These are some well known and well established guidelines to follow when writing copy. Whether you’re writing sales copy for your website or a script for a video, I believe that following one or all of these guidelines will help you come up with good copy.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Know your audience. It’s important that you know and understand who is going to read your copy and/or watch your video.
2. Have a moral or a point. I frequently lack this particular one. I tend to ramble and miss the point of what I’m trying to say, you should try to avoid doing that.
3. Make sure you have a plot (story arch, lead people through the resistance curve). There’s this thing called a resistance curve. Everyone goes through certain phases when they listen to your story or start reading your copy. These different phases are called the “resistance curve.”
4. Stories are more interesting. No one likes to read or listen to a bunch of facts. Facts are boring, but there are times when the facts are important and need to be brought up in the copy.
5. Stories sell. Interesting stories sell better than boring ones. Here are some story ideas for you:

• Lost redemption stories are great fun to listen to. This is the type of story of someone who had it all, lost it and then got it back again. Think of Lt. Dan in “Forest Gump.”
• Hero stories. Here’s the thing, though, the hero has to have a flaw to be believable and likable. Think of Batman and Superman, they’re heroes but they have their flaws that make them more human and more believable.

These are just some very broad guidelines that you can use whenever you’re stuck or if you’re trying to come up with some ideas for something that you’re working on.

If you really want to learn a lot about copywriting, check out Ben Settle’s blog, he has some great information on copy writing and is really good at what he does.