Copywriting is the art of influencing your audience using carefully chosen words with the intent of persuading them to do something – now it’s easy to understand copywriting importance right? Buy a product, join a group, contribute to a cause or align with an idea, whichever of these you want your readers to do, writing amazing copy will help you get it done.
Copywriting has but one goal – increasing revenues by boosting sales. Complicating the objectives of copywriting or diluting this all-important goal will only lead you further away from the kind of copy you want to be writing.
But here’s the catch. You can’t directly promote what you want to be done in the copy you write. Instead, you have to engage with the audience, figure out what they want, and present your idea or product as a solution to their problems. How many times have you skipped a YouTube ad? Or trashed an ad leaflet? That is because your mind is tuned to shutting out promotions. Great copy not only finds a way around that block but befriends it and makes it buy into an idea.
On average, every minute:
1. 2.5 million uploads of content occur on Facebook
2. 200 million emails get sent
3. Twitter is opened 300,000 times
In 60 seconds, the internet sees this kind of action, and cutting through the noise to be heard can be a daunting task – effective copy is written to do just that, and it does.
For instance:
An inventive idea in simple, witty words
If you have tried to write copy that can accomplish this, you’d have realized that it isn’t easy. The lobby leading into Godot Media’s office space has this poster hanging on the wall: “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; but making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. “ – Charles Mingus. That’s the spirit we like to breathe into our copywriting services.
Writing amazing copy isn’t magic, and although it might appear to be, it is in reality just a process.
Here are 10 simple yet effective copywriting tips to getting your copy just right:
1. Develop a unique value proposition: Why should your target group pick you over your competitors? It is necessary for you to answer this question through your copy. Are your prices the best there is in the market? Or does your product have one feature that no one else’s does? Whichever it is, ensure that the Unique Selling Proposition takes center stage in your copy.
2. Do your research: Even if your copy is great, it won’t work unless it is tailored to suit the people who actually buy your product. Who are they? What do you know about them? Which issue of theirs can you resolve with your product? What tone of voice are they likely to respond to? The more you know about them the better. All the information you uncover about your potential buyers should be seriously considered while writing the copy.
3. Clear, compact, compelling: Say what you have to say, in the least twisted way possible, and keep the word count to the bare minimum. Even if you are being creative, you have to ensure that everyone in your audience “gets it”. Also, the writing styles of copies and literature are further away from each other than pop music and metal. When writing copy, as discussed earlier on, the goal is to sell something. While you also have to entertain your readers, it is important to focus on persuasion and not get carried away with the writing element.
4. Avoid the bizarre: This one’s a little tricky. Many copy guides indicate that you have to stand out and do something new in order to grab the attention you want, but the question lies in where you should draw that line between what is okay and what your audience will miss completely. A good way of testing ideas is trying them out on a small, control group. Put your idea on paper and show it to your friends and family and you’ll know if it works!
5. Always dish the details: The more informative your copy is, the more persuasive it can be. Making the buy implies that a person has to invest in your idea. When investment comes into the picture, questions come in with it. You need to give your audience a reason to trust you, believe that your product is a good deal and you have to make them want to buy it at that instant. Ensure your copy meets each of these requirements and answers all possible questions they might have.
6. Decide how you want them to feel: The best sellers connect with audiences on an emotional level. When you start writing a copy with an idea, you end up with a nice ad. To take it to the next level, you should start off by defining the feeling you want your audience to experience through your writing, and then work backward to pick the words that can do that. A powerful tool when applied effectively.
7. Dream of her: If you broke down copywriting, you would see that on the receiving end is a bunch of people, essentially a collection of individuals, each of whom needs to be nudged towards buying what you are selling. To simplify things, don’t look at your audience as a whole. Look at just her. You need to woo her and convince her that you are what she needs. Figure out the best way to do that, and you have yourself a sale!
8. Broadcast the benefits: What can you do for your audience? In actuality, that is all that matters, and that is all you have to communicate. List all the benefits – unique ones wherever possible, and weave them into your copy. There are just too many brands out there for you to simply promote your products and the marketing world is changing from “This is who we are” to “How can we help you?”. Use your copy to clearly define unique ways in which your audience can benefit from engaging with you.
9. Headlines rule: Expert copywriters claim that five times as many people read the headline when compared to the body of any write-up. The headline is your meat and bait. Work at really making it shine. Ensure that your headlines precisely describe your content. Use your strongest sellers in your headline and write it in the most seductive manner possible. Make your audience’s fingers itch to click on your links.
10. Tell a story: People learn from stories and connect to them. Stories evoke emotion in people and there’s no better way to engage with an audience. Write your copy in story form and add adorable characters to win people over. To get people to really listen and respond, all you have to do is tell them something interesting, involve them in a real-time story. You could unravel it step-by-step to keep them hooked.
Remember, there are many approaches to copywriting and each style has its own advantages and drawbacks. Your choices should be driven by what your current marketing campaign needs. Let us know if you have any specific queries.