What is Copywriting?
Copywriting implies writing promotional material in the form of advertisements, sales letters, web pages etc. The main objective of copywriting is to seduce the customer, driving sales.
The Salesman reaches out to customers one at a time. On the other hand, a Copywriter speaks to a massive audience at the same time.
No matter how good your product is, if it isn’t promoted correctly, NOBODY will buy it.
The Secret: A Skilled Copywriter writes a compelling story while convincing customers that a certain product will help in a certain scenario.
Apply Copywriting skills well and there will be no limit in the growth of your business.
However, if you are stuck writing generic emails, ads, and sales letters, you can expect to spend the rest of your entrepreneurial career struggling to make a single sale.
On the Table of contents, you will find some of the essential points to Become a Master Copywriter.
Table of Content:
- Introduction
- Knowledge is Power
- Target Audience
- Headings
- Closing Statement.
Know your Product.
To explain your product’s benefits to your users, you need to know the product well. If it is your product, you are already aware of its pros and cons, but if you are working for someone else, then in-depth research is essential.
Take your time to understand it well. To creating a compelling copy, you must be aware of all the aspects of the product. When you go through the features of your product in detail, you can conclude which of them will stand out and must be included in your copy. List down all possible features to ensure you do not miss out on any.
Ask yourself what makes this product unique, and why will my target audience purchase it?
Pro Tip: While studying the product, keep making notes of the features that you come along.
How will you Describe the Product?
Firstly, as a copywriter, you need to imagine that you are describing the product to your potential customer. “Speak their language”, use their expressions and attend to their concerns. Come up with a short and sweet description of what the product is. Imagine a scenario where you are dealing with a customer, what points would you want him to know?
These are the essential things about your product and do not require much thinking.
Here you can see a Tampons Advertisement from the UK that stands for a good example
2017 LOLA New York Subway Advertisement | Source: Adweek
What is your Product USP?
To beat your competitor’s product, you must describe what’s unique about your product.
Why would buyers switch to your product?
If the buyers found something special that your product offers and others fail to, they will quickly switch. To do this in a masterly way you need to study and acknowledge your competitors USP. Only then you can communicate your Product in the most Advantageous way.
Dominos’s USP | Source: Domino’s Pizza Singapore
Domino’s Markets itself guaranteeing a Pizza in your doorsteps in less than 30M and if such doesn’t happen, they offer the customer a Free Regular Pizza.
Not only Domino’s offers high-quality service and products, home hot deliveries but they go further and offer something that triggers the consumer to if not adopt the brand as standard surely to give it a go.
Pleasure or Pain: What’s your Focus?
The only two reasons behind people purchasing your product are whether it provides them pleasure or take away the pain. This being Acknowledge, there are two ways of describing your product.
Focusing on the pleasure it provides means you are considering the favourable option. On the other hand, when you focus on the pain, you help them understand the problem they are dealing with. More often than not, the latter attracts customers.
As a copywriter you should firstly, describe the pain or problem and then explain how your product can help them get rid of it. If your audience found the issue relatable, they will be interested in purchasing your product.
Attending to Consumer Behaviour Analysis focusing on Solving Pains generally is more efficient than aiming for the pleasure principle, but as you will understand with the discourse of this article and with the ads below some Pleasure Principle has also very strong results when it’s well done.
1953 Pall Mall Advertisement | Source: Stanford Education
In the 50s the Tobacco Industry in the US tried to address some public concerns in regards to the health problems arising from tobacco. Pall Man here addresses the Pain Principle that is solving the consumer concern about getting is Throat Scratched with a fake Diagram trying to state that the bigger length Pall Mall smokes filtered more than an ordinary smoke and therefore, were milder (the opposite of harsh) giving some peace of spirit to the consumer. The Use of a Young Affluent Individual in the Ad gives some credibility to the ad as well as the colour choice etc.
1967 Camel Advertisement | Source: Stanford Education
The Ultimate Affordable Pleasure you Deserve. That’s what this Campaign is all about. The Individual in the ad is having a break from work and having the time of his life while smoking a Camel Cigarettes proudly stating that he “would walk a mile for a Camel” and the hole and tear on his shoes are presented as proof of his statement. The powerful copy below the Packet of Cigarettes entices the target audience to try Camel to understand what they’re missing.
Why should Customers buy your Product?
This is the point where you tell your customers about the benefits of your product.
No matter how unique it is, if it doesn’t help or benefit them, they will not purchase it. Keep writing all the possible benefits that your product offers. Once you finish, choose the ones that are most relevant to your target audience.
A skilled copywriter while presenting its product, will always do it from the Point of View (POV) of the target audience.
Conduct a Market Research to understand what are they focused on when looking for your products/services and make it clear enough
1996 UK Daihatsu Advertisement | Source: 95octane.com
Give more Emphasis to Benefits.
The Majority of People are more concerned about the benefits that the features of your product provide. Merely listing down the functionalities will not help you increase sales.
As discussed above, you must list all possible features along with their benefits. Once you finish sort them down and choose the top of them and make sure you put more emphasis on the benefits. People care more about how the product is beneficial for them.
No one is interested in knowing about the features, but they are interested in the benefits they will reap because of them. Make it a point to sell benefits rather than putting efforts in selling features.
Always remember that you need to create your strategy keeping in mind what the AUDIENCE wants.
The Objective is to fully capture the attention of the reader, if he’s interested and not bored by your copy then he advances to another stage of the Marketing Funnel where you can present the full list of specifications, features and extras your product has and that he can check if he’s engaged.
Understanding your Audience Requirements.
Once you have an in-depth knowledge of your product, the next step is understanding your target audience. Before that, it must be clear in your head who exactly are you targeting. If you blindly go for product promotion without understanding their needs and requirements, you will surely disappoint yourself.
In copywriting it is essential to understand that the method of selling is profoundly affected by the people you are selling to. Your entire approach to writing changes based on your target audience. Therefore, ask yourself who you are targeting and under what age group.
During copywriting, you need to focus on the emotions related to your audience. Whether it’s fear, excitement, hope, etc. all these factors decide whether or not your efforts are worth the time. You need to write from the perspective of your audience and what matters the most to them.
Source: Hollensen, Svend – Global Marketing | Pearson 2016
A Classic Academic Example is the Drakkar Noir Fragrance from Guy Laroche Brand. The Same Product, two different advertisements and copies. Each one adapted to a different audience.
Study Consumer Behaviour.
Firstly, you need to know about your current customers. Keep an eye on all the people who are currently purchasing your product. In this manner, you get a better idea of who you need to target.
Once you do identify, ask yourself about the type of customers you would like to attract. If you know the ones you wish to attract, you can set your strategy accordingly.
After a detailed customer study, you will be able to picture your ideal customers. Then answer the following question.
What does your ideal customer look like and what he expects?
Now you are certain about your customer. The next step is to know what appeals to them the most. Conduct a survey and ask them questions regarding the features of the product they find appealing enough. Make sure you do not miss out on those features.
Pro Tip: Build a Marketing Persona for your target audience. Buffer prepared an amazing guide that you can use to Build your own Marketing Persona.
Developer Marketing Persona Template | Source: Xtension
Are your Heading Appealing Enough?
Let’s be honest, no one specifically read ads. We just read many things, and sometimes an advertisement with a Catchy Headline attracts us, right?
Headings play a considerable role when it comes down to writing a successful copy. You cannot expect your product to sell with dull and boring headlines. Every time you come across an article, blog post, or even a newspaper, what persuades you to read the content? Catchy headlines, right?
People will be excited to know more about the product if the headlines attract them. Do not write the first thing that pops up in your head.
Winning the Battle for Eyeballs.
The Heading is the biggest weapon a copywriter has at his disposal in the war for attention. Get it right and you will be rewarded with a temporarily captive audience. This will maximize the opportunity of capturing leads and/or make conversions.
So where do we start? You can roughly divide headlines into three categories:
- Promising news.
- Arousing curiosity.
- Offering a benefit.
In Terms of Efficiency: Benefits > News > Curiosity.
This means that in general, headlines that convey Benefits have better results than News and the ones that focus on the news have better results than Curiosity.
Combining the 3 of them in one will grant you the best results in terms of responsiveness bringing you closer to a become a copywriting master.
Make a List of Headings.
Firstly, start with listing down all possible headline ideas you have in your mind. Do not miss out on anything. Once you finish writing, go through each one of them and analyze them properly. If you were in the place of the customer, what would attract you the most? Think it through and make the decision.
Write a Unique Headline.
Do not merely use your competitor’s attention-seeking headline after making certain modifications. Try your best to come up with a unique and appealing headline of your own.
It wouldn’t take long before a person loses interest and leave. Make sure your heading retains the readers. A good headline always makes the reader think!
Don’t forget about the basics. Always make your heading in accordance with your target audience.
Practice Writing a Heading.
You’re stuck. you can’t come up with something and you have too many other things to do to be just sitting there. Follow this Heading Breakthrough Process:
- Complete the sentence: My product helps my customers because it…
Example: My product helps my customers because it helps them reduce more body fat while working out - Cut everything up to and including “it”:
Example: Helps them reduce more body fat while working out - Make it Personal: change “them” for “you”:
Example: Reduce more body fat when you are working out. - Include Urge & Curiosity:
Example: How to turn your Body into a Fat-Burning Machine when you are working out.
Use Numbers in your Headlines.
To attract the Reader’s Attention, try to use numbers in your list. People are more curious about lists it also gives the impression of content that’s easier to read and comprehend.
Other than that, you can also arise their curiosity by asking a question. The more relatable they find it, the better your chances of selling gets.
Examples are:
– Top 10 Copywriting Tips
– 15 Scientific Backed Copywriting Techniques
– 20 Essential Sales Techniques
You might be thinking, so why does the World Marketing Forum has such a Simple Heading such as Copywriting: A Beginners Guide the thought behind it is that the majority of the Articles posted with this catchy headings is that it compromises them in regards to what they’re going to cover and often waste the time of the readers who are looking for an Educational Approach.
The majority of user when searching for copywriting they want to improve their writing.
The users already went across all the other titles in the example above and they found them shallow and incomplete.
This is the World Marketing Forum USP. The audience, marketing persona and consumer behaviour guides the way a copywriter produces content.
The objective is always the same, Maximize the user experience, traffic and conventions. Just different techniques are used. And our own example should also guide you to not follow the crowd, but to build the pieces according to your own specifications.
Be Specific.
Every time a customer comes across your headline, he should get an idea about what your product is.
If your headline speaks in a generalized way, no one will take it seriously. Be as specific as you possibly can while writing them.
Don’t be like an airplane pilot on his first day trying to give coordinates to the control tower being vague. Go Straight to the point and be as specific as you can get. Your goal is to stimulate the reader to click into your piece and then to find exactly the information his looking for. That helps the User Experience (UX) and User Interaction (UI) maximizing the likelihood of converting the user into a customer. If your work is Online, then this becomes mandatory as the SEO Algorithms privilege this factors more than brute traffic going into your website.
We have prepared a Comprehensive Guide on SEO if you’re already thinking ahead and trying to match copywriting skills to digital optimization.
Source: 9gag
Don’t be to Formal.
While copywriting, it is essential to engage your audience. Don’t just throw facts on their faces; try to engage them by interacting with them through your words.
Always imagine that you are interacting with your customer face to face while writing, and you will end up with exciting and engaging content. Also, be clear about the message you intend on delivering to your audience. In between being creative and writing compelling content, do not forget to stick to the message.
Make it a point to write down the answers to all the possible questions that can arise in their heads. In order to make a sale, you should cover all the possible aspects your customers can think about. This is why thinking from their perspective is important.
As a copywriter, you must be flexible. Do not stick to any set format. Keep writing and changing as and when required.
Closing Statement.
If you are a complete beginner to copywriting, then don’t worry. Just go through the above tips and learn. It will take time to learn and grow, but you surely will. Just never forget to keep the objective and your target audience in mind while writing.
Conduct in-depth research before writing the copy. All successful copywriters spend more time researching than writing the actual copy. This is because the more knowledge you have about what sells, the easier your task becomes.
Keep in mind that your initial ideas won’t be that good, but soon you will get better. Don’t think much since the only way to get better at it is to start doing it, and now after this guide your first lines should already get close to the Master Copywriters.
