This one might raise some eyebrows. Stay with me.
I’ve been in the copywriting and marketing world long enough to have studied the greats — Gary Halbert, Eugene Schwartz, David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins. The principles they discovered about human persuasion are remarkably consistent across all of them, and the more I’ve worked in this space the more I’ve noticed something interesting.
The best copywriting principles aren’t in conflict with biblical principles. In many ways they’re expressions of the same underlying truths about human nature.
Consider the concept of empathy as the foundation of persuasion.
The best direct response copywriters will tell you the same thing: before you can move someone, you have to understand them. Not your product. Not your offer. Them. Their fears, their desires, their midnight thoughts, the specific way they experience the problem you solve. The copy that converts is the copy that makes the reader feel seen — often more deeply seen than they expected to be.
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
The ministry of Jesus was marked above almost everything else by radical empathy. He consistently met people where they were — not where He wished they were, not where they should have been — but where they actually were. The woman at the well. The tax collector in the tree. The disciples who were afraid in the storm. He understood what was actually going on before He spoke into it.
Good copy does the same thing.
Or consider the principle of specificity.
Vague promises don’t convert. “I’ll help you grow your business” moves nobody. “I’ll help you book five qualified sales calls in the next thirty days without running a single ad” moves the right person immediately. The more specific the promise, the more real it becomes in the reader’s mind, and the more credible it sounds.
Proverbs is one of the most specific books in the Bible. It doesn’t say be wise in general. It says when you do this specific thing, this specific outcome follows. Specificity is how wisdom becomes actionable. Specificity is how copy becomes compelling. The principle is the same.
Or consider the concept of transformation as the core of the offer.
The best copywriters will tell you that you’re never really selling a product or service. You’re selling a transformation — the difference between who the customer is now and who they could be after working with you. The product is just the vehicle. The transformation is the point.
The gospel is nothing if not a story of transformation. Not behavior modification. Not incremental improvement. Radical, fundamental transformation of identity. The message that has moved more people than any message in human history is a transformation story.
I’m not saying copywriting is sacred. I’m saying the principles that make communication compelling are rooted in truths about human nature that show up everywhere — including in scripture — because they’re true.
Which means as a faith-based business owner, you don’t have to choose between marketing that works and marketing that honors your values. The things that make copy compelling — empathy, specificity, a genuine transformation offer — are deeply consistent with what you already believe about people and how they’re meant to be served.
Use them without apology.