Writing can be of any form, but in the world of online marketing, the one form a writer needs to be aware of is Copywriting. Known to be one hard skill to master, copywriting is the backbone of online marketing and is a must if you wish to attract customers.
In simple terms, copywriting is penning down content for publicity or marketing materials. Copywriters write materials or articles with the sole purpose of creating brand awareness online or generating sales and leads. Copywriter encourages action and can help a brand accomplish various goals like email marketing, social media marketing, etc.
But, where do you begin? Copywriting like any other form of writing has a few core principles. If you wish to achieve success with copywriting, you must know the same.
Study and Understand Your Target Audience
As a copywriter, you might think that you are writing for a brand, a product, or a service. But, do you think so?
When you are writing an Instagram post, you are writing it for the brand’s customers. So, it gets important to understand what the target audience wants or is interested in. Why should they read what you write? What is the message you are trying to convey? What is in store for them? Make sure to ask these questions before you start writing.
It is also important to study the various buyer’s profiles and their buying habits etc. Start by visiting similar websites or pages to know what the audience connects with the most. Understand both the needs as well as the desires of the customers.
Know All About the Product or Service
A copywriter should be able to show proof that the product or service they are writing about is truly effective. To convince the target audience, you need to know all about the product or the service you are going to write about.
Learn about the features or the benefits of the product/service before you draft an outline.
Get Yourself Familiar with the Rules of Selling
Be its website content or a sales post for social media, it is important to know the "Rules of Selling."
- Remember that audience does not like to be sold. To avoid such a situation, it is important that the brand connects with the target audience first, and gently introduce the new product or service. Do not apply any sales pitch tactics.
- Understand that people often buy due to emotional reasons. The biggest example of this is chocolate chip cookies. People just buy and relish this delicacy as it makes them feel good. So, make sure what you write appeals to the desires and feelings of your target audience.
- Once a sale is done, logic takes over the emotional reason. So, copywriters should provide a logical reason to justify the customer's purchase as well.
Highlight the Benefits
It is important to highlight the benefits and not just the features. Copywriting involves writing about how a product or a service can improve a customer's life. By doing so, it gets easy for a brand to form a psychological link between the product and its customers.
For example, a clothing brand can highlight the cotton fabric used for their clothing line, but how a customer might look and feel in that clothing is what influences their buying. Inclusion of interesting things about the product/service and how it benefits the customers is what needs to be focused on.
Have an Interesting Start
Copywriting when done right can help capture attention with a headline. It is important to catch the reader's attention in the beginning. If a writer is unable to do so, the rest of the writing is absolute of no use, as no one reads beyond the first two lines if it does not interest them.
While having a catchy headline is important, it is important to keep them reading. Focus on writing attention-grabbing and to-the-point headlines. Also, the headline used should resonate well with the rest of the content you are sharing with your readers.
Using Clear Language
You want your readers to understand what you write about, and feel that it is written just for them. The content needs to be sincere and personal at the same time, and should not sound like a sales pitch.
It is now a proven fact that not everyone fancies a big word or prose. Instead, they prefer reading something written in easy, understandable language, which is at the same level as theirs. The use of the first or second person also helps build that intimacy with the reader, and this is most commonly used in copywriting.
End Your Content with a Call-To-Action
The objective of copywriting is to convince the visitor or a reader to take some action. So, it is important to mention the call to action at the end of a post, an email, or any other marketing material you use.
It can be a link the reader can click or a discount code the customer can use to purchase your new product etc. It is important to keep the CTA clear and to state what exactly you want your reader to do. If you want your customer to click on a link, mention the same. Do not beat around the bush with words. Copywriters also need to mention the USP at the end of the post or the document. It is more like why a particular product or service is unique and is something you need.
Conclusion
Learning about the basics of copywriting is the first step you are taking to becoming a professional copywriter. And, trust me, you do not need a lot of time. With information about anything and everything available at our fingertips now, you can start by observing and trying, and you can be a part of an amazing copywriting team in no time.
