Practical copy tips for mission-led e-comm and lifestyle brands, every Tuesday. Written by two brothers lucky enough to have written copy for some massive (and rad) brands.
We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas breaks and got a chance to rest, relax and spend some time with loved ones.
And speaking of loved ones, look at the latest addition to Joe's family 👇
Meet Autumn, our new co-CBO. (Chief Barketing Officer.)
We’re back at our desks this week and we've got proper first-week-back sluggishness where everything feels like wading through treacle, so we’re keeping this one brain-friendly.
Instead of a theory-heavy email, we thought we'd look at a simple mental model to take stock of your copy, notice where you might be blending in and then (if you've got the time) fix it up real quick.
Editor's note: oh, the best laid plans of mice and men. This became a proper email very quickly. It's more useful that way though. Promise.
Let's do it 👇
💡 This week's big idea: We very rarely see bad copywriting anymore. But category copy is everywhere.
We spend all week, every week writing copy, reading copy and writing about copy.
So it's safe to say that we see a lot of copy.
But the weird thing is, we don’t really see bad copy anymore.
We certainly don't see very much bad copy in the “this is almost unreadable” sense.
(ChatGPT has made it very easy to publish solid C+ copy.)
But what we are seeing more and more of is category copywriting.
That's copy where the goal is to blend in with other products in your category. To say "we're one of these brands".
Think words and phrases like crafted, built for adventure, better-for-you, sustainable, adaptogenic, alcohol-free, artisan...
And don't get us wrong, this copy is absolutely needed.
As much as we'd love to say otherwise, customers don’t float around the internet looking for a brand with great copy that they can buy from. (Wouldn't that be lovely, though?)
Instead, they have a category-shaped hole in their brains (“I need a decent non-alc for Friday”, “I need oat milk for my morning coffee”, “I need a decent, stylish changing robe for the wild swimming trip to Scotland”, “I need a gift that doesn’t feel like a gift for my partner”) and then they scan for something that looks like it fits the bill.
(This is essentially the Ehrenberg-Bass concept of Category Entry Points and mental availability. Basically, your brand’s likelihood of being noticed / recognised / thought of in a buying situation is directly tied to your growth.)
In other words, you can't cut this category copy out entirely.
It absolutely needs to be there.
The problem is: most brands only focus on these words.
And when every brand uses the same category phrases, it makes it so much harder for customers to remember you.
Your brand ends up one of many.
In fact, Ipsos literally describes modern ecomm and DTC marketing as a “sea of sameness”, with loads of brands swirling around in a soup of samey voices and cues and stories.
That's why, whenever we audit copy, the first thing we look for is a balance between those things.
Or, in other words:
Are you making sure customers know what category you belong in when they're ready to buy? (Category copy = they understand your brand and where you fit in their lives.)
Are you making sure customers remember you over your competitors? (Brand copy = they remember you and importantly why to choose you over your competitors.)
And it's usually #2 where things go a bit wonky.
Here's how you can check (and fix) your copy for being a bit too heavy on category, light on brand 👇
How Goodrays turns category copy into ownable brand language
"Calm is being used across the whole marketplace: CBD, drinks, loads of categories. So the question is: how do you create a point of difference within calm?
For us, calm isn’t the end state. Calm unlocks more.
That’s why we talk about the ‘why behind the why’: why do you want to feel calm and what’s better than that on the other side?"
☝️ That's the whole email in a nutshell. Use category copy for sure, but make it your own.
And it's super impressive, too because the CBD/functional drink space is a super-fast-growing, noisy space. Which means lots of brands, lots of similar promises and lots of similar language.
On top of that, TRIP are the undisputed market leader. They're everywhere. And they pretty much own the idea of calm.
(They even partnered with the Calm app.)
Which means they can run ads like this without having to worry about blending in👇
Goodrays, on the other hand, is scaling. (Scaling fast, but scaling nonetheless.)
And that means that they need their messaging to work harder.
They can't just be part of a category.
They need to give people a reason to remember and pick them.
And their messaging needs to fight not to be interchangeable with every other brand in their category while also not being too different.
It's a fine line to walk, but here's how they do it 👇
Notice how they've kept all the category cues in their copy (calmness, natural wellbeing, premium, nodding to burnout...) but they're taking them one step further.
They're not just selling calm as their destination. (Which most CBD brands do.)
They're selling what's on the other side of feeling calm: a better you.
(They're also weaving in lifestyle messaging too: nods to outdoorsy-ness, creativity, curiosity... and partnering with outdoor and sports brands, that's wicked smaht too.)
All of that gives it more power, more meaning, and creates a more personal connection with the customer.
But most importantly, despite the fact that TRIP and Goodrays both sell CBD drinks and talk about calm, their messaging becomesits own thing entirely.
And that twist on the idea of calm lets Goodrays sit next to Trip on the shelf (in their head and in store) and appeal to a completely different kind of customer.
So good.
Here's how to make your copy stand out and fit in at the same time 👇
All too often, you'll read copywriting or branding advice that says to stand out at all costs.
Because, yeah, the Von Restorff Effect is real. People do remember the thing that stands out or is different. But there's a line there.
Let's say we started an alcohol-free beer brand and to stand out, we wrote our copy exclusively in rhyming couplets...
It'd be memorable and distinctive, that much is true. But would it do what it's supposed to do? Would it make people want to grab their card? Or would it feel like it's trying too hard?
(Can you tell we watched The Grinch over the break?)
The point is: it's all about balance. You need to stand out. But you still need to colour within your category lines a bit.
And here are our three favourite ways to do that 👇
1. Keep the category cues, but recontextualise them to your brand's unique point of view
We've talked quite a bit before about how your brand's voice needs to be more than just linguistic techniques and what punctuation and emojis you use and instead be based around a strong, powerful central belief.
And here's another place where that comes into play.
Because, unfortunately, you can't just bin off all the category language. But you can recontextualise it to your brand's world view.
We did this last year for an outdoor brand in a very crowded space.
The trick wasn’t to disavow the outdoors (no duh) but to reframe what “outdoors” means.
Because a lot of outdoor brands defaulted to talking about adventure and summits and wanderlust and travel and Big Adventures, we built Beachbum's brand voice around a simpler, more human POV: "if outdoors is your happy place, you're one of us."
Every bit of copy we wrote, from product descriptions to headlines to about pages to their email sequences came back to that one big idea.
Suddenly, their messaging was inclusive, felt like an invite to be part of a community (just like Goodrays are trying to do, too) and included people heading out on dog walks, days on the beach with mates, taking the kids to the park, a little paddle after work...
In other words: we didn’t ditch the outdoors. We just made it their version of outdoors. And that meant we created a space that wasn't “for hardcore adventurers”, it was “for anyone who wants to go to their happy place”.
And that's a point of view that Beachbum can own to stand out, carve out some space and send "we're the brand for you" signals to their people.
(We're super proud of that one.)
🧠 Why twisting category copy works so well
Essentially, this twist is a perfect Goldilocks approach to ecomm copywriting.
You’re giving your customers enough familiarity to categorise you and know what you sell, plus a small twist that creates a stronger memory link than your competitors.
In fact, research on schema congruity (AKA, how much do brands blend in with the crowd) in advertising shows an inverted U shape. In other words, moderate amounts of “unexpected-but-relevant” messaging perform best for recall and attitudes, while extreme incongruity can distract from the brand/message.
(So, alas, our Dr Seuss-esque beer brand is a no-go.)
Tip 2: Swap (or pair up) your category's "vibe words" for more concrete words.
We've talked about this before when we looked at Botivo's copywriting, but as a category evolves, so too does the category language.
And so, while there's category language you need to keep and do your own twist on, there's also lots of adjectives that start off as differentiators but slowly become table stakes.
(In the 1980s, Professor Noriaki Kano called this phenomenon of differentiators becoming hygiene factors, “the natural decay of delight”. Love that.)
Your job is to sort and keep the ones that are category markers (adaptogens, CBD, alcohol-free, gluten-free, etc...) but replace the other ones with copy that feels more concrete. More tangible. More like the customer can imagine using your product just by reading it.
Why? Because a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that using tangible, specific, and vivid language like this makes customers more interested in the brand, more trusting of the brand because they’re confident, and—most importantly—more likely to buy.
Once you've found those sneaky bits of redundant category language, here's a few tried, tested and proven ways to punch them up 👇
Can you include a number here instead? (Instead of "full of adaptogens" think more specific. How many adaptogens? How long does it take to prep? How many serves?)
Is there a constraint you can be specific about? (Instead of "good for you", can you get more specific? Can you say it has no added sugar or no artificial preservatives, just 100% organic ingredients. Something like that is waaay stickier.)
Can you name the processes involved? (Instead of artisan, can you say cold-pressed? Small-batch? Aged? Triple-tested? Hand-finished? Or can you tell any personal stories? Any "we believe X, so that's why we do Y" brand narratives?)
Can you add some provenance? (Where is it made? Do you use any fancy ingredients? Was it a recipe passed down from generation to generation? Does your brand have heritage or tradition this ties back to?)
Can you make a comparison to something the customer already knows? (Things like "less alcohol than your morning banana" or "more relaxing than a 45-minute hot yoga session" or "weighs less than your iPhone" or "takes up less space than your spare tyre" make it really easy for the customer to imagine your product in their lives.)
Can you add a sensory detail? (What does it taste/smell/feel like? What do you notice first about the product? Is it crisp, creamy, dry, zingy? Tangible, sensory words are rocket fuel for good copy.)
TLDR: ask yourself whether, if someone read your copy aloud, would people listening be able to imagine using your product? That's where the magic is.
👋 One more thought: “concrete” doesn’t just mean ingredients and specs and comparisons. It can mean turning it into a part of their day, too.
In our Botivo breakdown, we looked at the fact that what really makes their messaging stick isn’t “alcohol-free” (that’s hygiene), it’s the way they anchor the drink to a specific, nameable moment (“The Yellow Hour”) so you can instantly picture when it belongs in your life.
As you read their copy, you start to associate Botivo with an end of the day ritual that transitions you from signing off of Slack to whatever comes next.
And by doing that, they transition their product from being just another alcohol-free drink into something else completely… it starts to become a staple for living your best life.
But "The Yellow Hour" also does a bit more than just tie Botivo to a specific time of day, it also becomes a repeatable copy they can use everywhere they show up.
Which brings us onto...
Tip 3: Repeat your consistent POV until it becomes recognisable (AKA, even after you get bored of it)
This last tip sounds easy, but it's actually really, really hard.
(And it's actually something that came up a lot in those end of year surveys we sent out. Big up the legends who filled it in!)
Because, let's face it, we all get bored of our own messaging.
You stare at the same headline for weeks and months and years and start thinking: “Surely everyone’s sick of this by now. We should change it."
And when you’re busy (which, let's be honest, is always), switching the copy feels like you're getting a job done. A nice optimisation ticked off your list.
But here’s the thing: most customers aren’t seeing your message every day like you are.
They’re seeing it every now and again, half-distracted, on a phone, while trying to get dinner on or sort the kids or watching Stranger Things...
So while the other two tips were practical, this third tip is 100% a mindset thing.
You need to have the discipline to say the same thing often enough that people can recognise you.
You need to embrace feeling like this 👇
... so you can avoid rewriting your messaging for social, email, PDPs, homepage before customers have even had a chance to notice it.
But that doesn't mean copying and pasting the same bit of copy, everywhere.
It means you need to create what we call "distinctive verbal assets" AKA a small set of repeatable phrases and consistent ways of framing and using those everywhere your customer meets you so you show up consistently without creating messaging fatigue.
(These verbal assets don’t “go stale” in the same way ads do because you’re not copy/pasting the same line everywhere. You’re repeating the same POV while varying the proof, examples, and creative around it. And that creates the mere-exposure effect, which makes customers like you more.)
In practice, that means pinning down:
A clear, repeatable POV that underlines everything you do
2–3 supporting phrases you repeat across channels
A consistent way you talk about the benefits of your product
Then you stick with them… even when your brain is screaming that it’s lazy, unoriginal, and everyone must be bored of it.
🧠 How Goodrays build their distinctive verbal assets
To tie this email in a neat bow, here's how Goodrays have nailed these verbal assets:
👉 They have a clear POV and belief they keep coming back to They anchor calm as something that transforms your life, not a final destination. This is weaved through everything they do, from the words they use through to the languid sentences and language choices.
👉 They build phrases that they come back to again and again
These phrases are a more direct translation of their brand POV, so they're all about nature and transformation and "a better you". They reinforce the brand messaging and POV every time they're used.
Things like:
“find focus in the noise”
“The Power of Calm”
"power of the sun" and "sun-grown"
"good life needs a clear head"
All of these come back to the core brand POV and give them brand-building phrases to sprinkle everywhere they show up.
👉 They have a consistent framing device of "your mind doesn't have an off switch" and modern life being loud as their brand enemy
This framing device pops up in everything from their h2s to their product descriptions to their social media posts.
And by doing that, they create something akin to Botivo where feeling overwhelmed or a bit wonky is a cue to have a Goodrays.
Wicked smaht.
If there’s one thing to take away from this email, it's this: don’t throw away category language, but don’t settle for just category language either.
Use that category language as a jumping off point to own a specific point of view, a specific time of day, a specific place in your customer's brains.
Because that's how you become somebody's go-to brand.
And, of course, if you want help spotting where you’re drifting into “category-only” waters, we're always here to help.
Click the link below (down there 👇), book a chat with us and we'll jump on a 30-minute call where we pull up your website and help you find ways to dial up your copy on both your category and brand fronts.
Peace and love ✌️
Jack and Joe
co-founders, co-brothers and co-pywriters at Do Words Good
PS. Want to do words even gooder this year? Let's chat👇
You're getting this email because you're awesome. (Well, that and you signed up to the Do Words Good newsletter through our website, social media or a guest post somewhere.) If you're reading this far, then we don't want to get too weird and overly friendly, but we like the cut of your jib. Not many people read the fine print and the little bits and pieces. But we do, and so do you. Hell yeah. Unfortunately, there's not much to read here. Just the usual gumpf we have to include to stop lawyers breathing down my neck. Stuff like this 👉 The unsubscribe links are here: Unsubscribe · Preferences (Side note: don't you hate it when emails say "Here's how to unsubscribe if you hate me/want to crush my dreams/want my children to starve? We do. That really pisses us off.) Anyway, we can't let you leave empty-handed now you've read this far. So here's a super interesting video about how language shifts and changes and how even the Miriam-Webster dictionary think we should use language how people use it, rather than how it is "supposed" to be used. So take that, grammar pedants. Beware: Vox have a tonne of awesome videos. Be careful you don't fall down a 2-hour YouTube hole. (Unless your boss is off sick today...) And if you want to send us gifts, cool stuff or postcards from your travels, you can send it here: Suite 1, The Courtyard, The Old Monastery, Windhill, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire CM232ND
(Please, we don't want any Enduring Love scenarios. If we move our curtains in a certain way, that doesn't necessarily mean we're madly in love with you.)
Do Words Good
The weekly email helping ecomm and DTC brands take their copy from "meh" to "f*ck yeah"
Practical copy tips for mission-led e-comm and lifestyle brands, every Tuesday. Written by two brothers lucky enough to have written copy for some massive (and rad) brands.
Been forwarded this email? Subscribe here! Hello there 👋 How's it going? Before we get into today's email, quick update from our end: the new Do Words Good site is officially live (finally). ☝️ Live scenes from DWG HQ yesterday afternoon. Since late October last year, we've been completely rethinking how we work with clients so that getting a hand with your copy and messaging doesn’t feel like doing the proposal Hokey Cokey. (🎶 You put your intro call in, your "give us a few days to quote"...
Been forwarded this email? Subscribe here! Hello there 👋 Ooof, nearly the end of January already? How did that happen?! Now, if you've read the last few weeks' emails, you'll know we've been digging into ways that you can tweak your messaging to help with price sensitivity. (Because a load of brands we spoke to last year mentioned it was something they were struggling with.) But the other thing we've been hearing a lot lately is the struggle to keep messaging clear and consistent as the brand...
Been forwarded this email? Subscribe here! Hello there 👋 If you haven't checked out last week's email yet, you'll have missed that two themes have been cropping up across all of the projects we've worked on in the last few months: Price sensitivity (AKA, customers feel it’s “too expensive” or they can’t see why it’s worth more than the alternatives, so they wait for a discount) A lack of clarity about messaging and voice (AKA, the site, socials and emails feel like they're all saying slightly...
