Let's learn some useful copywriting tips!
Copywriting is a very useful skill to possess and hone. It can come in handy when you want to market your brand and your products. Good copywriting skills can help you engage your readers, and turn them into leads and customers. To improve those skills, you need to learn helpful copywriting tips.
The thing about copywriting is that a lot of people don’t realize how tricky it can be to improve, and how it is different from normal writing. They can think that anyone who knows how to write also knows how to do copywriting.
This is not the case. As a professional copywriter, I can assure you that preparing good copies looks easy, but it requires a lot of work. In this post, we’re going to be looking at copywriting tips that you can follow to make sure your copies are high-quality, engaging, and effective.
What is copywriting?
Before we get to the tips, let’s understand what copywriting actually is.
Copywriting can be defined as the process of creating engaging content or text for promoting or advertising brands, products, or services.
The main purpose of copywriting material is to win over the reader and get them to take an action that is lucrative for the business, such as making a purchase, buying a subscription, and so on.
Instances of copywriting
There are different places and instances where copywriting is used. Here are some common examples:
Is copywriting different from content writing?
In copywriting, the purpose of the content is to promote a particular brand and its offerings. The main purpose is for advertising. Examples of copywriting are promotional emails, sales copies, and the like.
On the other hand, in content writing, the purpose is to educate and inform the readers of a particular topic or concept without any particular focus on promotion. Examples of normal content writing include blogs, white papers, and so on.
Is copywriting a part of content marketing?
Yes, copywriting is a part of content marketing.
Content marketing is about informing people of a brand and the products/services it provides by means of content. In copywriting, promotional content is created, which can then be used to market brands and their offerings.
In this way, we can understand that copywriting is a part of content marketing.
If you want to learn more, check out this post that we wrote on “What is Content Marketing?”
9 Useful Copywriting Tips
Now that we are done looking at the basics, let’s move on to the nine useful copywriting tips that you should follow.
1. Learn about your audience before writing
One important tip for copywriting is to perform research on your audience and write the content according to the information that you collect.
Basically, the more relatable you can make your content, the more people are inclined to trust what you say. Especially when it comes to promoting something using your content, you have to make sure your words appeal to your readers.
You can make your content relatable and appealing to your readers by learning about them and understanding their requirements and preferences. You can set the tone of your content and the overall gist of the material to fit the needs and preferences of your readers.
There are various ways in which you can learn about your audience before writing.
2. Make sure your headlines are engaging and catchy
This is one of the most important copywriting tips that we’re going to mention here in this post.
In copywriting, it is important to quickly attract the attention of your readers and then retain it so that they can make it through to the end of the content. That way, they can actually read the copy you’re prepared and take actions like making purchasing, buying subscriptions, etc.
If you want to grab the attention of your readers, you have to make sure that the headlines and titles of your content are catchy and attractive. Once you have the attention of your readers, you can retain it using the main body of the content.
So, how can you make your headlines catchy and engaging? Here are some useful tips for it:
3. Talk about benefits rather than features
When doing copywriting, you should talk about the benefits and perks that your readers can understand rather than mentioning technical details and features.
This is a mistake that rookie copywriters can often make. For example, if there is a phone that you’re promoting via a written copy, you should not write something like:
The 3840 x 2160 resolution of this mobile gives a clear display. The 12 GB of RAM is also a very awesome component in this device.
These sorts of lines can be boring, and they can turn your readers away.
Rather, you should focus on describing the benefits. You could, for example, say:
With the 4K display, you can enjoy a crisp and clear display. Plus, this phone makes multitasking super easy and convenient thanks to the gigantic 12 GB of RAM.
4. Write in a conversational tone
Keeping a conversational tone can help you make your copies more engaging. Instead of talking in a strict and formal tone, you can make it more casual so that your readers can connect and relate with you.
Here are some things that you can do to make your tone conversational:
5. Use active voice
You should use active voice in your copies so that the content is easier to read and more direct. Using active voice also helps in keeping your content conversational—some tips related to which we have also mentioned in the section above.
When writing in active voice, you basically have to put the subject of your sentences at the beginning and the object at the end. Here is an example:
Our car possesses many features.
On the other hand, in passive voice, the object comes first and the subject comes later. The same sentence that we’ve written above would become:
Many features are possessed by our car.
And as you can see, it’s terrible to read.
You can learn more about the differences between active and passive voice by checking out this blog post from another source.
6. Ensure grammar and spelling perfection in your content
Before you finalize and publish your copywriting material, you should also take the necessary steps to ensure that the grammar and spelling are perfect.
When there are grammar errors or spelling mistakes in the content, it looks boring and uninteresting. Your readers can end up leaving the content because of how amateurish it looks.
You have to make sure that this sort of situation doesn't occur. And for that, you have to achieve perfection in the grammatical correction and spelling of your sentences. Here are some steps you can follow for that.
7. Add visuals and images
Adding images and visuals to your copies can be a great way to make them more colorful and engaging.
If your copy consists of just content written like a wall of text without any breaks or colors in it, it can look boring.
Of course, in some situations, you don’t have to add visuals and images. For example, if you are writing a product description, then there would be images of the product itself on the webpage.
However, if you are writing, say, an email or a message to a customer or lead, you can try adding an image in it to make it look lively.
8. Be unique and original
People like to read unique and original stuff. If you take your ideas and the words for your content from another source, people will realize it and they won’t appreciate it.
Copying another source is definitely something that you should avoid in all types of content. But in copywriting, when the whole point is to win over a reader, it becomes even more necessary.
Here are some tips for you to stay unique and original in your copywriting efforts.
9. Make sure your content is readable and understandable
The more understandable and readable your copies are, the more they are able to attract readers and get them to take the action you need.
There are various things in your content that you have to adjust to make it readable and understandable. Some of them we have already discussed in this post.
Conclusion
These were nine copywriting tips that you can follow to become a better copywriter. If you stick to these nine tips at all times, your copies will come out engaging, attractive, and effective.
To recap them briefly, make sure that you learn about your audience before writing for them, make impactful headlines, talk about benefits rather than features, write in a conversational tone, and use active voice
You should also take care to avoid grammar and spelling errors, add visuals and images, be unique and original, and ensure content readability.
If you liked the blog post above, make sure to check out some of the other articles we’ve published as well. You can check out this email marketing guide that we’ve published on our website by clicking on the link.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 4 C’s of copywriting include clear, concise, compelling,and credible. The copywriting tips that we've provided in the blog post above cover these points.
The difference between copywriting and content writing is that content writing is for normal information content, whereas copywriting is for promotional content.
Yes, you should become a copywriter because it is a very lucrative field. You can learn a lot as a copywriter, and develop some useful skills.