The Copywriter’s Glossary

All the words, terms, and concepts a copywriter needs to learn to succeed

A/B Test (aka Split Test) - The act of testing one version of a page against another by running traffic to them in a 50/50 split - the winner is defined by the one that performs best

Above the Fold - The top section of a web page that visitors see immediately after clicking the link (without the need to scroll down)

Action - Any step a prospect takes that can be measured

Advertorial - A paid advertisement that’s been designed to look like a regular content article published by a credible source (the word is a combination of ‘advert’ and ‘editorial’)

Autoresponder - A sequence of emails, texts, or messages that are automatically sent to a contact, often on a timer, depending on the actions the contact has taken - sometimes refers to the email software themselves

B2B (Business-to-Business) - The term for any business, project, or task that is concerned with getting action from other businesses, not individual consumers

B2C (Business-to-Consumer) - The term for any business, project, or task that is concerned with getting action from individual consumers

Back-End - A broad term used to refer to any material sent to an existing customer who has already bought from a company i.e. after their first purchase

Banner Ad - A clickable ad on a website that usually occupies a rectangular space at the top or bottom of a page

Below the Fold - Used to refer to anything that comes underneath the initial top section of a webpage

Benefit - The positive function that a feature of a product or service will result in for a prospect - think of it as the tangible advantage they’ll gain by using what you’re offering

Big Idea (Idea) - A single, powerful idea that a piece of copy revolves around - this is the sales argument’s ultimate point that you want to convince the reader to believe

Biography - The story of the company or founder.

Blast Email - An email or email sequence that gets sent to an entire contact list without worrying about specific segments

Body Copy - Copy that comes after the end of the lead - often thought of as the point where you begin to focus on proving the Idea that you’ve set up

Bounce Rate - The percentage of visitors to a page who leave without taking a single action

Brand Awareness - Often synonymous with indirect-response advertising - this concept is more concerned with getting people to see or take notice of a campaign, rather than measuring any direct results

Call Out - A part of the copy that focuses on highlighting the ideal client’s characteristics or labels, the aim of which is to get the attention of the target audience

Call To Action (CTA) - A direct appeal to the reader, telling them what action they should take next; CTAs are usually found on or near buttons

Campaign - A generic term for any marketing effort that has a specific goal in mind, usually refers to an overarching strategy

Campaign (Klaviyo/Other Autoresponders) - A term that Klaviyo uses to refer to a single email send to a list or list segment

Customer Acquisition - The term used for getting new customers (people who have bought) for a business

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) - The amount of money it takes to acquire a single customer for a business on average (cost of sales + marketing budget ÷ number of new customers in set time period)

Claim - A statement made in copy that directly promises any kind of result or presents something as fact - this should usually be backed up by proof

Click Through Rate (CTR) - The % of prospects who viewed an ad, page, or email, who also clicked a corresponding link to visit the next stage in the funnel

Close - The final part of copy, the aim of which is to encourage the reader to take action

Cold (or “cold traffic”) - Used to refer to an audience who haven’t been exposed to the advertising material of your business before

Content Writing - Usually used in reference to copy that doesn’t directly aim to make the reader take action and is instead viewed as a ‘brand building’ or ‘authority-proving’ exercise

Control - The best-performing piece of copy (highest converting) used at a particular point in a marketing campaign - the aim of new copy is to ‘beat the control’

Conversion Rate (CR) - The % of page visitors who take a specific action like buying a product or downloading a lead magnet

Copy - Usually used to refer exclusively to any text that is aiming to convince a reader to take some kind of action immediately, but in the wider world, it’s often used to refer to any kind of writing in marketing

(Note on usage: When referring to material for publication, it is always “copy” and never “copies.” Like the noun “water,” you cannot pluralize copy. You would say “I wrote many pieces of copy” or “I wrote a lot of copy.” Saying “I wrote copies” makes you sound ignorant.)

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) - Used to measure the average cost of acquiring leads - CPA = the total cost of a campaign ÷ the number of acquisitions (this doesn’t include buyers)

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) - The total cost of a piece of advertising material divided by the number of impressions made by the thousands i.e. $100,000 Cost ÷ 500,000 impressions = $200 CPM

Credibility - Anything that establishes the writer or company as a trustworthy authority in the market or as it relates to the product/service.

Cross-Selling - The act of presenting a potential buyer with the chance to buy a product similar to the one they already have in their basket

Customer Value Optimization (CVO) - The idea of increasing the LTV of customers, gaining more customers, and cutting the cost of acquisitions through more efficient marketing

Demographic - A segment of the population who are grouped together by a shared characteristic or set of characteristics, i.e. age, gender, income, education, etc.

Desire - Anything your prospects actively wants that they think will improve their life in some way

Differentiation - The act of making your product or service appear as unique when compared to others in the same market

Dimensionalization - The process of making the messages in your copy feel more ‘real’ for your reader by presenting them as situations they can easily recognize or imagine - typically used to make benefits more vivid or to show your understanding of their current problems

Direct Mail - A marketing strategy that uses paper mail delivered physically to addresses to acquire leads and gain customers; this was one of the most common methods of direct-response advertising before the internet

Direct Marketing - The act of communicating advertising material directly to a pre-selected audience

Direct Response - Refers to any advertising material that aims to provoke an immediate action from the reader i.e. direct mail, Facebook ads, sales pages, marketing emails

Downsell - Refers to a lower-priced offer that’s presented to the customer after they’ve purchased the initial offer

Drip Campaign (aka “a Gauntlet” or “Autoresponder Sequence”) - An email campaign designed to automatically send out messages over a set period of time

ESP - Short for Email Service Provider, this refers to companies such as MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, etc. that help businesses/list owners send marketing emails

Evergreen - Usually refers to an automatic marketing campaign that runs continuously and can be engaged by new prospects at any time

Exclusivity - Usually presented as a benefit to readers who have the chance to claim an offer that isn’t available to everybody

Eyebrow Copy - Copy that goes above the headline in smaller type, usually used as some kind of ‘pre’ or ‘introductory’ headline

Fascination - Refers to bullet point copy that aims to intrigue the reader and tease something so interesting or useful that the reader can’t help but learn more

Feature - Any specific attribute of a product or service

Flow (Klaviyo/Other Autoresponders) - A flow is the word Klaviyo uses to refer to an email sequence - known as an autoresponder in other industries

Front-End - Used to refer to any advertising material that is shown to readers before they make an initial purchase

Funnel - A general term for any kind of structured marketing campaign that can be measured at each stage and aims to move people towards, through, and beyond the point of sale (sometimes used more specifically to refer to linear sequences of advertising material coined by companies like Clickfunnels)

Graphics - Design-based assets that accompany copy on pages

Guarantee - Any promise made in advertising material that customers can use to mitigate the risk of accepting an offer; most commonly seen as ‘money-back guarantees’ and ‘free trials’

Headline - The most visually striking line of copy at the beginning of any piece of advertising, intended to be seen and read before anything else - used to grab attention and encourage the ideal prospect to read on

Hero Section - Used interchangeably with ‘Above the fold’ - refers to the top section of any page that can be seen without scrolling

Hook - A piece of copy that aims to grab the reader’s attention and implicitly or explicitly promise the reveal of an interesting piece of information if they continue to read

Ideal Client - The personification of the perfect member of your target audience. Commonly used as a way to keep copy focused on the right kind of person. Things typically included are: age, gender, location, job, problem, biggest desire, biggest fear...

Indirect Voice of Customer Data (IVOC) - Raw quotes taken from the target market in contexts where they don’t know they’re being probed or analysed for market research or by an authority

Landing Page - Any web page that traffic is deliberately sent to - readers will ‘land’ there after having clicked a link

Lead (originally spelled 'lede') - The introductory part of a piece of copy that follows the headline. There's no defined length for a lead and the exact criteria will differ depending on who you're talking to. At its core, the lead aims to make the prospect believe that reading the rest of the copy will be beneficial in some way.

Lead Generation - The act of collecting a list of prospects’ contact information who may be likely to accept paid offers at some point; usually done through the use of lead magnets

Lead Magnet - A piece of content that can be accessed by a reader in exchange for their contact information (such as their email address)

Lifetime Value (LTV) - The average amount of revenue a customer will generate over the entire course of their relationship with a business

Lift - A message (usually an email) sent to prospects to encourage them to click through to a specific point in a funnel like a sales page - lifts usually test different angles to see which ones work best

List - A collection of contacts that a business has procured, usually split into segments based on contact characteristics or actions

Longform Copy - Used to refer to pieces of copy that are longer than a certain number of words, though there is no set number and perceptions of this can often differ depending on the form that the copy takes (i.e. Email, FB Ad, Sales Letter)

Market - A group of prospects who are specifically targeted by campaigns because everyone within it shares a problem or label in some way

Market Sophistication - A scale used to establish how much a particular market has been exposed to advertising around their problem

Micro Commitments - Statements in copy that implicitly ask for a rhetorical ‘yes’ from readers - used to move the reader into a compliant state of mind where they’re used to accepting what is being said in the copy (sometimes also refers to smaller steps within the funnel such as 1 step of a 2-step order form)

Niche - A micro segment of the mass market, usually used to refer to a copywriter’s specialist area of copy

Objection, Claim, Proof, Benefit (OCPB) - A formula for dealing with objections in body copy: start by by acknowledging or assuming a specific objection, state a claim to counter it, provide proof to prove that claim (ideally 3 pieces of proof, and even more ideally 3 different kinds of proof), and reveal an associated benefit with that claim being true

Offer - An explanation of the full set of deliverables and supporting bonuses that a prospect will receive for taking action, including what they need to do in return

Offer Recap - The point in a piece of sales copy where readers see a list of everything they receive when they purchase a product or service, or the specific fulfillment items in a promotion.

One-Time-Offer (OTO) - Refers to an offer (usually an upsell) that can only be procured on the page in question and won’t be available anywhere else at any time

Open Rate - The percentage of emails opened by contacts as part of a single campaign

Opt-In - An option for prospects to submit their contact information in order to be kept updated or to receive a lead magnet - usually via a form on a landing page, an opt-in box, or by ticking a checkbox when checking out

Order Form - A form where prospects can input their personal and payment information to purchase

P.S. (Postscript) - Originally used in letters to provide additional information after the sign-off, P.S.s are commonly used at the bottom of sales letters to urge action, remind/reveal a specific benefit, or to summarize the sales message

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - A type of paid advertising whereby businesses pay a fee every time their ad is clicked by a prospect

Pivot to Offer - The point in copy where it ceases to be about channeling desire for a product or service and becomes more about pushing someone to actively take the step to purchase the product or service.

Problem - Anything that a prospect recognizes as something they want solved - a problem arises wherever a prospect believes that they want a change in their life

Promise - A statement in copy that tells the reader specifically what the result of using the product or service will be for them

Proof - Evidence used to support any claims made throughout copy

Prospect - Refers to a potential buyer within a target market who is yet to make a purchase from the business

Qualification - Actively determining whether a lead or prospect is interested in your products/services and would be a good fit as a customer. This usually involves finding the right demographic and establishing that they can pay for your product. The process of "disqualification" involves stating or doing things that would actively repel people who would not be good customers.

Research - The act of identifying, collating, and organizing relevant information and data from a product, market, and competitors to plan and write copy

Risk Reversal - A technique whereby the reader is made aware that the risk of them buying lies completely on the shoulders of the business - this is most commonly seen through guarantees

Rule of One - A common concept you'll come across in copywriting books and resources (although the specifics can differ depending on who you're talking to). Simply put, it means 'focus'. i.e. Focus on just ONE main idea in your copy... Focus on just ONE offer... Focus on just ONE action you want a prospect to take etc. The purpose of the Rule of One is to control the attention of the reader and not dilute your most powerful message by including too many competing points

Sales Argument - The series of points in any sales copy that encourage a prospect to take action

Sales Funnel - A linear, measurable advertising campaign that aims to move readers from one stage to the next using predefined and targeted messaging - usually consists of ads, pages, and emails (but can include any mediums that can be measured)

Sales Page - Any page specifically dedicated to presenting a sales argument to a reader, which aims to get them to buy (usually via an order form on the next page)

Segment/Segmentation - A segment is a group on an email list that shares a certain characteristic (e.g. recently opened, recently purchased, etc.) Segmentation is the process of deciding on and creating these segments

Selling Against Alternatives - Most copy persuasion is meant to make the product or service more alluring/enticing. Selling against alternatives accomplishes this by actively calling out or criticizing competitors or their products.

Space Ad - Much like a banner ad, a “space ad” (otherwise known as a “spad” or “insert ad”) is a box or separated item inserted into a newsletter, blog post, or any other piece of printed content.

Squeeze Page - A web page that aims to collect the contact information of a prospect

Subhead - Usually refers to the text directly under the main headline which is still cut out from the main copy beneath - can also refer to subsequent section headlines throughout the copy (which are sometimes also called crossheads)

Swipe File - A copywriter’s collection of advertising material that they’ve found to be interesting or effective - many people use this to ‘swipe’ from; in other words, they take inspiration from the ideas in their swipe files and try to identify what’s working based on the obvious success of some material

Target Market - A segment of the mass market that contains the ideal prospect for a particular advertising campaign - usually this is synonymous with ‘people who share the same problem that the product in question solves’

Testimonial - Positive statements about a product or business from existing customers - commonly used as proof for a business’s authority or value

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - A clear articulation of why the product or service being advertised is different and superior to all competition

Upsell - The act of offering a customer a chance to purchase something additional after they’ve accepted the main offer - typically used to sell complementary products that will make the desired result quicker or easier to obtain, or to make the offer more complete in some way

Value Proposition - A clear statement which sums up the benefit and result a business is promising based on the use of their product

Video Sales Letter (VSL) - Sales letter copy presented in a video format

Voice of Customer Data (VOC) - Raw quotes taken from the target market for research

Warm - Usually refers to a prospect or group of prospects who have had some engagement with the business in question and are more likely to buy than a ‘cold’ audience

Wireframe - A mock-up of how copy and design elements will be positioned on a page. Although wireframes are typically the first stage of the design process, some copywriters create them to help designers/clients envision how the copy will look once uploaded

Have suggestions or notice anything we missed or mucked up? Email sean (at) copythatshow.com and he’ll get it fixed!