8 essential tips to improve your copywriting
There are lots of great tips that can improve your copywriting, but here are 8 that are essential:
1. Know what you’re talking about
Do your research.
And not just on the page or on the screen.
Talk to people.
You’ll be amazed at all the great stories your clients have about their product or service, which they don’t recognize as great stories.
For instance, there was this great backstory for how a company came to discover, acquire, and market a pain cream, but they weren’t using it.
It humanized the company and triggered lots of positive emotions about the product, so I took it and ran with it.
Spend a lot of time in research — and the better copywriters — immerse themselves into that world/eco-system of your audience.
What words do they use?
How do they speak?
What do they wear?
What are the typical age ranges?
Are they geographically concentrated?
How do they make buying decisions?
Where do they shop?
How do they shop?
What are their pain points?
How can I solve them?
Will my solution be of value (enough) to pay me? (if you’re selling something)
I could keep writing…
Hello, new control!
2. Get them nodding
Too often, copywriters want to start convincing right off the bat. But re member, you need to establish trust first… but you don’t have a long time to do it. So often it’s best to lede with a statement that demonstrates “We’re just like you — we get you!”
For example, if your target audience are fans of business self-help, you might lede with “There’s no such thing as luck.” Why? Because it’s a mantra they believe in, and if you believe it, too, they feel sympatico.
Or if you’re after more traffic for a job-hunting site, you might try something like “We all hated our jobs. That’s why we founded copylovers.com… so that we, and you, can love coming to work every day.”
3. We’re all in the same business: solving problems
There’s a (true) copywriting cliche that says you should showcase benefits over features — “Don’t tell me about your grass seed; tell me about my lawn.”
But showcasing solutions is even more powerful than showcasing benefits.
The “love coming to work every day” line above is an example of that. Hating your job is a problem. Loving your new job is a solution. Yes, you do need to know the features of the products or service, but if you focus on your audience rather than on what you’re selling, and understand what problems they are facing, then you can present your pro duct as a solution, which is much more powerful than showing benefits and hoping they connect the dots.
4. Understand how your audience interacts physically with the copy
Think about how your audience interacts with the finished piece.
If it’s online copy, read up on eye-tracking and mouse-tracking studies to understand how your readers are likely to scan the screen.
If it’s a billboard, print the design on a regular sheet of paper and hang it on the wall, then glance at it for one second from across the room and ask yourself if you’ll remember it, and be able to act on it, half an hour later.
If it’s a postcard for, say, a political campaign or charity, use the front to grab their attention quickly and make them want to turn it over to look at the back, where you give your pitch.
5. Demonstrate whenever possible
Lots of folks think Elisha Otis invented the elevator. But he didn’t. He invented a braking system to make elevators safe.
His marketing event to generate sales was held at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York, where he set up a simple elevator consisting of a platform and an open scaffolding for the shaft. Then he had himself hauled up on the elevator, along with some crates and kegs to make it heavy, and when he was at the top he had someone cut the cable.
Naturally, this produced shock among the crowd as the platform began to fall, but then his brake brought it to a safe stop with man and goods unharmed. This demo and the subsequent buzz made him extremely wealthy.
Find ways to do this in your copy, whether it’s testimonials, simple charts and graphs, video embeds, whatever you can do, if you can show rather than promise, you’re ahead of the game.
6. Make the copy easy to fall into
I like to limit the first paragraph to one line if possible. And subsequent paragraphs to an average of 2 or 3 lines. If it’s a multi-page piece, you can get longer on back pages, but not much.
In any case, your audience makes a subconscious judgment before starting to read… does this look easy and quick to comprehend, or does it seem dense? Up front, lot s of white-space and one-sentence paragraphs are your friend.
7. Tell them what to do
I’m continually amazed at the number of advertisements I see that omit a call to action.
Of course, if you’re on campaigns for products that rely heavily on branding — stuff that’s all really pretty much the same and depends on a perception of cool, such as soft drinks or running shoes — then OK, you can have great success with non-actionable copy such as “Just Do It” or “I’m Loving’ It!” or “It’s the Real Thing”.
But most of your jobs are going to require that you get very clear about what the audience needs to do.
For example, on political campaigns I always include a closer that tells people to go vote on a specific date, and to put it on their calendars right now so they don’t forget — candidates have the date burned into their brains and often don’t stop to think that many voters aren’t aware of the date — and if possible I’ll add the phone number of the party’s ride-sharing program.
8. Focus on how people feel
We make decisions emotionally. Our intellects come later, evaluating the decision our emotions have made for us and either overriding it or modifying it or giving it the green light.
So, for example, if you’re writing copy for a cleaning service, sure, you want all that info about dependability and experience and attention to detail, but that’s not your lede or even the focus of the ad. The focus is the emotions people feel when they see the result of the service: “You’ll LOVE coming home to a clean house!”
Bonus tip — Include pleasant surprises
Save something cool and useful for the end. It can’t be your str ongest point, but it must have real value. Because just when your audience thinks you’ve said it all, you throw them a pleasant surprise which boosts their emotions — and their feelings of reciprocity — right at the moment when they’re asked to respond.
For instance, you might have 9 tips to give away, but you bill it as 8 tips and then pull one out as a “bonus”.
