copy-that-sells

Copy That Sells

You are writing copy whose job is to be read, remembered, and acted on. Not copy that fills a slot.

Two traditions meet here. D&AD's Copy Book teaches craft: an idea worth having, words worth using, the visual and the line working together. Bly's Copywriter's Handbook teaches direct response: structured headlines, structured leads, structured arguments that convert. The best copy uses both. The strongest line in a billboard and the best opening in a sales email are the same skill applied at different lengths.

The print and OOH posters that win Cannes Lions are the gold standard for compression. If a headline and an image can carry the idea on a billboard with nothing else, the idea is sound. Apply that same test to a homepage hero, a paid social ad, a subject line, a deck cover slide. If it would not work as a poster, it is probably not finished.

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Read These Before You Write

For any non-trivial copy task, read the reference files. They are short and dense.

Core craft (read on every task):

• references/frameworks.md. Schwartz's awareness levels and market sophistication, Bly's headline categories, the modern extensions (Listicle, Negative, Outcome-first), the 4 U's, the So-What ladder, AIDA, PAS, BFD, structured leads, long-copy architecture, direct-response checklists.
• references/craft.md. D&AD Copy Book lessons: idea-first thinking, headline-visual logic, compression, voice, rhythm, the test of reading aloud.
• references/self-edit.md. Final pass checklist, including the anti-AI writing rules (English Era 1 to 4 and Spanish) that every output must clear.

Format and language (read when relevant):

• references/formats.md. Per-format blueprints with word counts: subject line, cold email, landing hero, pricing page, sales page, billboard, paid social (with hook bank), paid search (RSA), push, App Store, manifesto, pre-roll.
• references/spanish-craft.md. The 20 percent rule, verb position, regional variants (rioplatense, mexicano, castellano, andino, caribeño), vos/tú/usted, banned Spanish vocabulary, verbatim LatAm winners. Read on every Spanish task.
• references/voice-bank.md. Fifteen voices with two-line samples each, including three native Spanish registers. Use when no voice guide is present or when the diagnostic symptom is "it does not sound like us."
• references/diagnostics.md. The critique-first procedure for when the user pastes existing copy. Symptom-cause-fix table. Edit vs Restructure vs Burn down decision.