Back in 2024, Katya Varbonova came to me because she needed to send an important and difficult update to her paying subscribers.
The update was to announce that her flagship membership with thousands of paying subscribers was ending.
My task was to make this news feel positive… with Somatic Copy™.
Katya sent me her draft.
Katya’s first draft did what most business owners do when announcing big changes…
It led with the news.
“We’re shutting down the membership…”
When you kick off with the bad news, it immediately feels like a negative update… dysregulating
As soon as you dysregulate your reader’s nervous system, it doesn’t matter how good your copy or the news actually is…
Their body will have already decided… they don’t like it.
Somatic Copy Case Study: How to Share Difficult News Without Backlash
1- Lead with benefits, not the loss
You will give yourself the best possible chance of receiving a positive response when you lift the mood before you deliver the news.
Begin your message by clearly communicating how your service or product will benefit your reader, beyond this change.
The rewrite kicked off with the ‘good news’ frame and showed how that good news will benefit them.
“Good news! These changes will help you make your message famous in 2025!”
2- Easy to follow structure
There was a lot of information to communicate so my rewrite organised the announcement into a numbered list, with standout headings.
I focused on showing what they were gaining, instead of what they were losing, with the biggest win saved for last.
2A- Show the updates as a list
Psychologically, lists create visual attention breaks – making information easier to digest.
Your concentration tails off after the first sentence in a paragraph, so dense paragraphs lose impact.
That’s also why your sales copy and marketing content should be written like this – one sentence per paragraph – for maximum comprehension.
2B- Patterns of three
We list items in threes because three is the minimum number our brains compute as a pattern.
Three is a rhythm that feels complete and memorable (like “Splish, Splash, Splosh”) – calming somatically.
Two feels unfinished and four starts to feel an overwhelming amount to take in.
Avoid dysregulation.
2C- And the order of the three items is important too
Start your list with the second most-beneficial, well-known or valuable item (to the reader) to catch their attention.
Next, the least beneficial, well-known or valuable – hide it in the middle.
The unfinished pattern encourages them to keep reading to the next item.
The last item in the pattern is the most memorable.
The best one goes last.
Leave them on the highest note.
3- Anticipate all potential negative interpretations
Your body interprets a message first.
And then your mind processes the information.
Where the information might create a negative somatic reaction – an unspoken question or concern – the rewrite immediately addressed the thought forming in readers’ minds…
“Now, you might be wondering, what will happen to…?”
Then answered it..
“Which brings me to update number X…”
This way, you prevent dysregulation.
The Results…
“This is an incredible update and it’s got me really excited!”
“Omg is it Christmas already? 🤣”
100% fab feedback!
Katya’s response to me…
“Love you 💪 this feels really huge and having you and your brain gives me the confidence we can really show how to handle communication.
Many copywriters are conversion focused but not people focused like us”.
That’s Somatic Copy™.
Somatic Copy is the method of writing sales copy that attracts your ideal clients to happily buy – and still feel great about that decision tomorrow…
And communicating difficult messages that people respond well to – so you avoid pushback, even when you’re saying no.
Want copy that makes people fall in love with what you do, want what you offer, and say “Thank you, yes” to?
Whether you need…
✅ Sales copy and launch sequences that convert, without triggering buyer’s remorse
✅ Customer service response templates you can give your team for when they need to say “no” – kindly and authoritatively
✅ Price increase notifications, policy changes and other difficult communications that you want to get buy-in, not backlash
Get in touch
Veronica Pullen
Latest posts by Veronica Pullen (see all)
- Somatic Copy Case Study: Turning Katya Varbanova’s Difficult Announcement Into 100% Positive Feedback - April 1, 2026
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- Is Love Silently Vetoing Your Sales? - December 11, 2025
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