5 Copywriting Exercises You Can Do RIGHT NOW To Write Like a Pro!

In this article, I'm going to go through 5 copywriting exercises that will help you to write like a pro in the shortest time possible.

Now, you don’t need to have any talent or any special creativity to become the best at copywriting.

Because the truth is, it’s a skill that you must learn and repeat in a way that you might not think!

Exercise 1: Reading books to help understand principles

Similar to what Gary Halbert teaches reading books to understand marketing and copywriting principles without spending too much time making lots of notes.

Will help you to develop your copywriting skills much faster.

Now Gary Halbert has a list of recommendations, however, some of these books such as breakthrough advertising are a bit advanced if you’ve never written or made any money from writing a sales page.

So I recommend starting with and reading books from the following copywriting book list.

copywriting book list for beginners

1. The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy - Is a very good introduction to copywriting and has incredible practical tips you can apply immediately.

2. Scientific advertising by Claude Hopkins- Provides more insights into marketing and it has a must-read secret about copywriting.

3. Influence by Robert Cialdini – Even though this book isn’t directly related to copywriting, it’s a scientific book that will help you understand persuasion on a more scientific approach.

He did a bunch of experiments to scientifically understand how people react to certain commands, biases, and persuasive techniques.

4. The one-sentence persuasion by Blair warren- This book summarises in a single sentence possibly everything you need to know to persuade someone else to buy.

It’s a short book but is definitely worth being at the top for persuasion.

What to do during and after reading these books

Now remember this, when reading each of these books, you don’t need to go through it text by text and study it like an exam, the idea is just to understand the principles of copywriting and marketing to get better at understanding how it all actually works.

Because next when you read through each of these, you’re then going to do two things which is to find currently winning copy, and add them to your swipe file for exercise number four.

And then to do the next exercise which is...

Exercise 2: exercise your brain by reading at least 1 promo a day

Now when I say promo, I don’t mean reading an entire sales page that’s 35 pages unless you want to, but what I mean is reading parts of the copy.

Such as the Lead, the offer the story, and even going through an email or a Facebook Ad.

Now with that said, most beginner copywriters don’t understand that copy isn't created by sitting down and writing an entire sales letter out.

Instead, it's created in stages while researching.

However, reading a promo a day will keep your mind conditioned and will absorb more and more copywriting knowledge.

This helps create those ah-ha moments When something sparks on an emotional level that ingrains into an understanding of how to apply angles, hooks and big ideas for when you start writing your copy.

Now the question here is…

Where do you find winning copy

There are many ways you can find winning copy but here are a few ways and what you need to do,
which is first…

Go to the Facebook ads library and enter your competitors or even authorities who you know that have multiple sales using direct response copy.

Avoid picking copy from businesses that have a very strong brand and only have a simple offer such as McDonalds you shouldn't use their copy because of their brand position…they're going to sell because who doesn’t know McDonalds!

Finding good direct-response copy is the most useful and the best way to find that is through the facebook ads library.

And if you check the dates on the AD this will tell you if someone has been running ads for a while which clearly indicates they have copy that’s converting.

Read and Swipe the ad and then click through to the landing pages and do the same thing.

Diagram example of a sales funnel including email funnel

Then I suggest you find, through the ads library or Google, different email opt-ins from good copywriters, and go through their funnels and swipe as much as you can to build up your own swipe file.

Exercise 3: Interpret and understand everything you read

The person who wrote the copy will have a lot of reasons and principles behind why they wrote the way they did, and that’s why you need to understand by looking for certain principles behind the copy.

Persuasion in itself is an emotional language because emotions are what makes us do things, especially making us buy.

So instead of just looking for hooks and angles, Start finding how the copy makes it sound easy where anyone or anybody can achieve the results promised.

Such as a method, or Step-by-step technique.

Which all imply that if you follow them you’ll attain the result.

Find whats new and unique

You also want to find what is new and unique because you want your copy to be different and make sure nobody’s seen or heard it before.

So using Words such as, for the first time ever, exclusive, and ONLY, is what makes things new and unique.

Because on a deeper psychological level, the mind avoids boredom and doesn’t want to see anything it's seen before.

And then what makes it FAST, just like people want a quick pill to resolve a problem.

Find what parts of the copy are continuing its emotional language with phrases such as…

  • Quickly.
  • In an instant.
  • Less than X mintues.
Headline copywriting example highlighted to show what each part of the headline is for.

And so on, finding these will help you understand what emotional triggers the copywriter was using to convince their prospects.

Exercise 4: Handwrite the copy

This next pro tip is one way of ingraining copy and connecting your mind on a deeper level which is by taking everything from your swipes and handwriting the copy.

This is the sparring of copywriting, it’s like stepping into the ring and learning to apply practically what you have learned.

Now, this is something that can get tedious, but I promise it’s the most powerful way to really connect your mind and understand copy on another level.

And what’s powerful about doing this, is when you write each word you slow your mind down and spend more time understanding each word that was written.

And perhaps best of all…

You have more of a connection when you use your hand and write each word down.
There’s just something magical about taking proven copy and writing it all by hand.

Exercise 5: Write copy every day for at least 30 days

Now, this can be about anything, whether it’s a light bulb, a carpet, or writing about food in the fridge.

Just write!

Because you need to practice everything you’ve been doing and learning how to angle and add things that are instant, easy, new unique, and write in multiple ways.

And as you do this I guarantee from day 1 to 30 you’re going to notice a HUGE improvement!

You’re going to improve on coming up with big ideas, how to create hooks, and how to structure your copy.

And what’s so incredible about this, is that it’ll rewire your brain to start becoming a pro copywriter.

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