Aug 2, 2017 12:17 PM (This post was last modified: Aug 2, 2017 12:29 PM by J. McCarthy.)
What is Copywriting?
Copywriting vs. Content Marketing
Types of Copy
Print Advertisement
Public Relations
Commercials
Web
Email Marketing
Sales Funnel
Getting Started
4 Steps Before You Start Writing
Obtain All Previous Content
Learn More About The product
Learn More About Your Audience
Determine the Objective
Writing Copy
Headline
Direct
Indirect
News
How-To
Question
Command
Reason-Why
Testimonial
Sub-Headings
Body
Good Copywriting Practice
Clarify The Obvious
Sell Benefits Not Features
Write As If To A Friend
Stay On Topic
Tonality of Writing
Strange & Unusual
Product Story
Learn New Styles
SEO Copywriting
Keyword Research
Keyword Usage
Plagiarism
Meta Description
SEO Impossible
Things To Know
Selling "Free"
Copy Evaluation
Just Start Writing
Knowledge Center
Websites
Books
"When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product." – David Ogilvy
"The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time." – Thomas Jefferson
What is Copywriting?
Judith Charles, president of Creative Communications famously quoted “A Copywriter is a salesperson behind a typewriter”. In today’s online world the statement couldn’t be any truer. With such a vast amount of sales being made online, how can someone go from the classic salesman to the digital one? Copywriting.
Copywriters are those who create emails, direct mail, jingles, website content, and advertisement content. That content is known as Copy and the art of writing it is known as Copywriting.
Copywriting Vs. Content Marketing
Copy without Content is a waste.
Content without Copy is a waste.
Content Marketing is most easily represented in items such as blogs, podcasts, email autoresponders and social media. Content Marketing is used to share free content in order to attract and convert potential buyers.
Copywriting on the other hand is used to achieve a specific action. Most typically a sale. Copywriting is more readily seen in a Sales Page, Advertisement, or Direct Mail.
Useless alone, A Sales Machine when combined.
Types of Copy
Print Advertisement
Talk to an internet marketer and they’ve probably never done or heard of it. To the rest of copywriters, it’s still very much alive. Print Advertisement, you guessed it, is any form of printed advertisement. Newspapers, Magazines, Billboards, Posters, Brochures, and Direct Mail. Direct Mail, by the way is just one of those nice letters you receive in the mailbox advertising a product or service.
Public Relations
Basically, a press release. Commonly overlapping with advertisement topics may include: New Products, Improvements, Updated Versions or models, new applications for your product, executive speeches, how-to tips, special events, controversial topics, awards, and new stores to name a few.
Commercials
Tv, Radio, Web, they all have commercials and someone must write them. The catchy phrases, bad jokes, and ultimate sales pitch are all written by copywriters.
Web
I’ve broken this into two sections. When I say web here I mean websites. This includes writing everything from the homepage to the About us. Anything from a microsite, catalog site, long-copy sales pages to e-zines (Electronic Magazines).
Below is the “Agora Model” a basic chart on how anyone can start and grow a profitable internet business.
This is probably the most relevant to you as a future or current internet marketer. Sales Funnels and Landing Pages.
Whether you’re just trying to obtain an email from your customer for a mailing list or promote a full-blown sale these are the wave of the future.
Here’s an easy to ready Sales Funnel template I’ve found useful
Before you begin writing obtain any previous articles, emails, newsletters, or releases about the product, service, company, or person. It’s critical to not only learn more but prevent duplication.
Learn More About The product
It goes without saying you should know the product you’re selling. If you’re not the owner then ask questions about what makes it different, competitors, requirements, cost, maintenance, simplicity, efficiency, usefulness, different uses for it and so on. Know Thy Product.
Learn More About Your Audience
Equally important one must know his/her customer. Why do they buy, what are they using it for, what background do they come from, what region/country are they from and what language/dialect do they speak? If you don’t know why the customer could use or wants a product how can you tell them how it will help them.
Determine the Objective
Lastly, determine the objective for your copy. Are you trying to convince them to join a free trial, share their email or purchase your product? Know this before you begin.
The headline is pretty much always the most effective part of your copy. Without an attractive and enticing headline no one’s going to open your site, article, or email which means no one’s going to read it and ultimately no one’s going to do what you want.
The 4 Tasks a Headline Attempts To Achieve Are:
1) Grab Attention
2) Select Specific Audience
3) Deliver a Message
4) Entice Reader into Body
Essentially, these are the main 4 things your headline aims to achieve.
Here’s the 8 basic types of Headlines by Robert Bly
Direct Headlines
e.g. “Downy Shampoo for Only $5”
Indirect Headlines
e.g. “Fresh Bait Works Best”
News Headlines
e.g. “My Exclusive Interview with Donald Trump”
How-To Headlines
e.g. “How to Earn More Money at Home”
Question Headlines
e.g. “Do you want to earn money working from home?”
Command Headlines
e.g. “Try Not Using This New Technique”
Reason-Why Headlines
e.g. “My Life Changed and Here’s Why Yours Can Too!”
Testimonial Headlines
e.g. “Reading this Article Changed My Whole Life -John Snow”
Sub-Headings
The Sub Heading or sub title is simply a less emphasized version of your heading/title. It Creates easy to read text and continues to keep the reader engaged by disbanding large blocks of text. People Scan or skim content more than they read it and these allow you to draw them in more.
Body
The Body of your content again should be broken (If long) into different sections using sub-titles. Generally, the most effective length for an article is between 1500-2000 words. Long paragraphs or blocks of text are for Academic Reading which is boring so do yourself a favor and don’t do it. For example, Landing pages offering free eBooks in return for your email typically only contain a few hundred words. Ultimately length depends on what your content is and who you’re writing to. As for sentence length, in the digital age, the top 5 iPhone 5 webpages averaged between 10 and 14 word sentences.
Aug 2, 2017 12:22 PM (This post was last modified: Aug 2, 2017 12:23 PM by J. McCarthy.)
Good Copywriting Practice
Clarify the Obvious
You may think this is generic, stupid, already obvious, whatever but way too many people overlook it. Don’t get caught up in the details and forget what you’re writing about. I’ll always clarify the obvious, a birds-eye-view, right off the bat.
Sell Benefits NOT Features
If you’re in marketing you’ve probably heard of this before, but, for those of you who aren’t pay attention. You MUST sell the BENEFITS of your product to the customer NOT the Features! If you must include the features, then do so AFTER you’ve clarified the Benefits.
Here’s an example of Selling Benefits vs. Selling Features
Benefits: “This product contains the ability to change your life with healthy eating and easy exercise routines. Get Rid of Belly Fat, Fatigue, and Depression Naturally!”
Features: “This Product contains a 75 Page Book With 10 Different Healthy Eating Choices and 5 Exercise Routines! Using it You Can rid belly Fat, End Fatigue, and fight depression!”
Write as if to a Friend
When you’re writing copy, like I’ve said before, it’s not literature. Slang is okay and grammar is less important (NOT IRRELEVANT!) It’s recommended you write copy as if talking to a friend.
e.g.
Friend: “Hey! How’s it goin today?”
Grammar Nazi: “Hello, how are you doing today?”
Which person would you rather be engaged with when reading?
Additionally, you should write as if you’re speaking to a single person NOT as if you’re selling to a crowd of people. Using words like You and Your are highly influential because they are directed to that specific reader.
Stay on Topic
Many people tend to start with one topic and then get side tracked or distracted with another. Unclear and unfocused copy is not a good thing. Stay on topic and preferably ONLY on a single topic.
Tonality of Writing
Tonality of writing is important to. Just like in a conventional sales pitch in person or over the phone no one is interested in talking to a dull/monotone salesman. Get engaged, happy, EXCITED when selling! See Jordan Belfort’s Strait Line Sales Training to learn more about doing this over the phone. As for text, you can still emphasize with bold large text, whisper with small thin or italic text and so on. Don’t be monotone as a writer, mix it up.
Strange & Unusual
You tell me the last time you walked into a car dealership and the salesman walked up to you and asked a riddle. Never happened? Didn’t think so… Seriously, don’t be weird! Just to clarify weird is not funny and funny is not weird.
Product Story
Product stories are a great way to draw readers into your copy. Here’s an example from writtenbysummer.com
“Product Description:
Hair Glimmer Shampoo combines vanilla and pumpkin extract with lavender and cucumber scents to make your hair shine and day and night.
This description reveals captivating differences in a saturated health and beauty market.
Though product illustrations are a necessary element of your copywriting strategy, take it one step forward with a little storytelling. Doing so shows prospects not only what the product does, but also how it impacts their lives.
Product Storytelling:
6:00 a.m., the alarm buzzes.
Time for Jen to guzzle coffee while she gets ready for work.
For the first time, Jen adds Hair Glimmer Shampoo to her morning ritual. At first, she didn’t know that $8.49 plus a 3-minute application would change the way people looked at her.
The perfect bouquet of pumpkin, vanilla, lavender, and cucumber fills the steamy air. After Jen blow-dries her hair, there it is…a new luster.
The moment Jen heads out to the office, the fiery glimmer of her red hair pops against a gray, winter day. Her co-workers can’t put their finger on it. Something is different.
It’s the same smart and friendly Jen, but she’s got a glow today that won’t fade. The Hair Glimmer is here to stay.”
Learn New Styles
Most people think the way they act, write or talk is normal but the truth is even the norms are different throughout different areas of the world, country, and target markets. Read up on how other people are writing, learn about new dialects, and most importantly relate to your customer.
Once you’ve researched those keywords you are going to need to use them! Include the EXACT Keywords throughout your copy. Make sure you’re using them naturally though, spamming keywords through text is never a good thing to your reader or SEO.
e.g. Keyword: “Banana Cream Pie”
Natural Usage: “Once finished cooking your Banana Cream Pie allow it to cool in a fridge for up to 10 Minutes. That’s it! You’re now a Master chef at the Banana Cream Pie!”
Spam Usage: “Banana Cream pie! Yum I love Banana Cream pie! Let the Banana Cream pie cook in the oven then take the Banana Cream pie out of the oven and let the Banana Cream pie sit on the counter. That’s it! Your Banana Cream pie is done!”
No Plagiarism
Not only will plagiarism kill your reputation as a copywriter but it will kill the SEO value in your content. The simple fix? Don’t do it.
Meta Description
The meta description is a simple HTML tag.
Code
-removed-
The main purpose of the meta tag is to attract the visitors from search engines like Google through that little display. It’s said that there is no direct correlation between the meta description and ranking. However, it definitely plays a role in conversion of viewers to users.
Don’t SEO The Impossible
Fairly obvious, if you’re small and the keyword is extremely competitive then try to find a narrower target market. You’re not going to rank #1 for Apple so you might as well save the time, energy, and money.
Yesterday the term “Free” meant anyone would take it. They’d give you an email, phone number, whatever. Today, the consumer has savvied up a bit. Free we now know isn’t always free. I’m not saying hidden charges, I’m talking about the advertisements you’ll be receiving in return. Because of this it’s important to ALWAYS BE SELLING! Even on free content because if people aren’t buying the free then it’s useless!
Copy Evaluation
Think of your copy like a person. More specifically a sales person. Just like a human your copy can be evaluated, critiqued, and improved. Whether running tests such as A&B or simply asking for feedback always be on the initiative to improve your copy in return for more conversions.
Just Start Writing
My last tip to you is in regards to both writers block and overthinking. When in doubt, just start writing. If the idea is bad, delete it and start over. Either way the times getting used so why not be productive about it?
This is an amazing marketing and copywriting tutorial. I'm posting here to come back and read this later. Will definitely help a lot of people starting to look at business/marketing!
Your guide is very informative. And I cannot tell you how much I wanted to be part of content writing. I usually hire someone to do that job when it comes to it.
Actually thinking to even write my own scares me out. Is it normal? As an agency owner, I should be able to at-least judge the content level. Is it good or it isn't... I must be starting out soon in this part.
Any writers motivation? :D
Thanks, & Regards,
Gemini
LLMO | Reputation Management | Social Branding Should every business gets LLMO done? No!
Let's Talk
(Aug 9, 2017 10:24 PM)Gemini Wrote: Hello Formula1,
How are you doing today?
Your guide is very informative. And I cannot tell you how much I wanted to be part of content writing. I usually hire someone to do that job when it comes to it.
Actually thinking to even write my own scares me out. Is it normal? As an agency owner, I should be able to at-least judge the content level. Is it good or it isn't... I must be starting out soon in this part.
Any writers motivation? :D
Thanks, & Regards,
Gemini
I'm not sure as far as "motivation" persay but when I'm stuck what I do is just stop and completely clear my head for a bit. Normally something comes to me and I keep going
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