Website Copywriting Playbook — StoryBrand + SUCCESs + Ogilvy

Three frameworks, one division of labor:

StoryBrand (SB7) decides WHAT to say and in what ORDER (page architecture).
Made to Stick (SUCCESs) decides HOW each message is phrased so it lands and is remembered.
Ogilvy supplies the craft rules for headlines, long copy, and factual selling.

Prime directive (Miller): The customer is the hero; the brand is the guide. Any sentence that makes the company the hero ("We're passionate about innovation") gets rewritten around the customer's transformation. Second directive: Clear beats clever, always. If the reader must burn calories to decode it, they leave.

Part 1 — The SB7 Framework as Page Architecture

Every effective story: a CHARACTER with a PROBLEM meets a GUIDE who gives them a PLAN and CALLS them to ACTION that ends in SUCCESS and avoids FAILURE. Map it to a page top-to-bottom:

1. Character (the customer) — Hero section

Define what the customer WANTS in one sentence, related to their survival/thriving (save money, save time, gain status, reduce anxiety, belong). The hero headline states that want or its fulfillment.

Rule: one desire per page. Multiple desires = multiple pages.
The "grunt test": within 5 seconds a stranger must answer — What do you offer? How does it

make my life better? How do I get it? (headline / subline / button).

2. Problem — first section below hero

Three levels; copy should touch all three:

External (the tangible problem): "Invoices go unpaid for months."
Internal (how it makes them feel — this is what people actually buy solutions to):

"You feel awkward chasing clients for money you earned."

Philosophical (why it's just wrong): "Freelancers shouldn't have to be debt collectors."
Optional villain: personify the problem (chaos, busywork, the blank page) — one villain, not a cast.
Template: "Most [segment] struggle with [external]. It leaves you [internal feeling]. We think [philosophical stance]."

3. Guide (the brand) — trust section

The guide shows exactly two things, in this order:

Empathy: "We know what it's like to [pain]" — one authentic sentence, not a paragraph.
Authority/competence: logos, counts, years, results, testimonials — enough to be trusted,

brief enough to keep the spotlight on the customer.

Rule: empathy before authority. Competence without empathy reads cold; empathy without competence reads weak.

4. Plan — "How it works" section

Reduce perceived risk with a named 3-step process plan: "1. Connect your account 2. Set your rules 3. Get paid on time." Three steps always — even complex products compress to three; more steps re-introduce the fear of effort. Optionally add an agreement plan (risk reversals: free trial, money-back guarantee, no lock-in) near the CTA.

5. Call to Action — repeated throughout

Direct CTA: the purchase-path action ("Start free trial," "Book a demo"). One per page,

visually dominant, verb-first, repeated hero + after each major section + page end.

Transitional CTA: the low-commitment alternative for not-ready visitors ("Download the

pricing guide," "Watch 2-min demo") — visually secondary, adjacent to the direct CTA.

Never make the visitor guess the next step; passive buttons ("Learn more" as primary) signal

the brand itself isn't sure.

6. Failure stakes — woven in, one section or less

What it costs to do nothing: "Every month without [product], you lose [quantified cost]." A pinch of salt, not a horror movie — fear copy beyond one clear stake reads manipulative and triggers avoidance.

7. Success — the vision section + closing

Paint the after-state concretely: status gained, problem gone, identity transformed ("Become the freelancer who never chases an invoice"). Show it visually — smiling humans with the result, the clean dashboard, the zero-inbox. This is the aspirational identity: from [current self] to [desired self].

Canonical landing-page section order (SB7 default)

Hero: outcome headline + clarifying subline + direct CTA + transitional CTA + success imagery
Social proof strip (guide authority, minimal)
Problem (external → internal → philosophical, villain named)
Guide (empathy + authority, testimonials)
Plan (3 steps)
Value/feature sections (each tied to success or averted failure)
Stakes (brief) + risk reversal
Final CTA block: repeat headline promise + direct CTA + transitional CTA

One-liner formula (elevator pitch, meta descriptions, bios)

[Problem] + [Solution] + [Result]: "Most freelancers waste hours chasing unpaid invoices. [Product] chases them automatically, so you get paid on time without awkward emails."

Part 2 — Made to Stick: The SUCCESs Filter

Run every headline, section, and CTA through six checks. Sticky = understood, remembered, acted on.

S — Simple. Find the core, compact it. One idea per message; lead with it (inverted pyramid). "If you say three things, you say nothing." Use existing schemas: "Uber for X" transfers a whole model in three words — then differentiate.

U — Unexpected. Break a pattern to earn attention; open a curiosity gap to hold it.

Counterintuitive stat or claim in the hero or section leads: "Your best customers churn first."
Gap headlines: pose the question the section answers. Never clickbait — the payoff must satisfy

the curiosity you opened, or trust dies.

C — Concrete. Abstractions slide off; sensory, specific language sticks.

Replace "streamline workflows" → "turn a 3-hour report into a 10-minute one."
Numbers, objects, named actions. Test: can the reader picture it? If not, rewrite.
Feature pages: every abstract capability gets a concrete miniature scenario.

C — Credible. Belief needs a source:

External: authorities, press, certifications.
Internal: vivid details (detail = truthiness), statistics HUMANIZED ("processes 1M rows —

that's every customer you'll ever have, in one screen").

Testable credentials — let them verify themselves: free trial, live demo, calculator,

"try it with your own data." The strongest credibility on the web is a try-before-believe widget.

E — Emotional. People act for individuals and identities, not aggregates.

One named customer's story beats "10,000 companies."
Appeal to self-interest ("you get…") and to identity ("people like you do things like this").
WIIFY rule: the reader's benefit appears in the first line of every section.

S — Stories. Stories are flight simulators — readers rehearse acting.

Case studies as narrative: struggle → discovery → result (not "Challenge/Solution/Results" boilerplate prose).
Three sticky plots: Challenge (underdog wins — inspires), Connection (bridging a gap —

belonging), Creativity (clever breakthrough — innovation). Pick one per case study.

Beware the Curse of Knowledge: experts write in abstractions because they can't remember

not knowing. Antidote: use customers' verbatim words from reviews/support tickets; read copy aloud to a newcomer.

Part 3 — Ogilvy's Craft Rules

Headlines (Ogilvy: ~5x more people read the headline than the body — if the headline doesn't sell, ~80% of spend is wasted):

Promise a benefit or deliver news; self-interest headlines outperform cleverness.
Include the words that qualify the buyer (product category, audience name) — flag your prospect.
Specific outperforms general; add the number, the timeframe, the place.
Never run a headline that requires the body copy to make sense.
Avoid negatives, puns, and blind headlines; don't be clever at the cost of clear.
Long headlines that say something beat short ones that say nothing (10+ word headlines sold

more in his tests) — but every word must earn its place.

Body copy:

Write to one person, second person, conversational: "as if answering a letter from an intelligent friend."
Facts sell. "The consumer isn't a moron" — respect intelligence; give specifics, not adjectives ("very," "world-class" = filler).
Long copy outsells short WHEN interest is high and the copy stays factual — pricing pages,

product pages, and case studies can and should be thorough; landing pages for cold traffic stay lean.

Captions under images are read more than body text: every image gets a selling caption.
First paragraph ≤ ~11 words of momentum; short sentences, short paragraphs, subheads every

2-3 paragraphs (web: every section scannable by subheads alone).

Kill "we" openings; convert to "you" (audit: your/you should outnumber we/our ~2:1 on any page).

Layout & typography (Ogilvy's print rules, still valid on web):

Image → caption → headline → copy is the natural eye path; don't fight reading gravity.
Serif-vs-sans matters less than: dark text on light background, generous size, real paragraphs.

Never body text over busy imagery; avoid all-caps and reversed-out long text.

One dominant visual with a story appeal ("story appeal" images — the intriguing detail that

pulls the eye) beats collages.

Part 4 — Ready-to-Use Templates

Hero headline formulas (pick by situation):

Outcome promise: [Achieve desired result] without [pain/objection] — "Get paid on time without chasing clients."
Identity transformation: Become [aspirational identity] — "Become the agency clients never leave."
Qualified category claim: The [category] for [audience] + benefit subline.
Unexpected/stat lead: [Counterintuitive fact]. [Product] fixes it.
Question gap: Still [painful old way]? + subline with new way.
Concrete before/after: From [bad state] to [good state] in [timeframe].

Subline formula: what it is + who it's for + how it delivers the headline's promise, ≤ 20 words.

CTA button rules: verb-first, outcome-flavored, 2-4 words: "Start saving time," "Get my plan," "Book a demo." Never "Submit," "Learn more" (as primary), or "Sign up" without a value word. First person ("Get MY plan") often lifts; test it. Repeat the same primary CTA text on every instance on the page — one action, one label.

Section copy pattern (every feature/value section): Subhead = benefit claim (SUCCESs-filtered) → 1-2 sentence concrete scenario → proof element (stat, quote, or screenshot with caption) → optional micro-CTA.

Microcopy near CTAs (objection killers): "No credit card required · Cancel anytime · Set up in 5 minutes" — pick the top 2-3 real objections and answer them in ≤ 8 words each.

Full-page rewrite procedure:

Extract the customer's want, 3-level problem, and success state (interviews/reviews).
Draft the SB7 section order with placeholder claims.
Write 5+ hero headline candidates from the formulas; SUCCESs-filter; pick the clearest.
Write sections with the section copy pattern; enforce you:we ratio.
Ogilvy pass: cut adjectives, add facts/numbers, caption every image, tighten first lines.
Grunt test with a stranger; ship; A/B the hero headline first (highest-leverage element).

StoryBrand, Made to Stick & Ogilvy — Website Copywriting Playbook