Copywriting glossary

Copywriting terms that come up in briefs and proposals, defined the way I use them.

What I write

Copy written to get a specific, measurable action.

The older name for the same discipline, from mail-order and broadcast.

A document that lets any writer sound like the brand without asking.

Email mapped to where someone is in their relationship with the brand.

A single page built to keep the promise an ad made and get one thing done.

Ad copy for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, written to interrupt someone who wasn’t looking for you.

Direct-to-consumer. Brands that sell straight to the customer, where the funnel is the business.

Consumer packaged goods. Low-consideration products competing on a shelf and in a feed at the same time.

Copy for buyers who are assembling a case for someone else rather than making the call themselves.

The legal or regulatory pass that constrains what copy in regulated categories can say.

Running two versions of an ad that differ by one variable, so the result means something.

Copy written without a client, to show how a writer would approach a real brand.