in school: Who? What? Where? When? Why? (And don’t forget about, “How?”)

The idea is to reclaim your beginner’s mind. Any time you feel like you don’t have enough to write about one specific topic, it’s USUALLY because of the curse of knowledge… We are forgetting what it’s like to be a beginner who needs all the details and lots of examples in order to make progress.

Remember, staying focused not only gives you less work in the moment, it also gives you more topics to write about in the future (no more writer’s block, hooray!). Plus, it has the crucial benefit of actually making a difference for your readers instead of overwhelming them with knowledge… which means they’re more likely to become buyers thanks to your content.

Tip #5: How to tell when you’re getting it right…

Figuring how to be a good copywriter doesn’t happen overnight and it’s important you know how to tell when you’ve got this right or not.

You don’t want to come up with a list of benefits and pain points and a whole bunch of copywriting ideas (see Tip #2), but not know if they’re actually working for you. After all, the point of copywriting isn’t just to write your brains out all day long. The point is to come up with an inventory of the right words to attract your perfect prospects into your world and fuel all of your copywriting with that language to keep it simple for you and effective for them.

Fortunately, there are some telltale signs you’re on the right track with your copy. People will say things like:

“It’s like you’re in my head!”

“I feel like you wrote this just for me!”

“Wow, you really do know what it’s like.”

The other thing that will happen is you’ll start to notice patterns. The same words and phrases will come up over and over with your ideal clients. When you notice the patterns, be sure to write them down!

This is why it is absolutely crucial that you don’t filter, parse, polish, or otherwise translate what your people are saying to you (see Tip #1)…

They will give you the perfect words if only you let them and, once they do, you’ll start to see the patterns and you’ll know you are well on your way to absolutely crushing it with your copywriting.

Speaking to your ideal clients is about to get a whole lot easier…

“Wait,” you might be thinking, “that’s it?”

It is. And – it can take time and practice. Be patient with yourself and be willing to get out there, speak to your prospects, record their words, and write from their inspiration. Then, get out there with that writing and see how it goes.

You almost certainly will have to iterate but it will always be following the same 5 tips I shared with you above. I myself am still iterating on my copy; all good copywriters do, because when you listen to what people are saying to you, it’s naturally going to cause you to shift your copywriting ideas.

…But it doesn’t have to be as hard as it’s been up until now. Let your prospective clients help you by involving them in the process. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel every time you sit down to craft an email, a blog post, a sales page, or a subject line. The words are there. I know this is a skill to develop but it doesn’t get easier with practice.

Plus, to help, I have 2 options for you:

1) Register for my free masterclass:

Copywriting Quickstart: The Only 5 Pieces You Need to Effortlessly Write Emails, Sales Pages & More (Even If You’re Not a Great Writer)

2) Take my “Copywriting Quickstart VIP Intensive” full course. (coming soon)

I really hope you’ve found this post helpful. If you have, please do 2 things for me: (1) leave a comment below and (2) share this post with 1 or 2 people you think would really benefit.

I appreciate you,
Kathryn