Copywriting Tips: The Ultimate Guide 2021

Good copywriting is the foundation of all digital marketing activities and can help you lay a solid foundation for your Content Marketing and on-page SEO activities. Copywriting allows you to turn more users into customers.

In this, guide you will learn:

• What is copywriting
• Why copywriting is crucial to the business of any organization
• How to write a good copy

Let’s first see what copywriting is all about.

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is the process of writing promotional materials. Copywriters are responsible for writing a text on brochures, billboards, websites, e-mails, advertisements (online and offline), catalogs, and other advertising materials.

Copy is the text you see written on a Facebook ad while scrolling a feed or a Google ad while searching on Google. Copy is a description of the Youtube video you watch. Copy is the text you see on a website that tells you to buy something.

However, a copy is not every text you see.

The point of copywriting is to get you into action. Doesn't the text lead you to take some action? That is not a copy. A blog post about Email Marketing? Not a copy. News about the new feature that Instagram is introducing? Not a copy.

People often confuse Copywriting with Content Marketing. Although there are some overlaps, these two activities are not the same.

For example:

• Content Marketing is this blog post as a whole
• Copywriting would be the text at the end of a blog post that tells you to buy a product or service (or an invitation to comment is a form of copywriting)

In the context of this guide, by copywriting, I mean: texts found on websites, business pages, and social media profiles and texts and descriptions of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, E-mail Marketing campaigns, and all other digital marketing campaigns whose purpose is to persuade users to buy the product, become part of the community, register, etc.

The main goal of copywriting is to persuade readers to take some action that the company considers useful for its business. A copywriter is like a reseller who will textually contact all your customers (or at least those who see copy).

 

Why copywriting is crucial to the business of any organization

Copywriting, or more precisely, quality copywriting, is one of the main generators of profitability of organizations that allows you to increase the return on investment and achieve business results by convincing potential customers that your product offers value and solves the problem.

As we are surrounded by copywriting daily, we have begun to take it for granted and underestimate its effectiveness.

Some companies (especially local ones) still use a generally uninteresting copy on their websites and other marketing materials and then wonder why people visit the site but don’t buy anything.

Mostly this is because they don’t understand that good copywriting is one of the best sales tools they own available.

Words have always been a powerful tool, and in today’s digital space, they are more effective than ever. Customers and potential customers are bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages every day and have less and less time to pay attention to you and what you offer.

The range of attention of the average user is limited and decreases rapidly over time, so the copy must be excellent for users to notice it and take the desired action.

How to recognize a great copy? Excellent copy:

1. It attracts valuable user attention
2. It is relevant to their needs and keeps them interested
3. It tells customers how your brand solves their specific problem
4. Directs users to the action they want to take
5. It was written exclusively with the audience in mind

Okay, now that we know what copywriting is and what it should accomplish, let’s look at how to write excellent copy. The first step is to have a good understanding of what you are selling. 

 

Characteristics vs Benefits

 

If you’re into marketing, you’ve heard this story a million times.

There is a difference between the features and benefits of a product.

Characteristics (what is it that they buy) - are an integral part of your product and describe what its functions are and what it is intended for.

Benefits (why they buy it) - describe how your product makes someone’s life easier, better, or interesting.

 

 

You are not buying a phone with a 64-megapixel camera because of the 64-megapixel camera. You buy it because you can capture important moments in high resolution.

Of course, you probably have more reasons to buy that phone, but in that case, you are motivated by the benefits that the phone provides (social status, enjoying high-definition video content, the ability to correspond with friends and send emails without difficulty, etc.), and not its technical characteristics (color, processor, video streaming of x frames per second, 8GB of RAM, storage, etc.).

Consumers rarely buy something because of the characteristics of the product they buy because they want to solve the problem they have. Benefits are the main reason why someone would buy what you sell.

Write on a piece of paper all the benefits of the products or services you offer. If you are not sure what benefits your customers get from doing business with you, just ask them.

Not sure what are the benefits of what you offer? Create a questionnaire and allow customers to fill it out when shopping or send them a questionnaire by mail after a while depending on what makes more sense in your industry. You can also post the questionnaire on your website or social media pages.

Copywriting Tips - AIDA formula

If you’ve never heard of the AIDA formula, this is the formula most commonly used for copywriting in marketing and advertising.

AIDA stands for:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

The first thing you need to do is get attention. After that, you need to keep the user’s attention and get them to keep reading your copy. Then you need to make them want your product or service and finally motivate them to take action.

 

Attention

This phase of the formula, as the name suggests, is about creating brand awareness.

How to create adequate attention? - It is necessary to do detailed research for the target audience.

How to attract the attention of your audience? - You need to find out what their wishes are and the problems they face, and what your product or service can solve for them.

With this knowledge, you can develop content that is focused on those issues and present your marketing message in the right way.

If you manage to create this kind of content that attracts the attention of your audience. You will encourage your audience to learn more and keep reading what you have to say.

 

Interest

Attracting attention is one thing. Retaining the attention of your potential customers is something else entirely.

For your marketing message to create and maintain user interest, you need to give them a reason.

For example:

You can illustrate to potential clients how the problem they face negatively affects their lives.

Indicate to clients why the problem is especially urgent to solve, which will prepare them to take action. 

 

It is essential to make the problem very personal so that users can identify with the Copywrite and have the feeling that you are addressing them.

 

Desire

In the desire-provoking phase, you show customers that what you offer can solve their problems described in the previous stage.

Here you will describe all the benefits of your product or service. You then show how these benefits will meet the needs of your clients.

Remind them again how important the problem you are solving is, and then describe how their lives will look far better after using your product or service.

This phase may sound very similar to the interest phase. The difference is that in the step of interest, you challenge the identification of users with the problem. They should think - Huh, this is something I should solve, see what else they say.

After that, in the phase of provoking desire, it is necessary to provoke emotion, that your brand and what you offer can solve a specific problem for them, and all that is required is to take the next step, and they can continue their life peacefully knowing that they have solved that problem.

If you do everything right, potential customers will be ready to buy after this phase.

 

Action

Once you have managed to create a desire, the next step you need to take is to persuade people to take action immediately.

You can do this by making them feel that they are missing something if they do not take action immediately.

For example:

Offer a discount if customers order by a certain date,

The first 100 purchases receive additional benefits

"The action lasts until stocks run out" - You've probably seen this many times at the same time the company is legally fencing off and provokes the thought, "Yeah, so stocks are limited, I'd better buy now until they disappear."

Top Shop is the best example: “If you call now…”. You get the point - you need to make the user feel urgent.

This does not mean that you need to cheat and lie to people, gives them an extra incentive to get started right away. Users are lazy and put things off. If what you offer is useful and solves their problem, you must give them every possible reason to buy from you (or whatever else they want to do) and thus solve the problem.

To make sure that people take action at this stage, you need to make it easier. This means always include a call to action (CTA) at the end of your message.

CTA can be:

• phone number with a message to call you,
• the email address to which they want to send you mail,
• buy button,
• content download button,
• a link where I can get more information.

Before you start using the AIDA formula, you need to understand potential customers or clients very well.

When you fully understand their needs, motivations, and desires, you can tailor your copywriting so that they have the feeling that you are addressing them as individuals. If you manage to provoke such a feeling, they will probably buy from you.

 

How to write a good copy

Always contact your customers directly. This means using a lot of personal pronouns like you, yours, etc. if the nature of the job allows you a slightly more relaxed tone of communication. This approach makes your message more personal.

To further contribute to the personalization of your message, you can mention the specifics related to the personalities of your customers, such as their position in the company, life situation, their responsibilities, problems, and other details.

Do not forget about the design and style elements

Marketing content and how it looks are equally important to your customers.

You can have the best message in the world, but if it is not presented in a way that is easy for the audience to absorb, you will not achieve the desired effects.

Copy must be reviewed and well organized. Communication must have a logical flow and follow-up.

Use plenty of white space in your copy and use images wherever you can (but that makes sense). This is extremely important for longer content (such as this text) because it allows users to digest longer texts without getting tired.

Do not hesitate to use stylistic elements such as bold and italic text to highlight information that you consider particularly important. In this way, you can manage the attention of users and let them know which things are most important.

If you are displaying statistics, it is better to present them through an infographic because that will make it easier for people to understand the information.

All of these things may sound obvious to you, but you’d be surprised how much content marketing violates one or more of these items.

 

Pay special attention to the headlines

"On average, five times more people read the title compared to the rest of the text. When you write the title, you spend 80 cents out of your dollar. ”

David Ogilvy

The title is the first element of your marketing copy that must attract attention. If your title isn’t good, the rest of your content probably won’t even be read.

The main purpose of a title is to get users to read the first sentence of the text. If you move in marketing circles or consume marketing content, sooner or later, you will hear about this rule.

If you manage to convince your potential customers to keep reading your copy, the time and money you have invested in copywriting will not be wasted. Focus on writing headlines that will intrigue your audience and get them to read the first sentence of the rest of your copy.

 

Four main rules when writing a title that you need to keep in mind:

• Unique
• Specific
• Cause a sense of urgency
• Useful

You will find it hard to combine all four rules in most titles, but if you manage to include at least two each time, your titles will lead potential customers to keep reading.

Use customer recommendations

At first glance, customer testimonials and copywriting may not go together, but when it comes to copywriting for your website or landing pages, customer testimonials are one of the most effective ways to increase conversion rates.

Why are customer recommendations so helpful?

Your potential customers need to know about you and trust you. They may like your communication, but they want to know that what you offer has already helped someone who had the same problem as them.

When they see the recommendations of satisfied customers, there is a greater chance that they will also become customers.

Recommendations have an effect similar to word-of-mouth marketing. We know that everyone will talk about themselves only the best, but if someone else speaks positively about them, there is a far greater chance that we will believe them (PR works the same way).

However, how do you get customer recommendations? Even enthusiastic customers usually do not bother to leave a recommendation.

There is a simple solution - ask them.

If you are selling a product - contact customers after a while and ask them how the product serves them and whether it solves their problem.

If you provide a service - ask for a recommendation after you have provided them with that service and if they are satisfied.

In either case, after giving you feedback, ask customers if it's okay to quote them in your marketing content. Most people probably won’t agree to it (they’re afraid they won’t praise you, so you spoil it, they don’t like public exposure, etc.), but just a few recommendations for great results are enough.

That would be all you need to know to write an excellent copy and get your customers to take the action you want.

 

An example of an AIDA formula in action

Let's say you are a painter, and you want to come up with a text that will attract people to buy your paintings. Let's see a brief example of how the AIDA formula can help here.

Title 

 

"Want to spice up your home or work interior?"

Attention

"The interior of the space where you spend time has a big impact on your mood and productivity."

Interest

"Research has shown that landscaping with works of art that mimic the ambiance of nature reduces stress and increases mood and productivity by up to 10%!"

Desire

"That's why I've prepared a selection of paintings for you that will enliven your space and make you feel even more relaxed, productive, and at home."

Action

"Take a look at my image gallery and find the ideal images to decorate your space."

Conclusion

If you are starting in copywriting, the most important thing is to test as many different variants of copying as possible and not get too attached to any style. In time, you'll come up with the formula that best suits your audience, and your conversion rates will increase.