Copywriting isn’t about promoting your products and services. Keep on describing their features and benefits, and trust us, you’ll hardly get any sales. Why?!
Because the art of copywriting goes much deeper than that. Effective copy offers value, engages the reader, builds trust and establishes credibility. Effective copy isn’t about your products and services… it is about your readers, your target audience, their needs and their pain points.
Yes, the ultimate goal is to sell your business, but your words should focus on ‘Them’ and once you have their attention, they will buy soon or later – it all depends on how you set up your sales funnel, but that’s a topic of another day.
Anyway, let’s get back to copy. Copy includes everything and not just the content on your website pages. Blogs, product descriptions, marketing emails, ads – anything that advertises something falls under the broad realm of copy.
So how do you make your copy attractive?
Jump to your favourite topic
Consider the following essential elements and master your website copywriting and content development skills.
1. Research
Research is a two-step process.
- Identify what makes you stand out, i.e., you exploit the benefits of your products and highlight the same in your copy.
- Figure out where your competitors lack and use that to your advantage.
The first step is actually the foundation for your content development and website copywriting campaigns. What are the benefits of your products and what makes them stand out? For customers, this may be valuable if you’re addressing their needs in one way or another. So your copy must clearly explain how your product or service helps your customers by focusing on the pain points that it addresses. But this can only be done when you yourself know and understand your products in detail. Only then can you determine how your target audience will relate to them.
Now determine how you differentiate yourself from the competition. Conduct thorough research on the competition, delving into their products and services in great detail. Now figure out how you’re better than them and then begin working on your copy.
Website copywriters can research your products as well as your competition, effectively putting the information they gathered in all the content that they create.
2. Audience
Spend time researching your target audience. Remember the rule: 20% of your potential customers generate 80% of your revenues. Who are these 20%? This is what you find out as you research and understand your audience. Evaluate their needs, personality traits, behavior and buying styles. Determine their attitude, preferences and purchasing power. Consider several demographic factors and come up with a buyer persona of the 20% customers that are the most loyal. Now address these customers through your copy. Find out where they are and ensure that your content reaches them.
When creating a profile, do include the following essential traits.
- Age
- Sex
- Ethnicity
- Family Status
- Occupation
- Income
- Purchasing Power
- Interests
What if you don’t have enough resources or time for comprehensive research? Hire web copywriters and content marketers to do the job for you. Share your goals, values, products, services and other necessary details with them, and they will come up with buyers’ personas for your target audience.
3. Title
- 80% of the visitors only read the headline.
- Headlines are known to create traffic variations by as much as 500%.
The point is that your headlines must be compelling and engaging, and there is no other way around it. You must learn to come up with effective titles. In fact, a research claims that 50% of the time that you spend on content development should be devoted to the headlines. After all, they determine the number of sales you will make.
Come up with a headline that grabs attention from the very first word and explains what the rest of the content is about.
Moz divides headlines into 5 main types:
- Normal
Example: Best Ways to Generate Leads - Question
Example: What Are the Best Ways to Generate More Leads? - How-To
Example: How to Generate More Leads - Number
Example: 10 Best Ways to Generate More Leads - Reader – Addressing
Example: What Do You Need to Do to Generate More Leads
How do you form them? Follow these key steps when developing headlines.
- Think numbers – simply because headlines that include numbers are shared 73% times more
- Ponder over why people should read your content – add words like lessons, ideas, facts or tips
- Focus on the four Us of writing a catchy headline: Unique, Ultra Specific, Urgency, Usefulness
- Structure the headlines properly
- Practice – because that is the only way you can come up with power-packed headlines
Seems complex? Check the power and effectiveness of your headlines through tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer and AMI Institute’s Headline Checker.
4. Length
How long should the content be? It depends from type to type. But experts that offer content writing services suggest that your article should be of 1,900 words or so to guarantee a higher rank on the SERPs. In any case, it must be of a 1,000 words at least, especially when SEO is the focus.
Of course, this varies depending on your chosen platform, purpose and content format. So for instance, when you’re writing a Facebook post, you wouldn’t put in 2,000 words; in this case, you should limit yourself to 40 characters. What about videos? 2-minute videos are more preferred than others.
And by the way, there is an ideal length for headlines as well: it should contain 6 words.
5. CTAs
Great, so you’ve come up with a compelling headline, followed by engaging and valuable content. But all of this will be pointless until you include a CTA.
Your ultimate goal is to get your audience to respond in some way or another. And that is why you MUST add CTAs – CTAs that are
- Clear
- Concise
- Compelling
- Action-oriented
- Create a sense of urgency
Write in active voice because it is action-oriented and passive voice will only add remoteness. Create some urgency and place your CTAs strategically.
Seems hard? Do the prep work, and you’ll be able to produce powerful copy. Take calculated risks, learn, test and improve. Put in the effort and you will come up with a kick-ass copy.
References:
- 5 Data Insights into the Headlines Readers Click
- 5 Steps To Writing Compelling Headlines To Attract More Customers
- What’s the Ideal Blog Post Length for SEO?
- The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research
- 11 Characteristics of Persuasive Call-to-Action Buttons
Featured image source: Freepik
