When you read any type of written message from a business, organization or brand, you are reading the work of a copywriter.
Copywriting is one of the oldest marketing methods and is still in use today.
Copywriting is the backbone of online marketing and is a must if you wish to attract customers, it involves writing a piece or pieces of text to improve the image of a product.
Copywriting is a powerful skill to have if you’re a business owner who wants to make difference in the world, and want to make money while doing it.
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.
Copywriting is penning down content for publicity or marketing materials, as such, a copywriter is a person who creates written materials or articles for a business or organization, usually with the intent to create brand, product or service awareness online or generating sales and leads.
In this article, we are going to guide you through the basics of Copywriting.
- Identify your client
When you get a new task, the first thing you should do is an in-depth research. Knowing your client will help you write effective and well-informed copy, given that you will be representing the said client. Get to know their business, their objectives, vision, and mission. Carry out thorough research about the services and products that they offer.
- Identify your target audience
Now that you know about your client and their product or service, it is time to research your target audience. Before one decides to write anything, it is good for him or her to understand that it is not everyone in the world who is going to come across his or her piece of writing. Each message written should be meant for a specific audience Every set of the audience has specific characteristics unique to them.
Your product or service suits at least one customer subset, and this group of people is your target audience. They are the people you should appeal to in your copywriting.
One needs to understand things such as culture of the people, their age and changes in their population.
Lets say your target audience is teenagers aged 14-19. Some of the common characteristics of this audience are the heavy use of social media platforms, trends, memes, and catchy language.
If you’re selling to an house wife moms, you’re going to write differently than if you’re selling to a teenager, and if you’re selling to a civil servant you are going to write differently than if you’re selling to a shop owner.
- Know your products and services strength
A vital step in any copywriting project is fully understanding whatever product you’re selling, try to learn everything about them, their features, benefits, and lapses. It will help you pitch the product effectively.
All details about the product must be made clear to the reader. Information about what the product can do different from other products should be well presented. The message relayed should be in a manner such that there is flow of ideas logically from one-step to the other.
Firstly, one needs to state clearly the benefits of the product he or she is writing. One needs to state the uniqueness of the product. The information given here should be precise and true.
This is the best way in which the organization or a company can win the trust of its customers. After knowing this, it becomes easy for the customers to relate with your product.
- Build Your Own Catalog
A great copywriter has a catalog of copywriting examples he can always refer to.
If you’re new to copywriting, the best thing you can do is analyze the work of those who have already mastered the craft. If you look at other people’s sales pages, emails, and marketing messages, you can speed up your learning process and find amazing examples.
By building a catalog of successful copywriting campaigns, you can avoid sitting in front of a blank page and feeling frustrated. Instead, you can rely on the successful campaigns of people who’ve already done it successfully in the past.
No matter what your product or service is, others have likely already written great sales pages for similar products. You can always use this existing content to create even better campaigns and pages for your business.
You don’t necessarily need to be a creative person to craft great copy. Instead, you can rely on research and focus on using and combining strategies that led to great results in the past.
- Identify The Competitors
For one who wishes to succeed in copywriting he or she should first do a thorough research about his or her competitors. One should be aware of what they are offering, what is contained in their services and list of the elements that they are offering. It is also advisable for one to avoid spreading misleading information about others since this may lead to a violation of business ethics.
Think about the elements that make your product or service a better choice than its competition and call attention to those strong points. You might use language that invokes the feelings or values you want your customer to associate with your product, like safety, comfort, luxury, fun or community.
- 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.