My 5-Step Copywriting Formula (With Examples)

In today's issue, I want to show you my favorite copywriting formula.

If you can master this framework (and anyone can) you'll unlock human emotions that will help your content reach hundreds of thousands of people.

The problem is that most people don't write copy using proven formulas or systems.

Your content isn't resonating because you don't have a formula for unlocking human emotion.

If you don't understand how human emotions work, it's tough to write great content.

I struggled to write effectively for the first 6 months that I published on social media.

• I didn't have a system
• I didn't understand the psychology
• I didn't know anything about copywriting

Because of that, I dreaded writing each day. I stared at a blank screen, and then sloppily threw together some messy content.

When I finally pressed "post", all of my worries came true. Nobody read it. Nobody engaged. Nobody cared.

That sucks.

Let me show you an easy trick to help solve these problems.

My 5-step copywriting formula

It's my variation of PAS (problem/agitate/solution) called PAIPS.

1. Problem
2. Agitate
3. Intrigue
4. Positive Future
5. Solution

Step 1: Highlight something painful or problematic

The first line of this piece of content highlights a painful problem that many people in my audience are experiencing. They feel taken advantage of at work.

This line is intended to do 2 things:

1. Elicit a strong emotional response
2. Get the reader to the next line

Then...

Step 2: Agitate the problem aka "turn the knife"

People often write about problems or pain, but they forget the most critical part: agitation.

Hammering the problem home gets under the reader's skin and makes them...well...agitated.

Once someone is agitated, they are much more likely to be open to a solution.

Here's how I went from problem → agitation in this piece of content.

Step 3: Introduce something intriguing to catch the reader's attention

Ok, we've introduced a problem and we've agitated our audience. The next step is to introduce something interesting or intriguing.

Something to get the audience to say, "Wait...what's that?"

In this particular piece of content, I introduce something called the Creator Funnel.

My goal is to get the audience to lean in with interest and carry them through the rest of the content.

Step 4: Paint a positive picture of the future if they follow the intrigue

Now that we have the audience's attention, I work to paint a picture of what a positive future would look like if people followed the intriguing Creator Funnel.

You can see that here:

Step 5: Present your solution

The audience has experienced pain and agitation, been presented with an intriguing option, and we've painted a vision of the positive future.

The last step is to introduce our solution into the equation.

In this particular instance, the solution was my newsletter, and my intention was to drive subscribers. You can see that here:

And that post ended up with 276,798 impressions, 1,646 engagements, 371 comments, and drove 600+ new subscribers to my email list. These are pretty typical results from following my LinkedIn Operating System.

Mission accomplished.

In Summary

1. Pain
2. Agitate
3. Intrigue
4. Positive future
5. Solution

P.S. This copywriting tip is a small sneak preview of my flagship course, The LinkedIn Operating System. In less than 2 hours, this comprehensive course will teach you the system I used to grow from 2k to 540,000+ followers and be named the #1 Global LinkedIn Creator by Favikon.

Join 20,000+ students and 50+ LinkedIn Top Voices here.