Wednesday Kin #88

“You’re hooked!”
“For the record, you smell good”

These are just two examples of great copy that I have seen the last few days. Pun-ny? Sure. But that copy slaps hard. (And yes, I, a human just answered her own question—sue me, call me AI, idc).

Now, if you’re ever in a room with me IRL, you will most certainly be hearing me geek out about good copy in the wild.

I recently was at a bonfire with some local friends and acquaintances that barely know anything about me, let alone what I do for a literal big-girl job and it got me thinking about how when I share that I’m a copywriter, it always comes with the disclaimer of “not the legal copyright kind of job, more of the I write words on a website kind of job”.

Which then naturally leads to the question: “What makes copy good copy?”

And as I’m sitting here thinking about that question, I wish I had a simple answer. But, hi. I’m the nuance girl, and you already know it’s not going to be a simple x, y, z answer.

BUT!

That’s okay, because we have plenty of time this fine Wednesday morning to talk about what actually makes copy good copy. Annnnd because “good copy” is annoyingly hard to sum up in one tidy sentence, I did what any normal person would do and turned it into an acronym, obviously.

K.I.N.F.O.L.K

K: Know Who You’re Talking To
I: Intentional
N: Natural
F: Focused
O: Ownable
L: Lead Somewhere
K: Keep it Clear

And instead of cramming all seven into one ridiculously long Wednesday email, I figured we could make a little series out of it as we start to prep our messaging for Q4.

For the next seven weeks, we’re learning about these one at a time with examples of what they actually look like in your website copy, emails, content, and all the other words you’re throwing onto the internet.

Starting with K: Know Who You’re Talking To

Before you sign an x-out of this newsletter, please know I am not about to walk you through how to create your ideal-client-avatar—I would never!

Instead, I want to walk you through a few questions that I’m thinking about when helping clients build their own unique brand messaging.

• Why would your ideal client land on your page today? What would they be looking for to find your services? Why today and not next week? See our 5-step process for excavating these topics in this blog post.
• There is also a difference in knowing who you’re talking to when thinking about different pieces of content, what page you’re writing for on your website, etc. I share more about this methodology in this blog post.
• What does your audience already know/need to know? If they landed on your website, there is a likelihood that they have some sort of idea of what they are looking for when it comes to solving their problem…so maybe skip the educational bit for a blog post.

TL;DR: know who is reading your copy, why they are here to begin with, what they already know, and what they need from you next.