Copywriting is the process of creating text for websites, blogs, brochures, social media and everything in between. There are a few different types including SEO copywriting, website copywriting, and social copywriting. Everything you read is copy and as such it is well understood that there is copywriting and then there is great copywriting.
Great copywriting relies on a lot of things, but most of all it is important to apply attention to detail with all of your content. Think clearly about what it is that you are creating and refine the text until it is perfect.
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Who Is Your Target Audience
Before setting pen to paper – or fingers to keypad – writers must first know who their target audience is wholly and completely. What you say will vary greatly depending on who you are talking to.
Specifically you should want to consider your audience’s age, financial bracket, gender, relationship status. For example, if you are selling bespoke wedding dresses you aren’t going to be talking to sixty year old men who enjoy fishing, or even younger engaged couples who are on a budget.
This comes in even more handy if you are writing SEO copywriting or website copywriting, where your content is even more likely to find its audience. Find out who your audience is and do your best to know everything about them, and then write your content.
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Attention Grabbing Headline
Next you need to think about how to grab your reader’s attention. A flashy title will go a long way in ensuring the highest return on your content, which is especially important if you want your hard work to pay off.
A good headline should pique someone’s interest. The headline shouldn’t tell your audience everything they need to know but rather create intrigue.
When writing the next headline, consider applying these tips:
- Give your audience the solution (How to get results fast…)
- Phrase it like a question (Have you ever?…)
- Target your audience (Attention home buyers!)
- Present it as a list (5 ways to make…)
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Use The Correct Tone of Voice
When speaking to your readers, you must make sure your copy has the correct tone of voice. Tone of voice is a method of determining how to speak to your readers – will they respond to professional and serious writing or fun and colloquial language.
Once you know who your audience is, this should be relatively simple. Just imagine the type of language that you would use to talk to that person if they were right in front of you.
The only trick here is to make sure that the language you use is conversational and approachable, and easily accessible to the reader no matter their experience.
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Make Your Copy Is Readable
This goes hand in hand with tip number three – in that your priority in creating copy is to make sure it is accessible to your readers.
There are simple steps to this task. Making sure your grammar and spelling is up to par, that you are using legible fonts, and that the text is big enough to read is first. Other best practices include keeping your sentences below 25 words and your paragraphs to 2-3 sentences.
Primarily the goal here is to make sure you are not overcomplicating your content with run-on sentences and filler jargon that adds nothing of value to your content.
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Sell The Solution Not The Product
Selling a product or service comes down to a lot more than just describing the product and what it does. You need to make the leaps for your clients as to how it can positively impact their life.
So if you are telling your reader about a brand new camera with a new zoom lens, you want to be sure to tell them how it will capture their favourite musician on stage with clarity. The reader doesn’t care that the camera has a zoom lens, they care that it will make their concert snaps even more amazing.
So make sure the feature is clearly laid out, but don’t stop there – tell them how it will fix a problem.
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Create A Clear Call-To-Action
A call-to-action, or CTA, is the thing that makes your content worth it. You want your readers to read your content and be motivated to explore further or buy something. If there is no direction on how to do that, this process is interrupted and likelihood is that you have lost that customer.
It can be helpful to write your call-to-action first, so you can really angle your writing to support it, and make the CTA that much stronger.
Copywriting: Don’t Complicate It
Copywriting is simple enough as long as you follow these general guidelines. The best way to ensure your copy delivers your message effectively is to proofread, keep it simple, and keep it conversational.
Many people find copywriting to be a lot of work and relatively difficult, and employ copywriter services to help them. Especially when it can become more complicated if you are doing SEO copywriting or website copywriting.
But at the end of the day if you keep it simple, you can create great effective copywriting.
