I have beef with copywriting templates

Author: Skye Cusack

I’m not such a fan of copywriting templates. I don’t know if that’s controversial, but hear me out before you cancel me on Twitter. I know copywriting is hard, and templates offer a seemingly convenient solution, but consider this: if you could find and purchase the template, so could your competitors.

Marketing isn’t about being the flashiest, or the loudest, or even the most frequent. It’s about conveying the unique benefits of your products and/or services to your ideal customers. It’s about creativity, connection and communication. The 3 C’s, that I just made up as I was writing this. 

You want to stand out from your competitors, because you’re not like them. Your brand, or the one you represent, has value that you can communicate in a more creative way. You don’t ever want to “fall in line” with others in your field. Templated copy is more than likely to come across as duplicitous, and in certain cases, your content could be plagiarised. 

I’m sorry to say it, to both you and the people trying to sell these templates to you, but there isn’t a quick and easy way to get followers and sales. There’s no magic spell, or magic phrase, that you can add to your template to make your business suddenly explode with success. Consumers are just too smart. It’s clear when marketing communications come from a place of passion and genuinity, and easy to spot when it isn’t.

Anyone invested enough in their business to begin researching copywriting has the passion and the skill to write without the constraints of a template. Everyone is capable of writing, and many people with no experience have promoted their businesses solo and had tremendous success. Don’t discredit yourself by limiting your written outputs to the confines of a templated prison.

It could be argued that templates allow less experienced marketers and business owners to “hack” search engine and social platform algorithms, so let’s talk about this.

Understanding algorithms is an important part of marketing, and you don’t need to be a professional to access the knowledge required, but algorithms change all the time, and in the current digital landscape, they’re shifting to promote increased positive creator and consumer connection. So, if you wanted a template response to work with the constant ebbing and flowing of the algorithms, you would have to be constantly updating and filling in your templates, which is just… writing, but more complicated.

So, there’s my beef with copywriting templates. What do you think? Let me know, or get in touch to talk about alternative ways to keep your copy both convenient and creative.