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I wrote a guide to help you write better conversational copy

Conversational copy is writing how you talk. It's powerful. And I love it. But, I’ve never found it easy.

So I spent the last week trying to get the hang of it. And I've come up with this guide. Hope you found it useful:

1/ Don't write AT the reader

Involve the reader in your copy.

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2/ Use your customers' words

It's the easiest way to get the tone right.

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3/ Load up on personal pronouns

People pay attention when you talk directly to them.

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4/ Don't worry about grammar

If you break the rules you’ll sound human.

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5/ Start sentences with conjunctions

It flows better.

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6/ Don't persuade

Let the reader be persuaded.

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7/ Use contractions

Only academics say “you are”.

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8/ Don't imitate

You're alive in inverse proportion to the density of cliches in your writing — Nassim Taleb

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9/ Ditch the thesaurus

You're not impressing anyone.

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10/ Empathise

Understanding your customer is more important than impressing them.

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11/ Respect the competition

It reflects self-confidence.

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12/ Don’t try too hard

Customers can see through fake shit.

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13/ Tell stories

They’re more memorable than facts and figures.

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14/ Read it aloud at the kitchen table

If your partner cringes, re-write it.

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That's all folks!

If you enjoyed this, maybe I can tempt you with my marketing newsletter. I write a weekly email full of real world examples like this!

Any questions or other examples, I'll be in the comments :)

  1. 5

    Thanks Harry. You're the real deal.

    Conversational copy looks simple, but takes a fair bit of effort. So many of us have ingrained habits of academic-style writing; packing everything with info and justifications.

    But people do business with people, not companies - so you have to talk to them like a person.

    1. 3

      Cheers Freddy. Unlearning the academic style is key!

      Once you've been round the block you hear your advice a lot.

      Everyone says they're “all about people”. But look at the average landing page and it's clear they still don't really get it.

      I must have loaded 150 landing pages trying to find these examples. Only a small minority I thought were decent

  2. 2

    Man, at least 10 people from our team say "thanks Harry"

    1. 1

      haha - cheers for sharing Valerie!

  3. 2

    Loved this!! I am DEFINITELY saving for future use 🙏

    One thing I might add is trying your "first draft" using speechnotes or some other voice recorder. I've found that simply speaking about the things I'm trying to say makes everything 1. a lot clearer 2. a lot harder to overthink and 3. gives me a lot less to edit because I've already said everything pretty much as I wanted to write it (just with a few voice to text errors 😂

    Thanks again for this resource!

    1. 1

      nice tip!

      will give it a whirl

  4. 1

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  5. 1

    This game has that intricate feel to it! https://drift-hunters.co

  6. 1

    This is an awesome list of suggestions! Thank you.

  7. 1

    Awesome post. Thanks for sharing with us. I figured 14 myself recently and think it makes a huge difference. When you narrate it, even only to yourself, your brain starts to kick in at some point and tries to fill the conversational gaps. I started to rewrite based on that a lot and found I come up with better flowing replies or articles.

  8. 1

    Hi Harry,

    I love the before and after images. You are a genius! You are in my newsletter twice this week. :-)

    1. 1

      haha. awesome. cheers john. Thank you man

  9. 1

    Thanks Harry! This is very useful. When I write something online I'm always worried about writing in wrong grammar as I'm not a native english speaker. It either sounds too formal or academic. Now I see your post then it makes more sense to be more conversational.

    I'll use this for my upcoming project.

  10. 1

    Harold this is wonderous, thk u.

    1. 3

      haha! laugh now. cry later. thank you!

  11. 1

    Love that last one. Thanks for this :)

  12. 1

    Hey Harry, thank you so much for good content.

    I love your content, so keep going and make more awesome content for community who are love your content :)

    1. 1

      hahah - Cheers Abdullah. sounds like a plan :)

  13. 1

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

    1. 1

      Cheers - check out the milestones for Marketing Examples (explain it all there)

  14. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 2

      cheers!

      So ... above all the tips here I think clarity and brevity are so important. And I think you're “new” version lacks that a bit.

      For you landing page you want to communicate the message in as few calories as possible ...

      So I'd strip it back a bit and try and explain the value to the consumer faster.

      Then maybe weave in more of the conversational stuff down the page. Good luck

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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