Following copywriting best practices can help you create good copy, but there’s a lot of nuance to great copywriting that can’t be condensed into a single checklist.
Closing the gap between good and great copywriting takes years of practice, but you can accelerate your rate of learning by studying copywriting examples from experts.
In this post, we’ll discuss some of the best copywriting examples from the top copywriters in the business so that you can quickly draw inspiration from their style.
Specifically, we’ll look at landing pages, website copy, social media copywriting, email copywriting, and even video script copywriting.
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Landing Pages
Here are some excellent examples of copywriting for courses and high-ticket offers.
Example #1: The YouTube Scriptwriter’s Playbook
This is the landing page for a video script writing course and it’s an excellent example of how you can tap into your target audience’s pain points to build trust and rapport. You’ll also notice that the copywriter highlights the emotional headings in red to emphasize the reader’s pain.
As you scroll down, the copywriter introduces the concept of proven systems for script writing (the core concept the course teaches) as the solution to these problems.
The copywriter also includes various Twitter threads as proof to support the claims.
Then, they introduce the elements offered in the course. You’ll also notice that instead of just stating what the course offers, the copywriter also mentions specific benefits of each element.
For example, instead of just saying that the course offers one-on-one coaching calls, they mention specific ways the reader can use the one-on-one calls to solve challenges that the target audience often experiences.
Key Takeaways:
- Begin with your audience’s pain points and choose a red color to emphasize emotional words.
- Introduce what a solution to their pain points would look like before introducing your product/service.
- Highlight the benefits of each feature or product in your offer and show how it solves specific pain points.
Example #2: Ali Abdaal’s Part Time YouTuber Accelerator
Ali Abdaal’s Part-Time YouTuber Accelerator is priced at $4,999, and this landing page has generated millions of dollars in revenue.
When you land on this sales page, you see immediately that the value proposition is very clear: you get a YouTube growth playbook and exclusive access to Ali and his team.
Below is also a video where Ali explains the value of the course. If you’re writing a landing page for your own course or service, consider creating a video as well, as this can help build trust (and you can apply these same copywriting principles to your video script as well).
If you scroll down, you’ll see that the next section introduces the main pain point this package solves: the fact that most people don’t complete the courses they purchase.
The copywriter also highlights, underlines, and bolds specific words and phrases, making it easy for your eye to continue skimming down the page and catch all the key points.
After explaining what the course offers, the copywriter also addresses the biggest objection: do people grow faster after joining the academy?
They also include client screenshots of client success:
Below the social proof, they also have a list of dropdown FAQs, a guarantee, and video testimonials from students.
Key Takeaways:
- Make the main value proposition of your offer very clear. If it’s a higher tier offer than your other offers, highlight how it’s different and the additional value it provides.
- Script a video and include it on your homepage if you’re selling a course or service where the prospect is investing in a relationship with you.
- Make the copywriting visually easy to skim by bolding, highlighting, and italicizing important words and phrases. Use simple language and short sentences.
- Include social proof. Ideally, include client case studies.
Example #3: Ramit Sethi’s Earnable
Ramit Sethi’s Earnable course is one of the most popular online business courses, and its landing page has generated millions of dollars.
The first thing that stands out is the strong language that the copywriter uses by bolding the word “shackles” and highlighting it in red.
You’ll also notice that while the first line emphasizes the reader’s pain point, the second line paints a picture of the target audience’s dream life. Structuring the copy by opening with the pain point and then showing the reader their dream life compels them to keep reading to the next line, which addresses exactly who the course is for:
Like all great landing pages, they also include social proof. It’s also important to note that great copywriting isn’t just in the writing itself.
Most readers become overwhelmed with simple text, so they visually demonstrating how your offer can improve their life is another great copywriting tip. In this landing page, you’ll see a calendar image of what their calendar currently looks like and then a screenshot of orders coming in while Ramit was sleeping.
Therefore, supporting your sales copy with visual images makes it much more powerful and also encourages the reader to continue skimming the page.
It’s also worth noting that the Earnable landing page is long while the other two landing page examples were much shorter. Therefore, don’t worry about optimizing for a certain length. Instead, focus on showing how your course solves the target audience’s pain points, answer their objections, and provide social proof.
As long as every line serves one of those purposes, it will be the exact length it needs to be.
Key Takeaways:
- Highlight emotional words.
- Answer who your product or service is for (and who it isn’t for).
- The perfect length of your sales page is as long as necessary to address the pain points it solves, answer objections, and provide social proof.
- Support your marketing copy with visuals to show readers what their life might look like if they purchase your product or service.
Website Copywriting
Many websites focus on optimizing for SEO by including keywords in the titles and headers, yet one of the best ways to increase sales is to incorporate good copywriting to simply increase the conversion rate of your current visitors. Here are some excellent examples of websites that optimize for SEO and incorporate great copywriting to maximize sales.
Example #1: Hampton
Hampton is a founder’s community that launched in 2023 and generated millions of dollars in under a year.
When you land on the homepage, you can immediately understand:
- What they offer: Community
- Who they serve: Entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs
- The value they provide: Belonging, support, and connection with like-minded peers
The structure is also outstanding.
As you scroll down, you see:
- Social proof: Profiles of some of their members
- Pain points: Starting a company is lonely
- What they offer: Monthly core groups, digital community, in-person community, speaker series and education, exclusive perks.
Key Takeaways:
- Prioritize clarity and ensure it’s easy for readers to understand who you serve, the pain points you solve, and how your offer solves them.
- Follow the simple structure of value proposition, pain point, product-as-solution, benefits, and social proof.
Example #2: Beehiiv
Beehiiv is a newsletter platform that clearly defines what they offer, who they serve, and how they’re different.
Highlighting differentiators is essential if you’re doing copywriting for a product page because people want to know why they should choose you over a competitor (like ConvertKit).
Therefore, Beehiiv highlights that the founders were the original team behind Morning Brew.
They also tailor the benefits of their software to their target audience (smaller creators) by highlighting that it doesn’t require code, they won’t need a sales team, and it’s the same suit of tools that the biggest newsletters in the world use:
As you’re writing your website copy, think about not just the generic pain points your product solves but how it solves the specific pain points your target audience feels.
They then include a client testimonial and the revenue their users generated in the last month. Including this revenue number is clever as it not only gives the reader confidence that the product works, but also helps them envision their success with your product:
Key Takeaways:
- Tailor the pain points your product solves to your specific audience and highlight how you’re different from competitors.
- Use social proof to prove that your product works and help the user envision how it will improve their life.
Example #3: iWave
iWave is another SaaS company that sells a fairly complex product. Many companies with complex products overexplain how it works and confuse potential customers by providing too much information.
Instead, iWave opens with a question that clearly communicates the product’s main value; it uses data to help you earn more donations.
From there, the tagline specifies how it turns data into donations (it helps you find donors and build relationships with them).
This value proposition is clear, simple, and concise.
Next, it states who they serve:
Finally, it states tactically how the features solve more specific problems involved with generating donations, such as:
- Finding donors
- Identifying which donors are excellent prospects
- Analytics to segment prospects to improve outreach results
Key Takeaways:
- Use a question as the opening statement to pique their curiosity, and then use the rest of the page to explain how you deliver on that promise and solve their problem.
- Even if you offer a complex product, identify the larger problem you solve and then position each feature as a solution to a specific pain point within that bigger problem.
Social Media
Here are a few excellent social media posts that caused me to pause and read. While these examples are all from organic social media posts, you can also incorporate their tactics into your ad copy.
Example #1: Justin Welsh
Justin Welsh is a solopreneur who has quickly scaled his LinkedIn audience through great copy.
Here’s an example of a recent post that grabbed my attention and I ultimately clicked on.
He creates anticipation in the hook by telling you he found someone wildly impressive before telling you who it is.
Then, when he does reveal who it is, he follows it up by saying, “his story is incredible:.”
Ending the sentence with a colon is also interesting as it signals you to continue reading to discover why he’s incredible.
The next sentence is also excellent because rather than telling you why this person is incredible, Justin tells you what most entrepreneurs think and do and then says that this person is different.
This further builds anticipation as you’re now asking, “Well, how is Stewart different?”
If you can keep the audience asking themselves questions, it will make it more interesting and keep them reading.
Notice that this post wouldn’t have been nearly as compelling if he just gave you the answer by saying, “Here are three things I learned from the founder of Slack.”
Instead, it’s engaging because you want to know the answer to each question he raises.
He also uses a combination of storytelling and incorporates his personal experience/opinion, making it more compelling.
Key Takeaways:
- Use a question > answer framework rather than just telling the audience the lesson.
- Use stories to communicate a point and add your own personal experience and thoughts, as social media is designed to be social.
Example #2: Melissa Kwan
Many people think hooks must be clever and creative, but this hook is simple and short, yet still compelled me to click “see more.” It’s compelling for two main reasons:
- We know it’s a story (which tends to be more entertaining to read than someone preaching).
- It’s emotional (“my darkest entrepreneur moment”)
Then, she does a masterful job of building anticipation by highlighting the pain. Many people scrolling on social media see everyone else succeeding, so by being vulnerable and authentic, she instantly stands out, and most people reading it can relate.
They might think to themselves, “Well, I’m not where I want to be in life, but I’m doing better than she was!”
She also builds a perfect story arc with rising action by mentioning that she only ate one meal a day, was in a mountain of debt, and gives a quick story about the first time her laptop broke. Then, she reaches the climax of the story when her laptop broke again and she couldn’t afford to fix it.
Finally, she resolves the story and gives the reader hope by mentioning that she eventually sold the company for seven figures.
This LinkedIn post is the perfect example of how you can craft a compelling story for social media.
Key Takeaways:
- Identify pivotal moments in your life where you learned something profound or had a breakthrough (ideally, a difficult moment as people want to relate to you). Then, work backward to the events that led to that moment and the lesson you learned.
- The most compelling stories on social media are often from personal experience.
Example #3: Jon Davids
Three elements of this hook compelled me to click on this post.
First, he starts by stating an accomplishment you often don’t hear about (flipping a TV show into a real estate empire).
Then, he piqued my interest by saying this isn’t even the most interesting part about this person.
You’ll also notice that the writer hasn’t mentioned this person’s name yet. Though even after revealing who this person is, the copywriter immediately captured my attention again by saying that he’s the smartest person in Hollywood.
Then, he inserts a call to action that includes a visual cue that ultimately got me to click.
Then, like the other examples before, Jon doesn’t just tell you why the person is impressive. He takes you back to his beginnings, which builds anticipation:
You’ll also notice that as soon as he gives a payoff to the audience, he instantly builds more anticipation. For example, his last line in the first section is, “Paramount agrees to pick up the show. It’s called Yellowstone.”
Then, he then says, “And Taylor’s gonna blow it up.” This immediately makes you ask, “how?”
So it’s a no-brainer to continue reading the next section titled “Yellowstone.” Then, he does the same thing at the end of the next section:
While it’s best to use your own stories on social media, this is a great example of how you can use someone else’s story if you run out of personal stories to share.
Key Takeaways:
- Instead of telling the reader information, create intrigue and let them guess the answer. By raising a question in their mind, they’ll feel more compelled to continue reading to get the answer.
- As soon as you give an answer, raise the next question to keep them engaged.
- If you can’t think of a personal story to share, borrow someone else’s story.
Email marketing is a core element of many companies’ marketing strategies, but most emails end up in the trash can.
Thanks to excellent subject lines and great copy, here are a few examples of emails I opened and read.
Example #1: Justin Goff
I’ve been on Justin Goff’s email list for many years simply because I find his emails enjoyable. I enjoy them mainly because he shares his personal experience as an entrepreneur and lessons he has learned along the way.
This email is a particularly excellent example of great copy. The subject line, “A word of wisdom if you’re struggling right now,” is emotionally charged, and including the ellipsis at the end is a great way to encourage people to click.
He also immediately opens the body copy with a very relatable quote to the person who initially clicked on the email.
This first line does two things:
- It signals that this person has been through and solved challenges.
- It opens many questions in my mind, like, “What is he struggling with now?” “What did he accomplish?” and “What was he struggling with before?”
The following lines also make the story relatable by explaining his initial struggle (beginning his copywriting career). Notice that the struggle is also perfectly aligned with what Justin’s core audience (beginner copywriters) struggle with.
The email continues with his story and how he overcame that struggle, but how new ones arose.
You’ll also notice that Justin always uses short sentences and a lot of ellipses. This makes it easy for the reader to keep reading, and as most people read emails on their phones, it keeps it visually easy to read.
Key Takeaways:
- Ensure your opening line relates to the subject line and, ideally, make both of them emotionally charged.
- Research your audience to understand exactly what pain points they feel. Ideally, go beyond just the surface-level pain points (i.e., they don’t have money) to deeper pain points (i.e., he was terrified he’d let him down).
- Use short sentences and ensure your emails are easy to read on mobile devices.
Example #2: Ed Film Booth
Ed runs a YouTube academy, so his emails are designed to educate readers on YouTube growth.
This email has a great subject line. Ed opens a question in your mind (“What’s holding me back?”) and mentions that he’ll explain how to solve it.
The first line of the email also repeats the subject line to match the reader’s expectations. This is important because if you talk about something completely different from the subject line that caused them to click, they won’t continue reading.
The next smart thing that Ed does is withhold what that one thing holding back YouTubers is. Instead, he explains the consequences if you don’t achieve this one thing. Now, you’re dying to know what that one thing is, so you keep reading.
Key Takeaways:
- In the opening email, don’t immediately reveal what the problem is. Instead, talk about the consequences of a mystery problem.
- Always connect the first line of your email with the subject line.
Example #3: Ramit Sethi
Ramit Sethi is known for excellent copywriting, and his emails are no different.
In this email promoting his course, Find Your Dream Job, he showcases one of the best copywriting techniques that instantly connects with readers.
Instead of telling you what the course will tangibly do to you (increase your income), he talks about the emotional benefits.
However, he goes even one step further by not only explaining pain points the target audience might feel, but using specific quotes that other people have said to students that made them ultimately buy the course.
In this case, the quote was from the student’s girlfriend asking him what he has to show for himself.
So a great copywriting tip is to talk to your audience and ask them to explain the turning point moments that finally convinced them to purchase your product.
Then, incorporate their story into your copy.
This also makes the copywriting feel relatable to the reader, and if they can see that this person was successful, they can see that it’s also possible for them to be successful.
Key Takeaways:
- Talk to your customers and ask them about the turning point that finally made them sign up for your product or course.
- Use emotionally charged quotes.
Begin The Journey To Copywriting Success Today
You can add these copywriting examples to your swipe file, but keep in mind that there’s a lot of nuance to great copywriting, and there isn’t a single formula for success.
The key to becoming a better copywriter is practicing, testing, and asking for feedback from your peers.
If you don’t have any peers to provide feedback, consider joining the Copyblogger Academy. It’s a group of freelance writers, business owners, and content creators improving their copywriting skills build wealth.
You can also ask our team for feedback to continuously improve your copywriting skills.
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