If you are determined to become a great copywriter, it’s always a good idea to study the lessons and advice that have been collected by all those who have gone before you. Here is a collection of the best copywriting books you should read:
- Ogilvy on advertising by David Ogilvy: you cannot enter the world of advertising and copywriting without knowing the father of its modern conception, David Ogilvy. In this book, Ogilvy give us the key strategies that guide him through his successful career, where copyrighting was extremely important. Ogilvy supported that the only objective of the ads was to sell, calling for the user’s attention and addressing him from a colloquial perspective, covering all the campaigns behind a great idea that would give coherence to the ad.
- How to write a good advertisement by Vic Schwab: the writer was one of the greatest marketing copywriters of all time and his book has remain as a must from its publication, in early 40s. Within it we can find a short and agile course about the main steps to master copywriting, from getting attention to asking for action.
- The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert: this book has an interesting story, as it’s made up of the letters that Gary, who went to jail in the early 80s, sent to his son Boron every day. Years later, these letters became public and were published as a book. Here, Gary shares with his son the main steps to conquer a market and master copywriting, like studying the market, look for the product fit, customise the message…
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss with Tal Rahz: this book is recommend for all type of copywriters, from beginners to advanced and, without a doubt, is a must in any list of the best books on copywriting. Written by a former FBI negotiator, is a great resource to learn about the main techniques of persuasion and how to work with human emotions by offering different options to the user, convincing them that our option is the best.
- The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly: this is the perfect book for beginners, with key facts you should know when starting in copywriting and really useful tips, like the important of the title, using a natural, engaging language to talk to your audience or how words like “free” have an extraordinary power.
In case this list of the best copywriting books is not enough to put you down to work right away, get ready for these tips, that will help to warm up before starting your next assignment:
- Make a list with all the requirements: having clear what the main indications of your assignment are is fundamental, so we recommend you to make a list and keep it in sight at all times while you work on it, to avoid corrections and errors.
- Draw a sketch with the structure you will follow: starting to write in the hope that it will make sense in the end rarely works, so it’s very important to consider what content structure you want to follow and what might be easiest for your audience to read. Draw a very basic structure and follow it while you develop the text.
- Get informed: look for information about what you are going to write, in addition to the content you may already have to prepare it, it’s possible that there is a piece of information that you didn’t know about that may be very interesting for your audience and could make your text stand out from the rest.
- Make a bunch of drafts: make little tests of everything you want to say and look well at its meaning from an objective perspective, does it make sense? does it sound good? persuasive? maybe too paternalistic? trial and error will give you all this knowledge
- Read the writing to yourself: it’s very common that by being so focused on the next word we are going to write, we don’t realise that what we’re writing doesn’t make any sense or is excessively complex. Reading the text to yourself helps to see it in its entirety and make changes so that it doesn’t turn out to be absolute nonsense.
In conclusion, in this post we’ve covered our recommendation on the best books on copywriting you should read if you have decided to become a real copywriter and some tips to face your daily work more efficiently. Now is your turn to gather all this information and master the art of copywriting!
