What is copywriting? Well, it's writing content to help make a sale. There are some important qualities of copywriting. It is effective, precise, and works around problem-solving. A brand’s copy aims to create a driving conversation to provide a meaningful experience to your selective audience.

The benefits, features, and price of the product are key factors in deciding whether a consumer is going to convert or not. The way to communicate value to your customers out there is through copy.

So today, our topic of discussion is the potential of copywriting, what things you must know while copywriting, and how you can write a powerful copy! So let’s get started!

What is copywriting?

There are a lot of misconceptions about copywriting. Someone might be tempted to believe that it’s about the right to publish a photo or a book but they would be wrong. It’s not even about writing social media posts and blogs.

The answer is that it is content writing with the simple aim of making a sale. You can find copywriting on:

• Landing pages

• Brochures

• Product pages

• Website pages

• Paid ads

This gives rise to another question: what is the difference between copywriting and content marketing?

The Difference between Content Marketing and Copywriting

Content marketing can be done for making sales but is less focused on direct goals like gaining brand awareness, educating, and amusing. The copywriting, however, has one single aim: To make sales! Copywriting is precisely about sales and addresses it directly. For example: here is what we offer and how you can benefit from it…

Who is called a copywriter?

Since copywriting is all about sales, the job of a copywriter is to write about experiences and create content that drives conversions. That leads us to another important question i.e. how is a copywriter different from a content writer? 

The confusion here is understandable as they both are technical writers. According to me, copywriters are the advanced stage of content writers. A content writer writes to capture attention and write compelling blogs but the copywriter goes a step further. It not only captivates the reader but also helps make the sale.

A good copywriter knows how to drive conversions and makes it part of their copy. They don’t just create blog posts but also have a thorough understanding of email newsletters, Ads, and Instagram posts. 

All you need to become a copywriter

 Being an effective copywriter requires more than just talent. It requires of you the flexibility to the needs of your brand. On one occasion you might need to draft a press release and on another, you are writing captions for an Instagram post.

Thinking creatively is vital for you to develop a solution for the marketing problems of your client. Another skill that is useful here is communication skills. Whether it's communicating your idea in the writing or communicating it to your team, this skill is a must.

What are the different types of copywriting?

Every copywriting is different. Depending upon your choice, you can write for a social media post or a press release. It all depends upon you. It’s all about what matches your style!

Brand copywriting

the first thing that comes to mind when you hear someone tell you that they work in marketing is billboards, commercials, and jingles for brands like Netflix, burger king, and coco-cola. Brand writers go beyond all that and write the content to develop an emotional response from the viewer. Brand copywriting is more about creating a memorable experience instead of just proving that your brand is better than the others.

Social media copywriting

When writing for social media, you aim to captivate viewers through ads and posts. The challenge here is adapting the messaging of your brand into multiple formats. For instance, the copywriting will be different for Facebook and a TikTok post.

SEO copywriting

Search engine optimization is all about ranking high on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). For that to happen, you have to make sure to deliver actual value to your reader with the healthy addition of phrases and keywords.

Email copywriting

It is quite a challenge to write an engaging and compelling email especially because of its unique presentation. You have to write headings that stand out while maintaining clarity. The commitment should be brief and comprehensive while the Call to Action has to be effective. It is an art form, writing perfect emails. 

Insight copywriting

Insight copywriting is about projecting your brand as an authority in the industry. This can be achieved by writing valuable educational content. 

How to Write Like A Pro?

Now that you know the job of a copywriter, it’s time to find out how to do it yourself. We will provide you with a step-by-step guide that will help you drive sales and reach out to your target audience.

Step 1: Know your audience

To help you understand the importance of this step, take the example of cooking. You wouldn’t start cooking a meal unless you know how many you are cooking for and what do they like. Similarly, before you begin, you should know your viewers.

First of all, create a buyer persona. Start by creating an imaginary representation of your customer. Outline their demographics like location, age, job title, and income. You can even consider using a tool like Xtensio that offers templates and make it easy for you.

It is important to spend some time here. Dig in a bit deeper by asking different questions for example:

·         Who are you selling?

·         What are you selling?

·         What is special about your product?

·         How will your product help your customers?

Step 2: Selecting the tone

Writing is more than just choosing the right words, it’s about setting the right tone. Your tone gives a certain message to your viewers and potential customer. It tells them if you are professional, serious, fun, or quirky.

Let me help you understand by giving an example:

Know your customers better by using the best software designed to boost your business from nothing to everything.

This example shows professional copywriting but it is also a bit quirky. The term “nothing to everything” shows a bit of slang which depicts that you are not that serious about the product. 

The lesson here is to use a tone that not only gives a professional feel but also is right for the brand.

Step 3: Focus on your UVP (Unique Value Proposition)

We all know that today is the world of the internet. If you want to purchase an item, you don’t have to look into one or two local stores. Rather you can order it online from anywhere around the globe. This is, indeed, a great thing, but it increases the competition for business owners. Thus, you have to focus on what makes you different from the others, which is the unique value proposition. Remember that you cannot make everyone happy with your business, thus make sure that your business targets a specific audience and gives something that sets you apart from the rest. Thus, stress that unique feature in your copy. 

Step 4: Give solution to the pain points

While writing a copy, you don’t have to focus on just the good stuff about your product, rather your copy must have the solution to what the audience is looking for. These problems of the audience can be called the pain points, and you must always focus on them while writing a copy. 

Let's example this with the example of this key research tool known as the Ubersuggest. It helps people find the right keywords that can help them generate more traffic on their website. Thus the problem to which the audience is trying to find the solution is “how to get more traffic”, and so if you visit the landing page, it asks directly, “Want more traffic?” 

So you are the idea? The website didn’t focus on what the tool does or how it helps you find the right keywords. Instead, it simply targets what the audience is looking for as the result. 

One of the copywriters, Rose Crompton, explains these pain points that the customers face as either financial, or those involving risk and trust, productivity or time, ease and convenience, or support, communication, process, or journey. 

Thus while copywriting, you have to think carefully about the pain points and how you can solve the problems for them. 

Step 5: Social Proof helps

This is an excellent marketing principle. Let’s tell you how it works! If you are looking to buy a certain product, you often ask for your friend’s or family’s recommendation who might have used it in the past. Thus, we can say that we trust this information more than what the brand tells. Thus, you can use social proof for good and powerful copywriting.

Now the question arises: How you can leverage social proof? So here’s the answer to it!

• You can use the customer reviews to analyze what the customers love about your product and how it benefits them. This can help you understand the pain points which you can use for copywriting. 

• Also, you can add the customer reviews and surveys on your front page, the home page, or anywhere on your website to build trust in your product and make the copy more powerful. 

Step 6: Keep it to-the-point

While writing blogs, emails, and content, we often prefer long drafts that can help the audience understand better. But that is not the case in copywriting. You have to be short and precise. Remember that each word matters in copywriting. So make it targeted and try to build a connection with the audience. Irrelevant, long drafts won’t help you. 

Here are a few words that you must try not to use while copywriting:

• In order to

• That is why, 

• Maybe

• A bit

• Very

• That 

• Really

• Perhaps

• Like

• Just

• So

• Even

• Of

With that being said, your copy must be readable, hence, if any of these words is necessary, you may even use it. But make sure they are not just a filler, but they add value to your copy. 

Step 7: Be consistent and keep testing

This is a process where you learn from mistakes and it is a hit-and-trial process. No matter how much you have worked on the research and analysis, sometimes things don’t work the way they should, or sometimes the taste and value of the content change over time. Thus, keep testing and keep working on your copy. You do not need to make drastic changes every time, but you can change one or two elements in your copy to see if it works. Test and test again, and then pick the most successful copy. 

Some examples of the elements that you can work on while testing is given below:

• Instead of “you can save”, you can use “save now”.

• For “buy now”, you can use “Sign-up now”.

• You can work on the formatting for example using bullets instead of the numbers list.

• You can use different features for the pain points

• You can try a different call to action to see which one works best for you.

For testing, you can even use various tools like Optimizely and Google Optimize. Remember, this is an ongoing process, and never consider it permanent after one or two testings. Keep testing for the best outcomes.

How to become a copywriter?

If you are planning to become a copywriter, one way is you join an agency and work as a staff copywriter. You will get plenty of copywriting assignments which will increase your expertise and help you learn better. 

Another way is to work for an in-house marketing team. Here you have to work for a specific business and do all the brainstorming for copywriting. 

Both these have their perks and drawbacks and you can choose any according to your preference. 

Conclusion

For a successful digital strategy, you must know how to write a powerful copy. We hope that this article helped you understand better what to focus on while copywriting and how to become a copywriter successfully. Just make sure that you know your audience and their problems, and you know exactly what they want from you. Apart from this, just keep testing for the best version and choose the one that converts. Best of luck!