Expert tips for compelling copywriting
Perfecting the words around your business can literally be the difference between whether someone buys from you or not. Even average content can switch your audience off. I have both a degree in Writing and a vast amount of training and experience in marketing, and I've learnt the best ways to master communication. If you'd like to improve the words around your business, here are my top 10 expert tips:
- Keep It Value Driven
The most important thing in copywriting is to make sure that all of your words are driven by value. That means you don't tell someone what you do, you tell them what you can do for them. When it comes to marketing, you need to make sure that every word is used to convey to your audience just how you're going to make their lives better, easier, happier or anything else.
- Know Your Brand
One of the best ways to get an audience to buy from you, or buy into you, is to build trust with them. By finding the voice of your brand and then ensuring that everything is written consistently in that voice, you will help to build personality. As people, we connect more easily with something we can understand or relate to, and so brand personality really aids this. And once they connect with you, they'll start to trust you.
- Say What's Important First
We rarely sit and read anything in full. We simply don't have the time to consume all the media that surrounds us every day. Instead, we glance at things quickly and will only read on if it interests us. Therefore, say what matters most first. This will not only increase the likelihood of you engaging your audience, encouraging them to read on, but even if they don't read on, they will still have looked at the most important message.
- Don't 'Trip Your Readers Up'
No matter what you're writing, make sure that all of your sentences flow well. The second a reader 'trips up' over a clumsy sentence or bad grammar, they will lose their trail and stop processing what they're reading. You want your readers to get lost in your words, but they will only be able to do this if the content flows well.
- Proof Read Thoroughly
As above, mistakes in your work won't only make you look unprofessional, but they'll also disrupt how your audience absorbs your words. Take the time to proof read everything you do. Or, if you're not confident in your ability here, ask someone else to look over it for you.
- Engage Your Audience
Whatever you're writing, make sure that it's as entertaining or interesting as it can be. Even if the content is quite serious, you can still find ways to present it in a more stimulating manner. Whether you use a thought-provoking sentence structure, appealing sub-headings or deliberately emotive words, spend time thinking of the best way you can say whatever it is you're saying.
- Keep It Simple
If you say too much, your audience won't take it all in. As people, we often skim read. We gloss over things and don't take in every word, just the general gist. This means it becomes easy to miss things out, or even get confused when there is too much detail in an overly complex sentence. To make sure your copy is always easy to digest, only ever make one point per sentence and keep everything succinct. Your content will sink in far better.
- Editing
Writing the words around your business can seem like a time consuming task, and it can be tempting to do it as quickly as possible to get it over with. But never ever just do one draft and publish that. You can't possibly produce your best work by quickly putting it together. Look over what you've written and polish it up. I often write something and then step away for a few hours, meaning I have a fresher perspective when I edit it.
- Copy and Paste
I find that people often believe they need to keep writing something new. But this simply isn't the case when it comes to marketing. Create some fantastic boilerplate copy and then just repeat it over and over. This will not only save you time, but people rarely take notice of something until they've seen it on multiple occasions, therefore repeating yourself is actually a good thing.
- Don't Obsess Over Technical Stuff
When it comes to blogs or website content, the first thing people tend to consider are keywords and SEO. However, if you focus your blog on getting it perfect for search engines, then it may mean that it doesn't read very well for your audience. Which is completely counter-productive. What's the point in working hard to bring people to your site, only for the content to be poor when they arrive? Instead, write first for your audience, and then tweak it afterwards if needs be to ensure you're not harming your SEO. But ultimately, just like your potential customers, Google wants to see good content. That's the most important thing.
If this has grabbed your attention and you'd like to learn more, then why not join my “How to Write Compelling Copy” half day workshop? Full details can be found by clicking here.