How To Write When You Don’t Know How (Or What) To Write
Copywriting is a skill every entrepreneur should have. From pitch presentations to emails and personal bios, your writing is often the only lens through which prospective customers, investors, and partners will see you first.
And all first impressions, whether online, on paper or in person, count.
It’s probably why so many people are intimidated by the prospect of writing. You’re unsure of yourself, your ideas, and whether your writing is “good”.
Whether you’re faced with a perpetually blank page or crossing out and screwing up your 10th draft, here’s a step-by-step process to write your next blog post, speech, proposal, or any other piece of content.
1. Start at the end: what is the story you’re trying to tell?
Rid yourself of the idea that the purpose of copywriting is to impress people, or to create snappy headlines with a nice ring to them.
Your focus should be on what value you are giving people — why should they care, and how can you make them care?
Start by asking yourself:
a) Who is my audience (what are their goals, needs, pain points, motivations, interests, and typical background?)
b) What do I need to say to them?
c) Why should they care about what I’m saying to them?
d) What do I want them to do with this information?
e) What is the best way of sending this message (do they prefer something in-depth and formally written, or a candid and plain-speaking blog post?)
In the communications world, this is called “creating a brief”. A brief is basically a set of instructions which helps you focus your time and energy on creating something that resonates with your audience and delivers the message you intended to send.
2. Create a point-by-point outline.
Next, outline everything you need to say in dot points. This will help you come up with a logical structure for your piece of writing and ensures you cover all the points that need to be made.
As a copy / content writer, I map out every piece I need to write with dot points in the form of key sub-headings and short sentences, which summarise each idea or concept that I’m planning to expand on and weave together in the final draft.
For example, if I were to write a content outline for an SEO blog about ‘Why Albany Is The Most Underrated Tourist Attraction in Western Australia’, it would go like this:
· Introduce the topic with relevant keywords and known attractions that readers would be searching for / familiar with
· Reason 1: We have 10+ pristine white sand beaches and biodiversity hotspots on our doorstep
· Reason 2: We’re surrounded by world-class wineries, breweries, and restaurants
· Reason 3: We are the oldest city in WA with an interesting maritime history
· Reason 4: We have an abundance of free parking and friendly locals
· Close with a tantalising summary of what tourists can expect from a visit to Albany and a call to action.
3. Treat your first draft like a diary.
Now that you’ve set yourself some clear parameters, you need to start knitting your outline together.
Your first draft is not the time to get picky about your words: it’s the time to brain dump everything you’ve thought, felt, or researched about the topic you are writing about.
So, instead of spending an hour trying to come up with the perfect starting sentence for your professional bio, spend 10 minutes smashing out whatever comes to your fingertips.
I usually attack the first draft of a piece of writing when I’m filled with inspiration (caffeine), so the key here is to make the most of these creative bursts and avoid self-editing as much as possible.
The danger with self-editing too early in the writing process is that you’ll take ages getting anything down on paper — and you might actually be holding yourself back from saying what you really mean to say.
When you’re too busy worrying about the right words to write, those good ideas swirling around in your head might disappear down the drain.
That’s why I refer to first drafts as your “diary” — only you need to read it, so there’s nothing to be embarrassed about when you are thinking things through and testing out how words sound.
4. Add style and substance.
To lend more credibility and interest to your writing, no matter which channel you’re writing for, you can include elements such as relevant statistics, quotes, anecdotes, and cultural references.
These are particularly useful if you find that a certain topic or piece of writing is lacking in depth, volume, or lustre.
For instance, your website’s About page may be easily summed up in three dry sentences — but if you want to engage people with what you do, including some relevant trivia or historical anecdote could make a boring tech product the fascinating result of hundreds of years of innovation that us readers take for granted each day.
Similarly, if you’re writing your LinkedIn profile section, including a fun fact about yourself or coming up with an intro line allows your unique brand to shine through.
My personal favourite is well-known brand and business innovator Cindy Gallop’s LinkedIn headline, in which she writes: “I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.”
5. Write with confidence. Edit with a vengeance.
By the time you’ve reached this step, you’ve probably realised that the real work lies in editing.
It’s time to clean up and whittle down the pages of copy you’ve written so that your message is delivered to your readers as effectively as possible: first with a shovel to dig out the gold from all the fluff, then with a fine-tooth comb to find better synonyms for boring words, correct your grammar, and smooth the overall flow.
Leave nothing on the page that doesn’t need to be said. Interrogate every sentence with questions like:
How does this random fact relate to the story I’m telling?
What language does my audience actually use?
What new information or value does this sentence add to my article?
What does this paragraph say differently to the paragraph before it; do they need to be combined into one or cut out completely?
You may need to take a break and come back with fresh eyes several times during this final review.
To ensure your piece of writing is as perfect as it can possibly be, read it aloud to yourself from start to finish.
Take notice of awkward pauses, unnecessarily long-winded passages, and other anomalies: find a way to resolve them, polish everything up, then mark it as done!
For most entrepreneurs, writing isn’t the most fun or easy thing to do when marketing your business.
Whether you can afford to hire a professional copywriter or not, every line of copy and piece of written content on your website and social media profiles is an opportunity to prove your value and continue building your brand.
Following a clear process like the one above will save you loads of time and train you to be more disciplined with what and how you write in general.
