Copywriting For Beginners: The DIY Guide

Copywriting Tips

Mar 13

Written By Emily

The ultimate beginner's guide to copywriting

If you’ve got a great product or service but you’re not getting sales, it’s almost always the copywriting that’s the issue.

It doesn’t matter how fantastic your offer is; if your copy doesn’t connect with your audience, clients won’t have any incentive to buy from you.

But if you’re not a professional copywriter, how do you create compelling content?

In this post, I’ll share seven of my top tips for copywriting for beginners to help you improve your sales copy and land more clients.

Head to the next guide to find out how to write a well-optimised, binge-worthy About Us page for your website.

What is Copywriting?

Copywriting is creating written content aimed at selling. Whether it’s a blog post, landing page, or your website content, great copy will help convert hesitant visitors into loyal clients.

I’ve been a copywriter for over seven years now, and I’ve created content for everything from About Pages to marketing materials. But you don’t need to be a professional copywriter to write content that converts — you just need to know the tricks the pros use.

Who Needs Copywriting?

If you run an online business, you need copywriting. You cannot sell your product or services without creating binge-worthy content that converts readers into paying customers.

And it doesn’t matter what niche you’re in – even the top YouTube influencers rely on copywriting to hook their viewers and boost views.

Do I Need to Hire a Copywriter?

Copywriting services will be a godsend if you’re a busy business owner with no time to dedicate to content writing. They’ll handle all your copywriting for you, so you can sit back and watch the clients roll in.

But if you’re a small business owner and you don’t have the budget to outsource your content, you can learn to write copy that converts. And here are my top copywriting tips for beginners!

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7 Easy Copywriting Tips For Writing Content That Converts

The only way you’ll get better at writing sales copy is practice. So, go through these SEO copywriting tips and try to apply them to your existing content. How can you update, refresh, and improve your copy to take it to the next level?

1. Know Your Buyer

Before you start writing content, I need you to get really clear on who your ideal client is. And if you’re sat there thinking, “but anyone could buy my services!” it’s time to niche down.

Content that appeals to an 18-year-old college student is going to be worlds different from content aimed at a 50-year-old CEO.

I had trouble with this when I started my business. Before I started getting consistent clients, I would happily work with anyone and everyone, so I didn’t want to niche down and miss out on business.

But it’s much easier to land new clients if you’ve got a demographic to target. For me, it was working with boutique marketing agencies to create white-label content. Knowing that was my ideal client made cold emailing and crafting pitches so much easier, and my work began to speak for itself.

Think about the one specific person you could happily work with every day. How old are they? What do they do for a living? What problems are they having?

Once you’re clear on your ideal buyer, I want you to write content as if you were only giving it to them to read. No one else matters – you just need your content plan to connect with that one person.

Give them a name, a hobby, a pet, whatever you need to do to make them real in your mind.

Now, anyone who fits within those ideal client parameters will immediately love your copywriting style, and you’ll find it easier to start attracting more clients.

2. Connect with Emotions

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a photographer, a graphic designer, or an accountant; every single client purchases services because of an emotional response.

If you can tap into that emotion and connect with it, you’ll see dramatically better results from your copywriting. Here are some examples:

Photographer: They won’t be this little forever – capture this precious moment with a baby photoshoot (nostalgia, love, FOMO).
Accountant: Take the fear and stress out of tax season with a done-for-you business audit (anxiety, fear).
Life coach: Break the cycle of self-sabotage and finally achieve life-changing goals this year (sadness, frustration).

It doesn’t matter what the emotion is; it’s all about connecting with your reader on that deeper level and evoking a response to your copy.

3. Tell a Story

When I was in my early 20s, I got my Masters degree in Psychology. At uni, this one lecturer always had a packed lecture hall. Every other professor struggled to get students out of bed for their boring seminars, but this one was so engaging and so fun to watch that no one dared miss a lecture.

His subjects were actually pretty boring – he usually taught us about statistics and research procedures. But everyone loved him anyway, and his students always got some of the best grades in the year.

Why? Because he was a master at storytelling. He didn’t teach us about stats by scrawling numbers all over a whiteboard – he related it back to real life and kept us all interested with his stories.

The truth is people have always loved stories. We love using imagination, even if it’s about the mundane stuff. So, if you can create stories around your brand, product, and service, you’ll keep your readers engaged.

It doesn’t even matter what story you tell through your copywriting or how it relates back to your business. Here’s a random example:

Yesterday, I was sitting in the park, watching my toddler and his team (unsuccessfully attempt to) play soccer. They all ran around in one big mess of boots, trying to kick at the ball while the ever-so-patient referee tried to calmly explain what positions they were supposed to be in.

As the rest of the parents and I smiled at the madness, I couldn’t help but think how similar the scene was to the freelance world. There are so many talented freelancers all running around trying to land the same clients without a strategic game plan. Hoping for results without ever really knowing who’s winning…

Kids playing soccer have nothing to do with the freelance world, but the story forces the reader to conjure images in their minds and keeps them hooked.

4. Use the PAS Formula

There are loads of copywriting structures and formulas you can use to write all kinds of sales copy. I don’t believe that formulas get guaranteed results, and relying on them too heavily can make your content sound overly salesy and a little slimy.

But the PAS formula can be helpful when we’re looking at copywriting for beginners.

PAS formula for copywriting for beginners

Take a look at any of your service or product pages right now – have you hit the PAS formula?

We need to give people a reason to make a purchase, which is why this particular copywriting formula is so powerful. It reminds people that their problems won’t go away and will probably get worse without solutions.

Let’s pretend you’re a life coach and you’re trying to sell your coaching services. First, I’d expect you to niche down, so we’ll assume you’re a life coach for young people looking to start their own business:

Problem: You want the freedom of making money from anywhere, but you have no idea where to start. You can’t afford to quit your 9-to-5, and you’re not sure whether it’s even possible to make money online.
Agitation: But if you stay at your 9-to-5, nothing will ever change. You’ll still be unhappy in 10 years with not much to show for it. You don’t want to spend your 20s feeling this stressed and burned out.
Solution: With my 4-week Business Launch Kit, you’ll get the exact steps you need to start making money alongside your 9-to-5, so you can gain financial freedom in just 28 days!

5. Give Everything a Name

There is nothing more boring than calling your services “my services” or “copywriting services” or “graphic design services”.

It doesn’t convey value and is too vague to hook potential clients in. Instead, I want you to give every service and product you offer a name:

The SMB Copywriting Package
Your Tax Season Toolkit
The Virtual Assistant Monthly Bundle

Using words like “toolkit”, “bundle”, “package”, and “system” makes your online services feel like a tangible, vaulable thing. It makes readers curious what’s included, and encourages them to stay on your page to explore a little further.

6. Write at a 4th Grade Level

One of the most common complaints I get from business owners is, “But Emily, I’m a terrible writer.”

You’re not writing a novel, so you definitely don’t need to be a talented writer to create good copy. Your sentences should be short, and your paragraphs should be just a couple of sentences each. And you don’t have to worry about punctuation.

People prefer simple, easy-to-understand copy, so just write like you’re having a chat with a friend.

Once you’re done, use Grammarly to check for spelling errors and typos to make it look professional. This is my favourite copywriting tip for beginners because it takes a lot of the pressure off writing.

Speaking of a 4th-grade reading level…

7. Leave The Jargon Out

If I see one more freelancer website with a title like “Strategic Business Solutions to Uplevel SMB Growth”, I’ll scream.

Jargon is confusing, and it sounds a little arrogant, so it’s far better to keep it simple.

“Helping Small Businesses Grow with Out-of-the-Box Marketing Campaigns”—isn’t that easier to understand and way more interesting?

This point doesn’t just apply to your headings. Every single page of your site should be simple, easy to understand, and jargon-free.

The easiest way to find out if you’ve missed the mark is to ask friends or relatives who aren’t in the online business space to look through your website. Do they get it? Or are they left confused by what you do?

If they’re a bit confused, we need to tweak your website content planning!

Easy Peasy Copywriting for Beginners

Creating copy that converts readers into paying clients doesn’t need to be difficult. It’s all about giving real value and forming connections.

If you’re struggling to get it right, I’m here to help.

I want to help you turn your website into a client-generating machine, so grab your website copy audit now! I’ll go through your website and show you exactly what to change, improve, and add to boost conversions.