Copywriting

Copywriting Best Practices in 2024

Copywriting demands a blend of timeless principles and modern techniques. Read on to discover the top 10 best practices every great copywriter should master.

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

— 5 min read
Copywriting Best Practices in 2024

Take a deep breath, copywriters. According to Ray Nelson, author of How to Write Copy That Sells, even the best artificial intelligence on the internet today can't replace great copywriters. Great copy requires an intense level of human input. After all, effective copywriting is both an art and a science.

Chat GPT can give your copywriting a head start, but no one understands your business, your customers, their pain points, and your unique value proposition better than you do (and if you don't fully understand any of those, go talk to some customers or future customers). By the time you've written all that info down into something Chat GPT can consume, it might help you spit out some nice-ish copy, but it isn't going to be great.

Read on to discover CMO Corner's take on the best practices of copywriting, drawing insights from today’s leading copywriters and highlighting essential tips and tricks that every great copywriter or marketer should know.

1. Understand Your Audience

One of the timeless principles of copywriting is understanding your audience. In 2024, this principle has become more nuanced due to the availability of sophisticated data analytics tools and artificial intelligence.

What understanding your audience does is allow you to gain deep insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and pain points. For instance, renowned copywriter Joanna Wiebe emphasizes the importance of creating detailed buyer personas. She advises marketers to use data-driven insights to craft messages that resonate with specific segments of their audience.

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Tip: Use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and customer surveys to gather data about your audience. Tailor your copy to address their specific needs and desires.

2. Focus on Benefits, Not Features

A classic mistake in copywriting is focusing too much on the features of a product rather than the benefits it offers to the consumer. Copywriting expert, David Ogilvy, famously stated, “The consumer isn’t a moron, she’s your wife.” This underscores the importance of empathy and understanding the consumer's perspective. In 2024, the most effective copy highlights how a product or service can improve the customer's life.

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Example: Consider the success story of Apple’s marketing campaigns. Instead of listing technical specifications, Apple focuses on the user experience, showcasing how their products enhance everyday life. This approach has created a loyal customer base and set a benchmark in the industry.
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Tip: Shift your focus from what your product does to how it benefits your customers. Use storytelling to illustrate these benefits in a relatable manner.

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