Copywriting Secrets
- Published: 25/12/2024
- 10 minutes read
Copywriting Secrets
- Published: 25/12/2024
- 10 minutes read
For most businesses, copywriting is very straightforward. You don’t need to complicate your message for the sake of complication. “Buy new shoes here” is as compelling a message as any other. Often, a straightforward offer is the best offer – because a lot of customers are really looking for it. No persuasion is necessary if your customer is already looking for what you’re selling.
But, if you want to brand your business, if you want to give it a personality and something to be recognized by – that’s when things get chaotic and very complicated very fast. Consequently, that’s also when you need to dive deep into copywriting, branding, and strategy and consider bringing in a copywriter or a brand strategist (or both!).
And if you want to learn more yourself before bringing in more people to the team or hiring someone external, here are ten copywriting secrets.
Copywriting is selling
In essence, copywriting is selling; persuading a person with facts and emotions that your product suits them. As selling relies on immediate feedback (words, facial expressions, and sales made), copywriting rests on assumptions. You essentially assume a customer’s pain points. You assume they need what you’re offering. And you believe there are many more who need that. So, you develop a message to suit them.
But before a customer sees the copy, you should work on this message internally, a lot. Write, rewrite, or postpone for later use – until you are sure your message addresses the assumptions, fits the brand, and correctly describes your product or service.
Think of it this way: what needs to happen for you to get a customer? What do you need to tell them to persuade them to try your product or service? Do they need social proof? Do you need to say something directly? How do they feel now without your offering, and how will they feel after getting it? As a business owner, you surely know all this for your customers. Now, all you need to do is put your knowledge in as few words as possible, making it very simple to understand. That’s how you will most likely persuade a person through copywriting to try your offering.
Who are you selling to?
Now that you are thinking about copywriting as selling, who are you selling to? How well do you know your customers, their preferences, and their pain points? How well do you speak their language so that they understand you? To make your copy effective, you need to define your buyer persona. A buyer persona is your ideal customer, the one to whom you will direct your sales messages. They aren’t just people who need your product or service; they have their needs, pain points, and wants you can address. They come from a specific background and carry their expectations. Your job in defining a buyer persona is to define what makes sense to them. A good way to start is to ask: “What’s in it for me?” and place yourself in the shoes of the buyer.
Thorough market research usually provides enough information to understand your buyer persona better. Starting with the usual demographics—gender, age, marital status, income, and location—gives you insight into who needs your product. However, you can adjust your message to better fit your buyer persona as you uncover more specific information. Essentially, you want to differentiate yourself from other players in your industry, so being very specific about who you’re selling to helps.
Write often
Writing is a hard job. It requires you to create something out of your mind and transfer it to a piece of paper so that it makes sense to another person. But, just like any other job, practice makes perfect. So, write about anything and everything: write about what you like throughout the day, how you feel, what you do. Express yourself. And as you do, slowly divert to expressing your thoughts and ideas about your product or service. Think about the reader – your buyer persona – who will read your writing. What do they need to know about you? What do you want them to know? How can you persuade them to do business with you?
And if you still dislike writing and can’t bring yourself to do it, try dictating. There are a lot of tools (Microsoft Word, Zoom, Otter.ai, etc.) that can transcribe what you say, and you can then focus on refining your message.
Adjective = brand
Coca-Cola = Joy and Togetherness. Nike = Action and Improvement. BMW = Joy of Movement. These adjectives stir emotions in people, who, in turn, associate the brand with the emotions. There are also numerous ways how you can present that emotion; you can personify it, describe it, or imagine a lack of it.
It is said that every great brand has one or two adjectives that describe it. Once the brand associates an adjective with it, that adjective can stir emotions in people. An association with emotion can become an association with the brand. If you have more than that, you will probably distill your brand. Other brands may have a similar adjective, but no matter – if you can associate your brand with that adjective better, you can claim it for your brand.
All brands have a couple of traits that define them. Which traits define yours?
Storytime
Imagine this: you are sitting with a new group of people. You share similar interests. What good story can you recall immediately on demand? Or, a joke, perhaps? Why do you remember them?
Logically, you remember these stories because they are memorable. But, what makes them memorable? Here’s the catch – they are told well. The sequence of events makes other people feel something. If it’s an educational or moral story – there is a villain or an unattainable goal. If it’s a delightful story – it is packed with feel-good emotions. Suppose it’s a personal story – the main character goes through some kind of transformation. The narrative is essential.
Applying this idea of storytelling to brands, those who know how to tell a good story of ups and downs, almost giving up, and perseverance are the ones that people love to listen to. And, if they’re listening, they can be sold to. So, choose which conflict fits you best and tell your company’s story. Here’s a start.
How to tell the story
All great ads have formulas that, once uncovered, make a lot of sense. Copywriting formulas guide the reader through understanding your offering. They also help you refine your message so that it is easily understood. Every renowned brand uses a formula in their copy. Let’s look at a few examples.
Apple and numerous luxury brands rely on the AIDA formula (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action).
Other brands, like Dyson, often rely on the FAB formula (Features-Advantages-Benefits):
The catch is that you can use multiple formulas for one marketing medium (website, magazine, webshop, etc.). The best way about it is to test as much as you can; that’s how you will see what works with your customers.
Add images and caption them
Whenever you’re writing copy, bear this in mind:
- The first thing people see is the image.
- The second thing people see is the headline.
- The third thing people see is the tiny words of your copy.
So, if you want to say something effective about a product – say it in the caption. But, make it make sense, or you’ve lost your reader.
Copywriting appears simple
Effective copywriting resembles a conversation between two very close friends. Imagine this: you are blown away by a product (your product), and now you want to persuade your friend to try it. You’re not going to use complicated words, are you? Probably not, unless it’s a highly complex concept. Instead, you’ll likely use some very simple words. What you’ll also use is emotion-imbued words – since you’ll be trying to persuade your friend to feel what you’re feeling. So, think about what you feel when you use a product or a service, and imagine yourself explaining it to a friend, but pay attention to the emotion-packed words you’d use – they are essential for a good copy.
A good way to figure out what your copy might be is to explain your product in a way a five-year-old could understand. A five-year-old may not understand many concepts, but they’d most likely understand the emotional aspect of what you’re saying.
Hard skin in the game
When writing copy, you write it for others, not yourself. It’s not your darling, your literary magnum opus. It’s a tool for persuading people to do business with you.
Naturally, you should give your colleagues your copy, people who work in the same industry as you and instinctively know what a good product is. If they feel like it, let them intentionally undermine your arguments. Let them tear it apart, bit by bit. Watch how they react as they read. Let them pressure test the copy. Because that’s the only way you can iron out the errors and fallacies out of it. Put your copy in front of at least five people, and allow them to be direct. Remember, the purpose of your copy is to sell, not to delight someone.
"Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right."
Kill your darlings
Even as we quote Stephen King, this sounds harsh. However, King builds a strong case in his book On Writing on being impartial when it comes to writing. And we can apply it to copywriting. A copywriter doesn’t write copy to win literary awards; they write to sell a product or a service. A copywriter doesn’t write copy to delight someone; that’s a product’s or a service’s job.
Since copywriting is about persuasion and selling, the copywriter isn’t the one who should have preferences in their works; the audience will tell what works best through their purchase decisions. Instead, the person writing the copy should be unbiased toward their work. The copywriter serves the buyer persona and the real customers that closely resemble the defined persona. So, taking feedback personally can ruin your copy’s chances of success.
Conclusion
These were some of our favorite copywriting secrets. However, no matter how many secrets you include in your marketing, sometimes the best approach is just to call things by their name. If you don’t know where to start – start by describing your most basic offer. If it makes sense, great. If you want to add more substance to it – also great. However, starting small and building your way up by applying each secret as you go – now that can help you stand out. It can help you differentiate your brand from all the others in your industry. And it can help you tie an emotion to your brand. Emotions linger long in people’s heads because that’s how we’re made.