How to craft Groupon’s signature write-ups – 27 Copywriting Do‘s and Don‘ts

Daily-deals web site Groupon has become a multi-national business with the value at an estimated $20 billion.

Started just three years ago, it now has 83 million subscribers worldwide and more than 7,000 employees.

These are the lessons to learn if you want to write copy that sells like Groupon does.

Top 27 Copywriting Do‘s and Don‘ts

• Write as the omniscient narrator (3rd person). Selling points, information, and humor are all usually stronger in this voice.

• Don’t assume familiarity with the reader. When the 2nd person is used with a voice that assumes too much familiarity with the reader it can sound like traditional marketing copy.

• Don’t antagonize the reader. E.g. “Get fit, fatty!” “Take a shower hippy!,” “Eat a burger hipster!”.

• Don’t overuse of hyphens.

• Steer clear of jokes that could offend religious people. Even if it seems harmless and playful, there are some religious people who will freak out. It’s not worth the headache.

• Don’t say anything that can even remotely be regarded as sexual. Even saying “ooze” will set people off. Not worth the risk.

• No schmoozy marketing copy. Avoid traditional marketing cliches like positioning the deal as the obvious solution to the reader’s imaginary problems. EX: Do you have this problem? Well today’s deal is the solution!

• Avoid unsubstantiated superlatives: Worst/Best. Thing. Ever. Superlatives and overly generous adjectives will not only fail to sell—they’ll kill Groupon’s integrity.

• Avoid broad, unsubstantiated claims like “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

• Never write unsubstantiated, opinionated selling points. Just present the verifiable, objective facts in a fun, engaging, way and let the readers decide for themselves if it sounds like something they want.

• Avoid abstract words that don’t mean anything. Adjectives: unique, great, perfect, interesting. Verbs: optimize, enhance, utilize, maximize, all the -ize’s. Corporate speak: proactive, efficient, productive, innovative, ideation, etc.

• Avoid using exclamation points.

• Spell out single-digit numbers.

• Always use numerals if a unit of measurement (not quantity) e.g. inches, feet, age.

• Avoid repetitive use of the imperative. The reader doesn’t want to be told what to do. Just describe things without insisting that the reader does anything in particular. If they like how you describe it, they’ll figure it out on their own.

• Begin with a short creative lead. Always keep your lead under 35 words, and ideally under 25 words.

• What you get and price points. Immediately after the lead, you must clearly explain the value of the deal.

• Don’t use a vendor’s copy. Whether a vendor sends the copy or they have a good copy on the site, never use it verbatim. It has to be written in Groupon’s voice or it will look like an ad instead of an endorsement.

• Answer every question a customer will have. If you don’t, they’ll ask it 100,000 times to customer service, and customer service will be here til midnight.

• Be clear, concise. Less is more. 175-300 words across 3-4 short paragraphs. The average is around 250 words, and try to keep it under that if you can.

• Maintain brevity. A good trick is to start with an engaging imperative verb. For example, instead of “Five services covered in this Groupon,” rewrite as “Choose from 5 services.”

• Make headers as short as possible, e.g. ‘$20 for a Massage at Spa’ is ‘$20 Massage at Spa’.

• Don’t list vague, generic selling points that could be used for any business in that industry (i.e. “relax and relieve stress” for massages). Highlights should be aspects either unique to the business or to the deal.

• Concrete details are stronger than vague ideas like “makes a great gift.” They’ll be reading “makes a great Valentine’s gift” on every ad they see for weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, so this has the potential to be more marketing noise.

• Word highlights as compelling selling points so that they matter to the reader. Rich, concrete description sells with integrity.

• Features vs. benefits. A feature is what something is. A benefit is what it does. Features are preferred because they are rich, concrete details. If a feature is not compelling enough, reframe it as a benefit.

• You must be creative and intuitive. Follow your heart. In your heart lies the answer to the question “why would someone buy this?” Ask it to yourself. Answer the question in language that relates to someone.

Now it’s your turn to start writing copy that sells! Need more advice? Read:

• 5 Tricks to Get Your Email Read
• 13 blogging lessons learned from Stephen King’s On Writing
• 10 elements of style of blog post writing by Strunk and White

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