8 things if copywriting feels hard

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Heyyy {{first_name}}!

My friend, and fellow Co-Pro member, Kelley Gardiner, wrote an email for another connection of ours and my first thought was, I think my audience would freaking love this.

So I reached out to Kelley and asked if she’d be willing to share some tips with you because the woman is clearly a genius.

The rest of this email was written by her and I so hope you find it as helpful as I did!

Writing can be hard.

Hi, I’m Kelley 👋

I’m a website copywriter, and I want updating copy to feel fun and simple.

(I’ve been told that I’m supposed to make it feel complicated so you buy stuff from me. That’s one approach! My approach is to make you want to join the “easier and more effective” party.)

When it’s time to write for our businesses, our brains can play tricks to try to get out of it. We see you, brains — you’re trying to protect us. But we have online businesses, and nothing gets sold without words.

When we have a writing task in front of us, it’s good to have a few tricks of our own.

Just five minutes. Starting is the hardest part, so make it easy by committing to a short burst. At the end of the timer, you can keep going if you want to. If it still feels like a complete slog, you can stop.

That email/sales page/about page doesn’t need to flow out from your fingers, fully formed. There’s no such thing as a perfect piece of writing. (That doesn't mean we should futz over it incessantly. Let things breathe. Get some data. Come back to it.)

What do your leads and clients truly want? They probably already told you. When you’re feeling stuck, look back at this treasure trove of information. Make yourself some notes. Tell the world about how cool your work is.

Not every piece of writing has to be fully outlined, but it really helps. At the very least, know your goal and audience. It’s okay to take a step back if you forgot and just jumped in. Zoom out for a moment, then jump back in.

Write a “bad” draft. Your first job is to get words down on the page. Once you clear that hurdle, the next hurdles will feel easier. Come back later with fresh eyes.

Literally take your laptop to a different place. Move from your desk to the couch. Try the library or a coffee shop. A change of scenery can help you jump out of routine thinking. I wrote the first 200 or so words of this email from the bleachers at my kid’s swim lesson.

This might take a few rounds of practice before it starts to feel comfortable. If you’re having trouble with a particular page, or email, ask a friend to look it over. I always suggest asking very specific feedback. My favorite question is, “What else would you need to know before you moved forward/booked the discovery call/bought this?”

I love handing out free advice. If you’re feeling stuck, or if no one clicks on your buttons, or if everything feels garbled, or if you had a messy breakup with Claude and you’re looking for direction—grab a free mini audit. I’ll take a look and point you in the right direction.

P.S. I’ve done this free audit that Kelley offers and I HIGHLY recommend it. She gave me a ton of valuable insight in just 5 minutes.