Copywriting is a strange profession that is at once extremely calculated and planned out yet still relies upon artistic inspiration. As the senior copywriter for a successful furniture retailer, everything I write is geared towards making a sale. Whether I’m describing a sofa, composing a Facebook post, or writing about home design the ultimate goal is to turn a casual browser into a customer.

There are more copywriting books than any one employed person could ever have time to read. However, one of the most useful pieces of advice I ever ran across was the explanation that the goal of copywriting is to sell. I highly recommend Robert Bly’s book The Copywriter’s Handbook . Practically speaking this statement is incredibly freeing for writer. Grammatical errors and correct spelling are perfectly fine if they result in sales. However, for someone who grew up with a self-proclaimed “grammar policeman” as a father, this is sometimes a difficult fact to accept. With my writers, I always try to explain the reasons I make an edit or why one sentence is preferred over another.

Having helped with two complete website redesigns and written (and rewritten) the company’s style guide I now realize the following five things:

1. A good writer is not automatically a good copywriter.
The style of writing learned in school is academic in nature. Teachers reward you with good grades for a paper that sounds amazing and gets the point across. Using fancy terminology and multisyllabic words is a valued skill for most academic writing. Creative writing often values expansive storytelling and the ability to paint a picture in the mind of your reader. In many ways, copywriting is a second cousin twice removed to other types of writing. While ordinarily a good sounding sentence is preferred in copywriting often, a more concise statement is more effective. Nike’s famous catchphrase “Just do it” could also be expressed as “You really should stop procrastinating and just begin the task.” This is an excellent example of how less is often more in copywriting.

When interviewing for a new copywriter I don’t just look for someone who can write well. Writing well is necessary but you must also be able to adapt your style and change it to fit the audience, the product, and most importantly the boss. When writing for a varied audience, the goal is not to put yourself in the customer shoes. The goal is to take yourself out of the equation entirely. Rather than thinking, “What would I want to read if I was the customer?” I tell my copywriters to instead ask, “What will encourage my customer to purchase?” or “What does my ideal customer want to read?”

2. Style guides are not cheat sheets and are not immutable.
One of the main rules in our store’s style guide is that first-person pronouns are never used. This is a direct result of the fact that the owner feels using first-person pronouns takes the emphasis off the customer. Some situations, such as when we send out an email letter on behalf of the owner, do call for these first-person pronouns to be used. So, part of copywriting is knowing when not to follow the rules.

Being asked to use a style guide and adhere to company-wide standards of grammar, word usage, and even font size is not a punishment and does not mean you have subpar writing skills. Style guides are frames that helps ensure you don’t go off track. Style guides allow the work of one person to be easily blended with the work of another. When a customer is browsing your website, reading your brochure, or even looking at an advertisement the last thing you want is for there to be a feeling of disconnect or confusion. Having different tones of voice or varied terminology can be jarring for a consumer who just wants to know about your product.

3. Balance beauty and practicality.
If every sentence you write is an elaborate work of art, then your reader can become overwhelmed and leave. When each sentence is filled with flourishes, they all blend together. Conversely, if every sentence you write is dry and boring your reader is just as likely to leave and go somewhere else. You want to have a mix between the two.

For some of my writers it helps to compare copywriting to folding origami swans. (The swans are the sentences!) If you have 10 swans all made of stunning patterned and foiled origami paper then no single one of them will stand out. So many crazy swans can also be tiring to look at – anyone looking at your swans will be visually stunned and turned off. If instead all of your swans are made of plain white paper then none will stand out or be memorable. The ratio I usually look for is about 80/20 of plain sentences to elaborate sentences. About 80% of our sentences are simpler in nature, more direct and to the point. The remaining 20% are compound sentences that are more complex or simply contain language that is more elaborate. This helps keep your writing from becoming repetitious and from a practical standpoint is faster to write. For more on the 80/20 rule, read Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink by Jonathan Byrnes – a very smart man.

4. Know why you are writing.
As I am a writer, I am biased towards words. If you tell me to sell a sofa, I naturally think about the best language to use. Think about the reason you are writing forces you to develop a plan of action. Have a goal in mind. Sports teams compete with a goal of scoring the most points. This is what wins the game. In writing – you have to choose the style that will let you win. Sometimes a short bullet pointed list is better than a 3-page essay.

5.Copywriting does not belong to the writer.
Your words belong to the person who paid for them. If the person writing the checks wants you to use “crimson” instead of “red” then that is what you will do. Word people are hoarders of words and language. We love our physical books. We love our Kindles (I own three – all used for different types of reading environments). We love the words we write. You must be able to step back and push your words out of the nest. This ability can be very emotionally difficult. When your work is edited and changed, realize that your copy may be great – but simply not the best fit in the current format. Remember that while your words are the starting point, the sale is the goal. Any changes or edits are simply detours to make the journey smoother for your potential customers.

I believe that good copywriting is selling and communicating and explaining and convincing and beautiful all at the same time. Set up boundaries, be creative, and remember to have fun. Do not become fixated on analyzing sentence structure and following the rules – ultimately you are writing for a very specific purpose. If you do not know what your purpose is, then you cannot determine if your copywriting is effective. Copywriting is a calculated, planned art form.

-Disclosure: I enjoy making origami swans and think diagramming sentences is fun.