Learning Copywriting In One Month.

“No, no, no, copyrighting is a whole different thing.”- Quote: me; One month ago, trying to explain what I was learning to my family.

Before I started Praxis, that was actually the extent of my knowledge. I knew that “copywriting” and “copyrighting” were different. One was related to marketing, and one made playing certain songs in YouTube videos illegal. 

This was a month with high learning potential. (AKA: I was a blank slate. Minimal prior knowledge and eagerness to figure it out makes for some fast retention.) And retain I did! I love it when I can look back and know I’m slightly more educated than I was a few weeks ago. Total win. Thrilled at the results. 

I will cover the basics of my month: what I did, why I did it, and what I learned. Let’s start with Week One. 

Week One: What Is Copywriting? 

I was pumped for this week. I wanted to answer that big question everyone in my life has been asking me: “Wait, so you’re doing what?” I was sick and tired of fumbling through my usual spiel. “Yeah, I’m doing copywriting now, it’s related to marketing… no, I don’t mean copyrighting.” 

This week, I got to do a lot of reading, listening, and a little bit of writing. (Shocking, I know.) I looked at tons of ads. I read relentlessly. I realized I’m a little bit obsessed with this. Obsessed enough that I drove my family crazy. As soon as I saw the words “Psychology in Copywriting,” I knew I was invested. 

Psychology. The reason I didn’t drop out of college. It was the only class I read about consistently in my spare time. It was one class away from being my major. And it turns out, as luck would have it, it’s a huge deal in copywriting. 

One thing that stood out to me this week was a YouTube video called “Robert Cialdini – Science of Persuasion.” Definitely interesting. 10/10, would watch again. 

Also, this week, and arguably the highlight of my month, I had an absolute blast with an exercise where I copied an ad onto paper with pen and pencil. I did not take this task lightly. I broke out my old forgery skills nice handwriting and gave it my best shot. 

All in all, I could’ve done worse. I could’ve done better if I had broken out the fine-liners and shading pens instead of relying on my Pilot pens, but hey! What’s done is done. (I was happy enough with it that it’s still stuck on our fridge. Yes, I am an adult. Yes, I did hang my drawing on the fridge.)

Week Two: How Copywriting Works

This week, I learned about the “Laws of Copywriting.” 

Here’s the gist of it: 

Law 1: You must learn how people make decisions. 

Law 2: You must uncover the selfish benefit. 

Law 3: You Must Learn How To Tell A Great Story

Law 4: You Must Write Like You Talk. 

Law 5: You Must Use Their Words, Not Yours. 

Law 6: You Must Write Short, Choppy Copy. 

Law 7: You Must Be Specific. 

Law 8: You Must Nail The Headline

Law 9: You Must Back Everything With Social Proof 

Law 10: You Must Address Objections Upfront. 

Also, I built a welcome email for my weekly Newsletter. I haven’t gotten around to making this my welcome, but I plan to this weekend. It was fun; I came up with three versions and made my family vote on a favorite.

Week Three: Applying Copywriting

This week was about putting it into action. Actually accessing and reviewing what I learned. 

I decided to start a second newsletter focusing on a more specific topic: healthy food. I plan on starting that next week. 

The second major thing this week was tech tools. I am a huge fan of Grammarly and have used it since I was at TCC. I appreciated the moment to consider the best way to use this tool. I plan to pay more attention to “intentionally breaking rules.” Not blindly following suggestions. 

This week, I also picked a company to analyze the copywriting of. I went with RXBAR. I also created an ad for a local business: I went with Heat Praxia in Coeur d’Alene. It was a lot of fun. I tried to copy keywords and other things I noticed about the company’s website.

I ended up redoing this later with more focus on looks. 

Version One:

Version Two:

Week Four: Wrapping It Up

Time to look back. 

It was a whirlwind. I got a lot done. I learned. I read. I got to take on fun projects. 

I feel like copywriting really “clicks” for me. It makes sense. It combines psychology and creativity. It’s definitely a niche where I could see myself operating. This week, I put this all together. I also made a little more in-depth video about this landing page. I looked into some extra material about copywriting. 

I learned that copywriting is really the place where marketing and psychology overlap. I learned it’s a great outlet for creativity. It’s a good skill for any career path. Above everything else, I want to keep learning about it.