Most company copy reads the same way because it was made the same way: somebody opened three competitor websites and wrote a fourth version of the same thing. Brand copywriting is the work that breaks that loop. You do not need a full time copywriter or an expensive course for it, you need your customers' vocabulary and three sentences you can write today. Here is the method, including the exercise.
Key takeaways
- According to Jakob Nielsen's 2008 analysis of 45,237 page views, visitors have time to read at most 28 % of the words on a page, and 20 % is the more realistic figure.
- In an earlier test by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen from 1997, a concise version of the same text raised measured usability by 58 %, a scannable version by 47 %, an objective version by 27 %, and all three combined by 124 %.
- The uncomfortable conclusion: copy improves most through what you remove, not what you add.
- Brand copy rests on three things: the customer's vocabulary, a list of banned phrases, and a proof point only you can give.
- The three sentence exercise below takes twenty minutes and gives you the base every other text can be written from.
- The most common mistake is not bad grammar. It is copy that could sit on any competitor's website unchanged.
Why does company copy all sound the same?
Because it comes from the same sources. Sit down to write about your company, look at the competition first, and you inherit their vocabulary and rhythm whether you meant to or not. The result is copy that could be moved to a competitor without edits, which is the most reliable test of whether you wrote a brand or a category. Try it now: take the first paragraph from your site and swap your company name for a rival's. If the sentence still works, you do not have brand copy.
The second reason is defensive. A specific sentence can be challenged, a general one cannot. "We deliver quality tailored solutions" is safe because it claims nothing. "You get the first cut within ten working days" can be held against you, which is exactly why companies avoid it. And it is exactly the sentence a reader remembers, because it is the only one carrying information.
The third reason is that copy gets written for approval rather than for a reader. It passes five people, each removes one brave phrase, and out comes an average everyone can live with. The only cure is one decision maker and a criterion agreed in advance.
How much of your copy do people actually read?
Less than you think, which is good news, because it turns into a clear brief. Jakob Nielsen's 2008 analysis, based on 45,237 page views from 25 instrumented users, found people have time to read at most 28 % of the words during an average visit, and more likely around 20 %. Each extra hundred words adds roughly 4.4 seconds to a visit, and nobody is donating you that time.
The older Morkes and Nielsen test from 1997 is even more specific. The same information written concisely raised measured usability by 58 %, rewritten into a scannable structure by 47 %, stripped of marketing enthusiasm by 27 %, and all three together by 124 %. In other words, copy does not get twice as good by adding a paragraph. It gets there by cutting.
One rule follows, and we apply it on every client site. The first sentence of a section has to carry the whole section. If a reader only takes in the headings and opening lines, they should still leave with what they came for. Everything else is for the people who are genuinely interested.
How do you build a brand vocabulary in twenty minutes?
With the three sentence exercise. It is the fastest way to get what actually makes you different out of your head and onto paper. You need a sheet of paper and twenty minutes, ideally in a pair.
Sentence 1: how your best customer recommends you. Write down word for word what they would say to a friend over a drink. Not how you wish it sounded, but how they actually say it. If you are unsure, call two customers and ask. This sentence gives you the vocabulary: the words your people really use, which belong in your copy instead of your internal terms.
Sentence 2: what you would never say. Write a sentence that sounds like your competition, then ban it. That is your blocklist. Ours includes "complex solutions", "innovative approach" and "take you further". A blocklist beats a list of recommendations because you can enforce it mechanically with a search.
Sentence 3: what only you can say. One sentence with a number, a name or a situation nobody else has. Not "we have experience with events", but "at SlovakiaTech we delivered the aftermovie within three days, before the closing night". That sentence is proof, and it belongs near the top, not in an about section three scrolls down.
Keep those three on a single page and have them beside you whenever you write. They are the seed of what later becomes a full tone of voice. How to turn them into a document a whole team can use is covered in our piece on brand tone of voice.
What should you rewrite first?
Three places with the best ratio of effect to effort. The homepage headline, which should say what you do and for whom, in the words from sentence one. The service names, because internal jargon is neither searched for nor understood. And the labels on buttons and forms, where conversion is decided and where most companies still write "Submit".
Only then does the blog or the brand story deserve attention. The order matters: polishing long copy makes no sense while the first headline a visitor sees talks about complex solutions. If you want the underlying evidence, Nielsen Norman Group's piece on how little users read is short and worth twenty minutes.
When should you not write it yourself?
Honestly, in house is not always right. If you sell something where the exact wording decides, a medical device or a financial product, you want someone who knows what may and may not be claimed. And if nobody on your team enjoys writing, do not force it. Copy written out of obligation is always worse than copy written externally from a good brief.
Let us also admit the limits of our view. We are a studio, so we are naturally inclined to argue that copy matters. In reality we have watched companies with mediocre copy and an excellent product grow revenue for years, and companies with a beautifully written site that had nothing to sell. Copywriting amplifies what you have. It does not manufacture it.
And one more thing people say reluctantly. AI will now write grammatically flawless copy about anything in twenty seconds, which is precisely why the value moved elsewhere: into sentence three, the specifics a model has nowhere to get. If your copy proves nothing, it does not matter who wrote it.
Frequently asked questions
How long should website copy be?
Long enough that nothing pointless survives the cut. A word count will not help you, but a test will: read only the headings and the opening sentence of each paragraph. If the page still makes sense, the length is fine. If it does not, the problem is structure, not word count.
Does every piece have to sound identical?
The voice does, the tone does not. Voice is who you are and it stays fixed. Tone adapts to the situation: an error message, an invoice and a social post sound different even from the same brand. Confusing the two is why so many voice guidelines go unused.
Is it worth hiring a copywriter with no brief?
No. Without the three sentences above you get a different average, just a more expensive one. A copywriter needs the vocabulary, the blocklist and the proof points, otherwise they will invent them and you will not recognise yourself. Twenty minutes of preparation saves two rounds of revisions.
How do I know the new copy is better than the old?
Do not ask colleagues whether they like it. Give the old and the new version to five people outside the company and then ask them what you sell and who it is for. The version they can answer without hesitating wins, even if someone internally prefers the other one.
If you have the three sentences written and do not know what to do next, or you want your words and your visuals to finally match, write to us through contact. We treat copy as part of creative, not as something added at the end of a project.
