Copywriting is one of the most sought-after skills. In fact, nearly every business has now shifted its aim from traditional marketing to using digital strategies to attract customers with the help of skilled copywriters.
Copywriters can help your brand by creating quality content that helps with SEO, brand awareness, leads, and sales.
Can you believe that one famous copywriter sold an airplane with just a direct mail Ad, unbelievable right?
I have covered a lot more about him, his strategies, and how you can implement them when writing your own articles below.
So if you’re looking to make a career in copywriting or if you are already one and want to enhance your skills, here are 9 simple but powerful tips with examples to improve your copywriting.
Table of Contents
Research like Your Content Depends on It
The most important aspect to writing great copy that converts is conducting thorough research on the topic.
Research everything under the sun about your topic. Research the brand, the company, the customers, the pain points, the competitors, and when you feel that you’re finally done with your research, research some more!
As the Father of Advertising, David Ogilvy once said
“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.”
David Ogilvy
How do you conduct research in order to understand the sentiments and language of your customers?
You may have heard about creating a Buyer Persona, however, a standard buyer persona may not give you the entire picture of what your actual customers are like.
Thankfully, there are plenty of online options to understand your customer’s pain points which will give you insight into how your customers talk and behave in reality.
You need to go vernacular and speak the language of your customers. That’s how your copy will convert.
Example to understand your real customers’ pain points
For example, If I want to create a landing page for a fitness brand that sells custom dietary plans for its customers, I would visit amazon.com and search for nutrition and fitness books.
I would then go through the top 50-100 reviews (I know it’s a lot of work) to understand the customers’ pain points, the way the user writes, what they liked about the book and how it helped them achieve their fitness goals.
Once I have soaked all that information, I’ll be in a better position to write my copy with the outcomes and benefits that my target audience needs in their life.
Speaking of research, here are the results of a poll I conducted on Linkedin on the most profitable skill for the next 5 years. Copywriting won, obviously!
Write Multiple Short, Concise Headlines
The most important part of your copy is the headline. It is the determining factor that will motivate your reader to read the subheadline and the rest of the content.
Your headlines should intrigue your reader, it should grab attention. It should make them stop in their tracks and pique their curiosity.
Size Does Matter – Swap the Long for the Short
Trim down your long sentences into short crisp copies. Humans and search engines alike, both love interesting unique content.
So if you can say something without repeating it over and over again, you have struck gold.
You can also try trimming down long sentences by splitting up or combining two sentences together.
Time yourself
One way of increasing your copywriting speed is by setting a timer for yourself.
This will help you avoid procrastination and come up with your content really quickly. When you’re under the clock and set quick copy targets for yourself, it enhances your creative juices, banishes writer’s block, and increases productivity.
Keep practicing and give it a try. You will just love the outcome of this copywriting exercise.
Talk about Benefits Over Features
People are emotional beings. Products are not bought for their features but for what they can do for you. When you write copy, focus on the benefits first.
Practice the Slippery Slide Copywriting Method
The slippery slope was a concept introduced by Joseph Sugarman.
Who is Joseph Sugarman?
Joseph Sugarman was a copywriting marketing legend.
An electrical engineer turned marketing expert, he used direct marketing to sell products.
He is also the founder of the direct mail company JS&A and is popularly known for writing one of the best copywriting handbooks of all time “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook”
What is the slippery slide method to copywriting?
“Your readers should be so compelled to read your copy that they cannot stop reading until they read all of it as if sliding down a slippery slope.”
The slippery slide means writing the first line of your copy in such a way that it encourages the reader to read the second line and the second line’s purpose is to encourage the reader to read the third line and the process continues with each line.
A literal slippery slide until the reader is encouraged to make a purchase or desired action for your brand.
Example of the Slippery Slide Copywriting Method
Here is a snippet from the book ‘The Adweek Copywriting Hand Book’.
This is a snippet from the genius himself.
If you’re interested in copywriting, then you should purchase this book. It’s full of his copywriting strategies along with actual advertisements that worked for him. Adding the Amazon details below
Use Simple Language
When writing content, using simple, easy-to-understand language that can be understood by just about anyone should be the aim. Avoid using jargon, or unwanted sentences. Keep your copy simple and concise.
It should be as clear as a bright blue day. No unnecessary words, paragraphs, or lines that convey the same message.
Forget about the word count if you want to write copy that can sell.
Exercise to help you keep your copy simple
Once you have finished writing and editing your article, make it a habit of reading it to find opportunities to make it simple.
If you have used complex words, try using Grammarly to find synonyms that are easier to understand.
The more you do this, the more automatic this process will become.
Add Personality to your writing
Don’t ever compromise on your brands’ unique personality when writing. No one wants to read content that sounds robotic or scripted.
When writing for a brand or a product, speak to the stakeholders and flesh out a tone and voice for that brand.
Exercise to add personality to your writing
Imagine the personality your brand would have if it was a human being. Pick out specific personality traits for the brand.
For example, is your brand serious, funny, flirtatious, classy, wise, or conservative?
Make a list of personality traits that best match your brand.
Jot down some key emotions after you have selected the personality trait. For example, Happy, Sad, Confused, Confident, Excited.
Now write phrases for each key emotion. This will flesh out the complete spectrum of your brand personality, which will in turn bring life to your writing.
Hyper Edit Your Articles
I call it hyper editing because when you edit your articles at least 6-7 times before publishing, that’s when you create something beautiful.
Hyper editing can turn your content from bland to breathtaking.
Exercise to improve your editing:
If you want to practice editing, try going through some of your old work and edit it to make it crisp and concise.
If you don’t have a lot of your own articles to work with, try editing other people’s content.
Summary
Here is a quick summary of the 9 copywriting tips to improve your content
- Research a lot!
- Write multiple headlines
- Size does matter. Keep it short, crisp and concise
- Time yourself to boost your creative juices
- Focus on benefits over features
- Slippery Slide – Your content should compel readers to move to the next line
- Simple language works best
- Add personality to your writing. Say no to bland words.
- Hyper edit your articles
Copywriting is a lot of work but the results are just as rewarding. However, if you don’t want to do all the copywriting yourself and need a digital marketing freelancer that specializes in copy that converts. Get in touch with me by hitting the Whatsapp Button.
Odell Dias is the founder of RightlyDigital.com where Online Marketing concepts are made easy. He has over 6 years of experience in the Digital Marketing industry, helping brands and individuals alike to achieve their marketing goals. He is known as one of the best digital marketing freelancers for small-to-medium-sized businesses.
