Why Copywriting Is Similar to Dating and How to Master It

Stop proposing on the first date

Did you know copywriting is one of the highest-income skills of the 21st century?

And did you know most people suck at it?

Why?

Because copywriting is different from any other type of writing.

Good copywriting has one goal:

Leading people to take action.

And if you are doing some sort of business online, you need good copywriting.

You’ve probably done copywriting without even knowing it exists.

Your sales page is full of copy, your landing pages are copy, and every email you send out is copy.

Even your call-to-action at the end of a blog post is copy.

And if you don’t know how to write good copy, you will lose leads, customers, and potential income.

So yes, copywriting is highly relevant, and even if you’re a writer, you need to learn copywriting from scratch.

Because good copywriting isn’t good writing.

It’s an entirely different world, and most mistakes people make come down to one single thing:

Sequence.

Ryan Deiss, the founder of Digital Marketer, compares copywriting to dating.

He states how good copywriters are those who know when to say what.

Imagine going on a first date and being proposed to.

“Hi, nice to meet you, wanna get married?”

Weird, right?

Well, unfortunately, that’s what most (bad) copywriters are doing.

“Hi, here’s my business, wanna buy?”

Yet, according to Ryan Deiss, the timing, meaning when you deliver which copy, is at least as important as the quality of your words.

He even states that decent copy delivered at the right time is more powerful and drives more results than great copy delivered at the wrong time.

The second common problem among copywriters, however, is the exact opposite: They are afraid to sell.

There’s a vast misconception about delivering value and expecting people to buy while being afraid to sell.

Guess what?

That doesn’t work either.

In terms of dating, this would equal being friend-zoned.

You are the nice guy always giving your best, but you’ll never be the one guy.

Why Copywriting Exists

The role of copywriting, according to Digital Marketer, is to move prospects and customers seamlessly and subtly through each phase of a value journey.

The purpose of good copywriting isn’t making sales.

Driving sales might be the desired outcome, but the goal of copywriting is moving your customers through different phases until they ultimately buy.

Copywriting, at its core, is persuasive writing.

It intends to drive action, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, subscribing for a memo trial, or buying a product.

Paul Hollingshead describes copywriting as the following:

“Writing with a specific call-to-action that makes people open their wallets and checkbooks and buy.”

This clarifies why being a good writer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good copywriter.

You might be the most excellent storyteller or self-help author, but your copy might fail to generate email leads or sell your online course.

Even though we tend to differentiate between B2B and B2C sales, every sale, in fact, is H2H — human to human.

Even if you write for huge corporates, you are talking to a human, to a person with emotions, desires, and needs.

That’s why copywriting is not only important but also powerful.

If you are selling through the digital world, for instance, through email newsletters, landing pages, or ads, your copy needs to be on point, and you need to know which words to place where and when.

The Value Journey

Any sales process has different stages.

However, analyzing these stages and delivering copy that fits the current stage of your customer or prospect is especially important for digital businesses or companies who want to sell through the internet.

Any customer journey starts with getting awareness.

Before you can sell, you first need to make the customer aware that your business or product even exists.

This mainly happens through ads or emails where your business gets mentioned.

Once your prospects are aware of your existence, it’s time for some engagement.

Here, your objective is to get the customer to engage with your brand. This could, for example, happen through reading a blog post.

After the first two stages, you move them to the stage of subscription, where they permit you to follow up, for instance, through their email address.

All these different stages require different types of copy.

And once your prospect made the first sale, your relationship, thus, also your copy changes.

In general, copywriting is much easier at the back end, once the first sale is made.

Again, think of it in terms of dating:

It’s much easier to go on a second date if the first one was nice.

If you, however, screw up the first date (aka writing bad copy at the beginning of a customer relationship), it will be hard to get a second chance.

Bottom Line

Don’t. Skip. Sequences.

Think of copywriting as if it was dating.

Get to know your prospect slowly but surely.

Don’t scare them away by proposing on the first date.

Instead, learn how to lead them through all sequences of your business and build a strong foundation so that you can confidently sell once the first stages are covered.

To write good copy, you need to know at which stage of the relationship you are.

And you need to adjust your words and the emotions you trigger.

The mission of a good copywriter is giving the prospect a good reason to respond and take action in a way it benefits your business.

And if you felt like you were working your ass off, creating great products and serving your audience but can’t drive sales, there’s a huge chance it’s because your copywriting sucks.

You’re either proposing too quickly, or you end up in the friend-zone.

The good news?

Copywriting is a skill. It can be learned and practiced by anyone.

Plus, there are a bunch of amazing copywriters out there, just waiting to be hired.