16-Step Copywriting Plan to Supercharge Multichannel Conversions

How to optimize your copy and streamline your way to the conversions you’ve been craving.

You know your brand copywriting could be better. Right now, it’s not where you want it to be - let alone is it performing how you’d like. 

But if your entire brand copy is subpar, where do you start? What projects will give you the most bang for your buck upfront?

As a copywriter, I get asked these questions a lot. Clients come to me with various marketing goals, but they don’t know how to tackle them and in what order. 

Yes, improving your copy is an exceptionally smart business move. And no, it does not have to be painful at all. 

Think of this post as your “copywriting business plan.” It will prioritize projects that need great copy ASAP as well as lay out how you can expand with additional copywriting projects over time. 

Whether you are a DIY solopreneur or want to hire a copywriter, this plan aims to give you some direction about when and where you should be dedicating your time and money.  

Let’s Grow an Onion

An onion? What about your business? Here me out…

When it comes to marketing, I like to think of the whole strategy as an onion. 

You have your core set of materials, things that all marketing funnels back to. Then you have secondary marketing projects that add layers around the core. 

Add on secondary projects as time goes by or when you can start investing even more into the business. 

Eventually, you can tip the scale: higher revenue with less time spent actively marketing to get it. 

But before we get ahead of ourselves with passive income and total marketing automation, we have to start at the core of the “onion” and build out.

16-Step Sample Copywriting Guide to Convert

Here is a sample copywriting plan and its estimated timeline to fast-track multichannel optimization. 

This lineup is derived from my previous experience, but you may feel the need to prioritize this list differently to fit your own business objectives. 

And remember that there is a difference between copywriting and content writing! We won’t be discussing how to leverage things like blogs, case studies or newsletters here. 

Read this: 15-Step Content Writing Plan to Conquer a Large, Loyal Audience

Step #1 Investigate Your People

The key to a successful copywriting strategy is knowing your target customer inside and out. 

Brands that know everything about their customers - their age, gender, buying preferences, annual income, signature scent, pants size - see the best ad performance. 

Get to know your ideal customers intimately. Find out what they miss about life in the past, what they want in the future and what keeps them up at night. Discover what motivates them. 

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Before a copywriter can write anything on a page, they need to know who they’re talking to. Great copywriters will know what questions to ask about the target audience before starting any project. 

In other words, if you don’t want to create a customer profile, a copywriter can. And honestly, they have to in order to do their job correctly.

That’s why I schedule a kickoff call with every client. During that call, I ask tons of questions to make sure I can write the best copy that will resonate with the audience. 

Estimated turnaround: 1-2 weeks 

Read this: What You Need in a Buyer Persona Guide 

Step #2 Become the Solution

Not sure what solution you provide? It’s time to get in contact with a branding expert or analyst!

Dive deep into how your product or service fits perfectly into the lives of your customers. Does it solve a problem? Is there a need for it? Are they missing out without it?

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

If you already do know what solution your product or service offers, a copywriter is the perfect person to help you tie up that main message into a concise, polished statement. 

You’ll be able to use that statement over and over again in all your branding. 

Heck, it may even become your new brand tagline!

Copywriters can create succinct branding statements, and they can also create a brand guide that will amplify all future marketing. Basically, a branding bible for your business!

Estimated turnaround: 2 weeks (as part of a larger branding guide) 

Step #3 Be Different

Here is where many businesses falter. They fail to identify how they are different from their competitors. This differentiator is their “unique selling proposition” or USP. 

What’s worse, they may think they’re being different, but a quick internet search of 3-5 companies in their industry reveals that… everyone else is saying the same thing. For example:

Therapists and dietitians talk about the “individualization” of their services.

SaaS companies provide an “intuitive user experience.”

Financial advisors say they’ll help you “plan for retirement while living your life now.”

I’ve said this in other posts, but I’ll say it again…

Everything mentioned above is very important to their target audiences! These services should be providing such benefits.

But as news anchor George Stephanopoulos said, the most important question he’s ever asked was simply, “And?”

I find myself asking my copywriting clients this question a lot in regards to their USP. They give me a long-winded answer about what they do, but not about what they do that no else is doing. 

“And? And what makes you different?”

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Establishing a USP is really hard! Luckily, a great copywriter or branding expert can help you draw out what makes you truly different.

If you hire a copywriter to create your brand guide, they’ll include your golden USP. Ahhh! Can you hear the angels singing?! 

Estimated turnaround: 2 weeks (as part of a larger branding guide) 

Step #4 Build Your Branding

Now that you know who your target audience really is, how you provide the perfect solution and how you stand out from the crowd, it’s time to consolidate all that essential information into one place. 

Branding guides are a crucial component of your marketing strategy. In fact, you shouldn’t be marketing without it!

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Want a detailed, informative and useful branding guide that will navigate all future marketing efforts towards success? Hire a copywriter! 

They’ll include everything you need. You’ll be able to show any future writer or branding expert your brand guide, and it will instantly make sense to them. 

When discrepancies come up, your team will be able to refer back to an awesome branding book so decisions can be made quickly and correctly on the first try. 

After all, great brands keep everything consistent across all marketing channels.  

Estimated turnaround: 2-3 weeks

Step #5 Go Home

By home, I mean go to the homepage on your website. Even if your current website traffic bypasses the homepage with SEO keywords on other pages, start with the homepage. 

Not only does it make sense to your writer, but it also will help any confused customer reorient themselves on your site. 

Your homepage copy has a lot to do, but it should take up very few words to do it. It must immediately establish who you are, what you do and why that customer should choose you. 

Read this: 5 Quick Tips for an Awesome Homepage (Now)

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

High-converting homepages have big shoes to fill! And so many businesses miss out with a homepage headline that reads, “Welcome to ABC Company.”

A copywriter will know how to craft a headline that is powerful, concise and something you can be proud of… mainly because it converts. 

Copywriters will also take into account how you want visitors to move around the site. Do you want them to check out your services more than visiting your blog? Is it more important that you get their email address, rather than their name?

Such needs can be addressed when a professional copywriter crafts a homepage that will become the superhub of your website!

Estimated turnaround: Less than 1 week

Step #6 Introduce Yourself

I don’t care if you're a solopreneur or the CEO of a massive company. People want to know about the people behind the brand. 

Now more than ever, about pages, team pages and CEO highlights are crucial to the marketing strategy. They build trust. 

Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable seeing the face of the brand and learning about their personal life, such as interesting hobbies or how they run a business around their 5 kids’ schedules?

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

CEOs who try to write their own biographies either think personal fun facts aren’t appropriate, or they hesitate to share challenges that the customers can relate to. 

Your copywriter serves as a 3rd-party professional - someone who writes in a way that connects deeply with your customers. Plus, they can probably spin out a story with an interesting angle that’s worth telling. 

Estimated turnaround: Less than 1 week

Step #7 Show Off What You’ve Got

As in, your products and services. There are so many different ways to structure the parent pages of your products and services. You can organize it by type of service, by audience, by category…

Your service webpages need to complement the rest of the website map. They also need to be intuitive and easy for customers to find.  

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

I can’t tell you how many times my copywriting clients have needed help with not only writing the service page copy - but also with organizing how it’s presented on the website. 

A little bit of UX copywriting gets thrown in there. Copywriters will take into account what your customers are thinking and what they need to know. 

Estimated turnaround: 1-2 weeks

Step #8 Highlight Each Product or Service

These need to be clearly explained, especially for complex programs and tiers and memberships…

Remember: Customers will try to talk themselves out of converting with you by default. Don’t give them yet another reason to say “never mind” because of bad copy!

Well, how do you do it correctly, then? 

Connect with them as a human being and rationalize that this is a great purchase by highlighting both the features and the benefits of your products. 

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

A little secret: I know you love your business, but sometimes you as the owner are a little too close to know what really needs to be said.

If you want customers to convert, you really should hire a copywriter for your service sales pages! 

Copywriters with direct response training, such as myself, understand what messaging will make them click that “Buy Now,” “Sign Up” or “Contact Us” button. 

We’ll help you get an action right then and there, rather than letting the customer step away to think about it. 

Estimated turnaround: 2-3 weeks (depending on how many services)

Step #9 Be Reachable

Believe it or not, I’ve reviewed websites that don’t have an easy way to contact the company. In fact, I’ve seen websites that don’t have a contact form whatsoever. 

And as you may have guessed, they were getting zero leads! Contact pages are essential. Not only do customers need a way to contact you, but they also need to trust that your site is run by a reputable company with real people. 

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

You definitely need a contact page on your website, and this page is often so simple that you probably don’t need a copywriter to write it. 

That is, unless you want to pack a punch on your contact page with some exceptional branding. 

For example, if your brand voice is bubbly, a copywriter could create 1-2 lines of bubbly copy to show just how excited you are that the customer is about to contact you. 

Couple that with some post-submission copy and a confirmation email, and the marketing touchpoints are endless… I digress. 

Outside of a simple contact page, a copywriter will be able to intuitively place “Contact Us” CTAs throughout your whole site for optimal UX and conversions. 

Estimated turnaround: Less than 1 week

Step #10 Create a Lead Magnet

Whether you want more email subscribers or have big dreams of an evergreen course, most of these customer journeys should start with a gift (AKA a lead magnet). 

After all, there has to be a reason for customers to go on the journey with you!

These lead magnets are usually given in exchange for an email address, first name and consent to receive emails from your organization.

Read this: 20 Sizzling Lead Magnets to Warm Up More Leads

Common lead magnets include discounts, freebies, B2B whitepapers or another tool that is insanely useful or enticing to your customer. 

Once it’s created, don’t forget to add a plug-in on your website for people to take advantage of it!

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Lead magnet creation can be pretty in-depth. It is sometimes considered content writing, however, I consider it part of a copywriting funnel. 

To save substantial time and stress, I suggest having a copywriter and/or branding expert brainstorm which type of lead magnet would work best for your audience - and what specific topic it should cover, if applicable. 

Many solopreneurs opt for creating the lead magnet themselves...

But if it’s not a good freebie, customers won’t want it anyway. 

So, I say leave it to the professionals! 

Estimated turnaround: 1-3 weeks (depending on the type)

Step #11 Build a Promotional Email Campaign

Here’s why I usually consider a lead magnet to be a copywriting project. Your lead magnet should funnel into a promotional campaign. In this case, an email campaign.

Your customer is excited to receive your lead magnet, and they trust you enough to let you contact them via email. Now is the perfect time to promote!

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

If salesy emails turn you off, hire a copywriter to make sure that the following email campaign is both nurturing and conversion-optimized. 

There are plenty of ways to write an email funnel that is genuine, entertaining and that gets the job done. 

I love to throw in tripwire offers and upsells - as long as the emails remain customer-focused and value-driven. 

Estimated turnaround: 1-3 weeks (depending on length of the promotion)

Step #12 Craft Some Social Media Ads

Okay great! Your website is optimized, you have a lead magnet, and your email campaign is ready to follow. 

Now you need to share, share, share your marketing with a vast audience across all of the social media platforms! 

But be careful. Too many business owners burn through $100s or $1000s on ads that underperform. It’s so easy to throw away your cash, only to be underwhelmed by the analytics later that day…

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Social media ads can generate great conversions if you know what works. 

But then again, there is often no rhyme or reason to what gains traction online. 

A copywriter would be able to dedicate the time, energy and expertise to giving you multiple ad versions to test. 

Plus, has one of your ads ever been rejected or flagged by the platform? There are countless social media advertising rules. You can’t overuse certain words… you can’t imply certain things… character counts limit what people will see… 

It’s a whole thing. Just hire a copywriter to do it!

Estimated turnaround: 1-2 weeks (depending on how many channels)

Step #13 Analyze the Conversions

Now is a great time to analyze your website traffic, email conversions and social media ad analytics. 

Do people bounce off a certain page on your site? Does using a question in your subject line get better open rates? Did long-form copy on your Facebook ad get more traction?

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Conversion analysis might already be included as part of their project, but make sure to let your copywriter review the stats!

If you give me stats like open rate, CTR, bounce rate in relation to my copy, I know what needs to be fixed! I usually understand exactly what is working and where the problems are popping up. 

It’s a shame that some clients forget to do this step, and they miss out on improving their marketing for spectacular conversions.

Estimated turnaround: Less than 1 week

Step #14 Revise and Optimize

Once you have a clear understanding of your conversions, you can always make improvements!

But don’t jump the gun too early with rewriting things. Sometimes waiting a few weeks to gather more data is very helpful. 

You may even be able to avoid making huge changes once you see a month of data, rather than just a week. If the copy seems to be working well, you can move on to other stuff!

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Sometimes all you need is a revision to a subject line or headline to drastically improve your conversion rates. 

I would suggest having your copywriter do that. I often keep several versions of copy to myself and pull from the alternatives as needed. 

That kind of change may be completed within minutes if you just ask your copywriter for a different version.

Estimated turnaround: Less than 1 week

Step #15 Think Long Term

Now that you have a significant amount of your copywriting optimized, it will continue to work for you down the road. 

Once your core and inner onion layers are good, look at what marketing projects you want to do 3, 6, 12 months out. 

Plan it well in advance so you’re not rushing and settling for rough draft copy! That’s simply a waste of time and money. 

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Along with the expertise of a branding expert or market analyst, you can lean on your copywriter to help you determine what marketing efforts to engage in next. 

They can help you start preparing for your next customer journey in a way that is intelligent for the brand and effective for the kind of conversions you want. 

Estimated turnaround: 3-4 weeks for a marketing plan

Step #16 Refresh with a New Launch

Say you want to blast into the holiday season with a surge in sales. Or, you have a new product offering you can’t wait to share. 

New launches are a big undertaking, but if all of your other marketing efforts are optimized, you can recycle high-converting copy and build upon previous success. No need to recreate the wheel every time you launch a new product.

Why Hire a Copywriter for This?

Not only will a copywriter create professional copy for you, but they can review conversion statistics and upcycle what is currently working.

I’m also positive a copywriter can write product launch copy faster than you, simply because we do it all the time. 

So instead of you getting bogged down by all the writing work, why not outsource so you can rev up more excitement… or have a glass of wine or something? 

Estimated turnaround: 2-8 weeks (depending on the launch)

Are You Ready or What?!

It’s a lot of work to optimize your brand copy but an extremely wise investment in your business. 

Luckily, once each copywriting project is done, subsequent ones build upon and amplify the success of the campaigns before them. 

If you’re ready to get started with this copywriting plan, contact me to write your copy!