@ashlynscarter
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Over-the-Shoulder Copy Crafting Guide
The Copy Bar
Est. 2016 | © Copyright 2021, Ashlyn Writes. All rights reserved.
For Stewardship of Story
OV ER-TH E SHOU LDER
COPY CR A F TING
GU IDE
Welcome to your template use guide— to help
you get started, so you can understand how to edit
your template and add in your voice and style.
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@ashlynscarter
hello@ashlynwrites.com
without-a-subject line kind). At Ashlyn Writes, we believe in stewardship of time, talent, treasure,
and story—our hope is this helps you continue to get your story out in a noisy world.
If your template isn’t sustainable—working when you can’t—it’s not doing its job. That’s why you
can expect regular updates and innovations to keep your template in tip-top shape.
A S S I S TA N C E
YO UTUBE
I N S TA G R A M
support@ashlynwrites.com
youtube.com/ashlynwrites
@ashlynscarter
For Stewardship of Story
slam dunks, elbow grease, and face-palm regrets (yes, of the I-just-sent-that-to-thousands-of-people-
Est. 2016 | © Copyright 2021, Ashlyn Writes. All rights reserved.
The template you’ve just snagged is the careful culmination of more than a decade of marketing
The Copy Bar
Welcome to The Copy Bar family!
Over-the-Shoulder Copy Crafting Guide
SALUD, CHEERS , CLINK : YO U SADDLED UP TO THE BAR —
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Table of Contents
Congrats on the purchase of your new template!
Here’s what’s inside your Over-the-Shoulder Copy Crafting™
guide.
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Disclaimer
Your Terms & Conditions of Use
Copy Crafting Checklist
Copywriting Template Tutorials
Template Editing Copy Hacks
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Support Help
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A N D W H Y “ TH E BA R? ”
One of my favorite bars in Atlanta’s Kirkwood
neighborhood is Taproom. They serve up French
press and pour-over by day, but if I’m working
there post 5 p.m., there’s a good chance I’ll ask
the bartender for a glass of the rosé. Maybe I’m
driving by for an early morning to-go jolt of
caffeine or popping by for an afternoon pick-meup—but I’ve clocked plenty of evenings hunkered
down for a laptop + wine writing session. No
matter what I need, community and conversation
are within elbow distance.
I want The Copy Bar to be that
for your business.
Because you should be able to come in and get just what you need, tailored
to your specific business. You should be able to grab a copywriting template
to-go—freshly brewed, warm in your hand, wafting out sweet-sweet goodness
into your business home from the minute you sit down at your desk. But if it’s
a long, head-down work session prepping for a big launch, I want The Copy
Bar to be there fueling you up with templates on tap.
Need to sit a spell and get some advice? Tack on a month or so of The Copy
Bar Community, the AW membership coming fall 2021, to get more eyes on
your work.
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The Copy Bar
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Over-the-Shoulder Copy Crafting Guide
DIS CLA I M ER
Ashlyn Writes & The Copy Bar are owned by Ashlyn S. Carter LLC, and provide educational and informational
resources available for download—and while the employees and owner of the Company are professionals, it shall
not be understood or construed as professional advice.
The Copy Bar creates copywriter-approved and time-tested templates that are designed to get you off to the races
and remedy your most pressing writing needs.
A pro who’s in the weeds with YOUR business and YOUR unique situation will give specific sales advice—after
(of course) ramping up a relationship with you, learning the specifics of your marketing budget and tech stack,
and understanding what claims can be legally made in your copy.
We’ve done our best to ensure that the information provided on all Ashlyn Writes websites and resources
available for download are accurate and provide valuable information. If you’ve got any questions, please reach
out to us or seek the guidance of a sales copywriter or marketing consultant who can advise you. Please note that
the law can and will change, and this document doesn’t necessarily reflect seller claims allowances of any particular industry.
At AW, we gets mushy-gushy feels over our full-service clients. Your use of this template—including implementation of any suggestions set out in this template and/or use of any resources available on AW websites—does not
create a professional-client relationship between you and Ashlyn Writes.
You may have seen testimonials from AW clients or The Copy Bar customers. Those are actual statements made
by clients and/or customers and have been truthfully conveyed. However, we’re trusting you realize that those
testimonials aren’t a direct guarantee of results for you. Presenting revenue & sales stats rocks (here’s hoping it
shows you what’s possible!), but you shouldn’t rely on that as a promise or guarantee of earnings. Your results will
be up to a number of factors over which we have no control, such as your financial condition, experiences, skills,
level of effort, education, and changes within the market.
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TER MS & CON DITIONS
We take your investment seriously, and we’d appreciate if you took our
investment of time and resources into your success seriously, too!
By purchasing this template The Copy Bar Shop™, you are granted one
revocable, worldwide, non-exclusive license to the product(s) you have
purchased. If you violate this license by distributing, posting a link,
blogging, dispersing, or selling a copy of this template to anyone, that’s
copyright infringement. We reserve the right to invoice you for the
licenses you have gifted to others and revoke your access to our template(s)/product(s) permanently. You agreed to these Terms of Use upon
check out when purchasing.
Basically, if you purchase a template, you are not allowed to share it with
your industry friends. If they need a template, we recommend you get an
affiliate link by emailing hello@ashlynwrites.com.
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COPY CR A F TI NG CH E CK LIST
To note, templates like this aren’t drag and drop. Readers can sense authenticity. No pressure, right? :)
You’re going to have to put your personality in it, and write it for YOUR specific reader: no one knows your offer,
your story, your brand, your process, or your audience like you.
This will ALWAYS work best if you have your brand’s voice down on paper and you have your client or customer’s voice and data down on paper–what I teach my students inside Copywriting for Creatives™. But you CAN
do this. And boy, is it worth the effort.
My dad would ask how many chances I get to make a first impression when I was little. “One!” I’d gleefully
exclaim and beam after nailing his “trick” question.
More than two decades later, nothing’s changed for me—or you.
You still get ONE chance to hit that first point of true connection with your potential client.
This is the pivot point where they either feel 150% welcome … or where they feel awkward, out-of place, or
maybe even rejected.*
No, having great welcome sequence copy isn’t a cure-all, but as a creative entrepreneur, you’ll usually do well
to get in the weeds a bit and at least see if your emails can be part of the solution to some of the website traffic
problems or sales dips you may be having.
As you work through the templates, note some emails will end up long—those I recommend
breaking up with emojis, GIFs, colorful copy, etc. At least that’s my style.
Those are the rules. :)
Grab a pen, grab a coffee, and let’s get this party started!
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Measure twice, curse once—copy template edition: let’s get you set to save this puppy so you always have the root file to reference as you rewrite your
version. Create an account with The Copy Bar to ensure you’ve got 24/7 access to your account’s order history. That’s also how we’ll get you any updates to
the template that come up.
Download the template and add to your personal business drive or files, and duplicate the file when you work on it for YOUR business. Hopefully, the
PDF version will serve as an original version, but … ya know … just in case. :)
Got the clean version? Time to tailor the copy for your business! I typically work in GoogleDocs as I’m doing client projects or work for my own business.
Fill in the blanks to make it your own: Veuve yellow highlighted sections are where you need to change things up specific to YOUR brand and business.
Auburn orange highlighted sections are for copywriting tips, tricks, and instructions.
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Before you install any copy, we recommend a solid editing sweep. You’ll find Ashlyn’s FULL guide to self-editing here on the blog. TL;DR, here are my top
three tips to get you started:
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Sleep on your words at least one night, and come back to them the next day. Always.
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Install Grammar.ly (free!) to catch any typos or misspellings.
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Read from the bottom line up. That way, it’s all jumbled and out of order, and you get to quickly see if you’ve left out a word, repeated a word,
or even just chosen the wrong word.
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Next, it’s time to install your copy. It You can do this through
>>> For website copy installs (from sales pages to entire websites), we recommend Tonic Site Shop templates.
>>> For email marketing copy, I like ConvertKit.
>>> For client experience copy and messaging, we use HoneyBook.
>>> For true sales funnels (landing pages, opt-ins, check-out, etc.), I prefer Funnel Gorgeous.
(Psst—yep, all the above are affiliate links. These are ALL companies I’ve used to build my business. As a personal standard, I only share tools that I’ve
used and actually seen success with as I’ve built my business.) You’ll be in copy/paste mode as you get things installed.
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Now, it’s time to proof ah-GAIN. Two tips here? First, click every link. Seriously—eeevvvvvvery link to make sure it drove to the right page. The minute
you don’t do this, you’ll send an email to a few thousand people with the wrong link, I promise. Secondly, review in Preview mode. For some reason,
when I print something or look at it in preview mode (or even just hit publish and look at on another screen), it’s like I’m an outsider.
Pat yourself on the back—you whipped out some marketing copy & messaging at a fraction of the price it would have been to hire a copywriting professional.
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COPY W R ITI NG TEM PLATE
TUTOR I A L S
Some templates from The Copy Bar come with
access to exclusive bonus companion overthe-shoulder guides inside The Copy Bar™
Community portal. These template-specific
guides show you more install details & how-to
guides for customizing your template and
uploading it to various marketing platforms, and
help you get the most bang for your buck repurposing the copy throughout a greater funnel.
These tools aren’t applicable to every single
situation in the shop, but if your item came with
this, you got access upon purchase.
“You don’t write because
you want to say something,
you write because you have
something to say.”
- F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
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Template Editing Copy Hacks
Hopefully the color-coding makes things easy: Veuve yellow highlighted sections are where you need to change things up specific
to YOUR business and brand. Auburn orange highlighted sections
are for copywriting info, tips, tricks, and instructions.
A good Control + Find (COMMAND + F on a mac, CNTRL + F
on a PC) will sweep things, too. Simply hit the command, type the
phrase you want to find (ex. [Your Business Name]),, and type what
you want to replace it with (ex. “Ashlyn Writes”). Click “replace all”
and boom.
Common ones you’ll see include:
[Your Business Name]
[Your Name]
[Contact Name] (I recommend not replacing this until you’re installing in like, a ConvertKit or Honeybook, etc.)
[what you do]
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OMG, I LOVE THIS SO MUCH.
Can I forward this template to my
business friends?
No. To be all cool & meta, there are copyRIGHTS on this copyWRITING, and that means you can’t
sell this or pass it along in any way. Don’t be the person that ruins the vibe for everyone else: help us
raise the bar for the entire creative economy, ok?
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TROU BLE SHOOTI NG & FAQ
I H AV E M Y O W N B R A N D VO I C E A N D S T Y L E .
How do I find that, and
infuse it here?
Absolutely. These copywriting templates in fact work best if you add
in your own style. Our philosophy is that know/like/trust factor you’re
working to build with your audience is going to break down the
minute they sniff out an imposter, so expect this template to be more
“themeplate” style: you’ll see voice-y examples, but you’ll understand
the psychological goal and reasoning behind the copywriting formulas.
That’s going to enable you to add in your own flair. The Online Brand
CAN I GET EXTRA EYES & SUPPORT ON THIS?
Is it possible to book Ashlyn
to review my work?
Voice Vibe Quiz will walk you through how to highlight your own voice
Sure thing! That’s what Strategy Calls are for. Book one here and I’ll go
and adjust templates for your business use.
to town on your work, so you can install and launch stat.
B U T L E T ’ S TA L K A B O U T * M Y * B U S I N E S S —
What if this template ends up
not being a good fit?
We get it, sometimes things don’t work out. That’s why we offer a 7-day
no-hassle refund for any reason. You don’t have to show us anything. You
MARKETING CHANGES OVER TIME .
Do I get access to updates?
don’t have to prove anything. We’ll ask you some simple admin questions
to get your refund processed and the funds will be back in your account
within 6 business days. Simply email support@ashlynwrites.com to get
started. Someone from the team will be in touch to serve you within 2
Absolutely. I (Ashlyn, hi) update everything eventually. When we do
business days. We cannot guarantee a German Shepherd won’t make
that, you’ll get an email with the latest-greatest to download and plug
a cameo in any voice or video response. #officedogs! Promise this isn’t
into your arsenal.
some hoop to jump through just ‘cause—we really do want to improve
our products. Your feedback if this wasn’t a fit helps us do just that.
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CONTAC T
W H AT ’ S T H E W O R D , H U M M I N G B I R D ?
We’d love to hear from you.
—
Studio hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, M-F
support@ashlynwrites.com
922 Highway 81 East, Box 265, McDonough, Ga., USA 30253
facebook.com/ashlynwrites
instagram.com/ashlynscarter
ashlynwrites.com
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