Category: Content Marketing
-
Branding Lessons from Holiday Ads
Every year, holiday ads show up with the same goal: create something people remember. Some succeed, but most don’t. The holidays are one of the rare moments when audiences lower their defenses, expecting sentiment and a healthy dose of nostalgia. They’re open to feeling something, but only if the story earns it. That makes December…
-
Why Copywriters Should Think Like Editors
Copywriters are storytellers, while editors are truth-hunters. Sometimes cleverness gets in the way of truth. Thinking like an editor shifts your default from: “Does this sound good?” to “Does this make sense?” Clever copy sparks attention, but clear copy earns trust. The best work does both, but clarity always wins.
-
Storytelling vs. Selling: Why the Best Copy Never Tries Too Hard
Early in my career, I thought good copy was about cleverness. The sharper the hook, the better the headline. I could sweat over a single line for hours, convinced that the right combination of verbs and punctuation could make someone care. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that the harder I tried…
-
Why Your Brand Voice Isn’t Sticking (And How to Fix It)
Brand voice is one of those things that everyone nods about in meetings. Yes, yes, we have guidelines. We have a tone. We even have a PDF to prove it. But then you look at the work, and it doesn’t sound like anyone, let alone your brand. If your brand voice isn’t sticking, it’s not…
-
The Art of the Creative Brief: How to Set Yourself (and Your Team) Up for Success
The success or failure of a project almost always comes back to the creative brief. A great brief doesn’t guarantee a great campaign, but a terrible one practically guarantees mediocrity. Done well, a brief is less about checking boxes and more about setting the stage. I like to think of a brief as a GPS…
-
Editing and Revising: Turning Good Copy into Great Copy
Editing often feels like the unglamorous part of writing, but it’s where the transformation happens. Drafting is about getting everything out of your head and onto the page, and then sculpting it into something worth keeping. It’s about seeing the potential in your first draft and then taking it to a much higher level.
-
The Secret Sauce of Great Copy: CTAs That Convert
Writers obsess over headlines, subject lines, and hooks, and rightly so. But a brilliant headline without a strong CTA is like a beautifully plated meal that no one tries. Your CTA is where you turn interest into action. It removes friction by making the next step obvious and guides behavior by answering the unspoken question,…
-
How to Write Headlines That Actually Work
Years ago, I wrote what I thought was the perfect ad: smart copy, clean design, and a headline I was proud of. When the results came back, though, the numbers told a different story: almost no one read past the headline. That was the day I learned the hard truth about copywriting: the headline isn’t…
-
Understanding Your Audience: The Key to Effective Copy
When I first started as a copywriter, I thought my job was to write the perfect words. Polished. Clever. Tight. But the longer I’ve been in this business, the clearer it’s become: the words themselves matter less than who they’re written for. You can write the cleverest line in the world, but if it doesn’t…
-
The Basics of Copywriting: What Every Writer Should Know
People often ask me what copywriting actually is. Much to the chagrin of my relatives who still think I deal with copyrights, my answer is always: it’s writing with a purpose. Copy isn’t poetry. It isn’t your journal. It’s not even content, exactly. Copy is writing that persuades, informs, and moves people to act—whether that’s…
Sara Barton 