The word copywriting itself is confusing. Copywriting is not about having the right to publish a book or a photograph; that’s copyright. Does it mean you can copy someone’s content? No! Copying is the only thing that one should not do as a copywriter, and, ironically, the person who comes up with original ideas is known as a copywriter. Jokes aside, in simple terms, copywriting is the text written for advertisement or marketing purposes. And the written content is known as ‘copy’. In this blog, you will get to the true potential of copywriting and how to write a compelling copy.
Copywriting isn’t a new concept, it’s existing from the Babylonian times, and the first printed material is said to have come into existence in 1477.
Table of Contents
What is Copywriting?
Copywriting is the art of writing content that encourages people to take action. In layman’s terms copywriting is about sales, marketing, and advertisement. The objective of copywriting is to create content that drives traffic and brings more and more leads. Examples of common copywriting are sales pages, websites, emails, advertisements, landing pages, and brochures. Thus, copywriting is crucial for businesses to skyrocket their growth. Copywriting revolves around creative problem-solving. A good copy can tell a brand’s story creatively and increase the conversation rate.
Templates of Copywriting
- Social Media Copy
Having a solid social presence is the key to being a successful brand. Social media copy is aimed at the audience’s engagement through posts and advertisements. It’s exacting to craft copy for various social media platforms that effectively deliver your brand’s message. Every social media platform has its unique set of audiences, depending on your target audience’s demographic and values. Hence, it could be hectic but creative when the exact copies are not repeated on all platforms.
- SEO Copy
Who doesn’t want to get their copy ranked organically on the search page? SEO deals with ranking your content on the search engine result page. To get your page ranked high, you need to deliver value-packed content to your audience and strategically use keywords and phrases. You have to put life in your copy with a dash of required keywords.
- Email copy
Email marketing is a game-changer. It would be best to write an engaging subject line for an email that your audience can’t resist opening. Clear CTA (call to action) and valuable content is the perfect recipe to whip up good email copy.
Difference between Copywriting and Content Writing
Content writing and copywriting as a profession are often considered to be on similar terms, but it’s not. Let’s have a look at the point-to-point differentiation…
Definition: Content writing usually shares information about a specific topic and educates readers about the same. In most cases, it is generally lengthier than copy, which is concise, crisp, and to the point.
Purpose:
- The primary purpose of content writing is to increase traffic to brands’ websites or blogs by encouraging users to spend more time on the website or blog. Content is an essential tool to create authority.
- The sole purpose of a copy is to make sales or encourage the reader to take any action, such as signing up or subscribing.
Job description:
- Content writers write content and can be anyone who has a decent hold on the language they are willing to write in. It can be working professionals, bloggers, executives, authors, etc.
- Copywriters write copy, and their work is to write marketing material. Copywriting needs a particular set of skills and practice that should grab every reader’s attention casually going through their feed; if a copy isn’t compelling enough, it sits with the rest of the content.
Writing Format
- Content writing covers various mediums, including news, literature, and entertainment, such as articles, newspapers, blog posts, magazines, whitepapers, emails, newsletters, etc.
- On the other hand, in copywriting, the medium of writing is shorter and comprises marketing and viral promotion channels. Such as ads, web pages, slogans, taglines, SEO content, television or radio commercials, email marketing, etc.
How to Write a Killer Copy?
Now that you are clear on the concept of copywriting and its purpose, let’s dive into the process of becoming a copywriter. Here is the guide for writing a perfect copy that compels customers to spend time on your site.
- Know your audience
Knowing your target audience plays a vital role in writing compelling copy. Create a buyer persona; this will give you the primary idea of your target audience, including their demographics, job position, age, location, and rough data about income. Once your buyer persona is ready, dig a little deeper into some points such as problems and struggles faced by customers, current customers’ favourite things about the brand, target customers, etc.
Instagram is a platform for the latest trends and provides an ideal space for meme materials, so if your consumer is a film fanatic, hit them with the latest dialogues of a famous movie or series; if they’re an entrepreneur, memes about a startup or funding etc. It’s all about relatability.
- The correct tone for copywriting
Every brand has its voice and tone. That’s why using the correct technique that reciprocates the brands’ style becomes crucial while writing a copy. Copywriting is far more than just choosing the right words; you need to understand brands’ tone and attitude to write copy that suits the brand. Something too complex would drive the audience away, and something generic would be bare, so play around with relatable tones.
Recently, Spotify released their Spotify Wrap 2021, where they tracked users data for an entire year and gave them a fun overview of their taste. Each wrapped playlist had its description for rappers, slow songs, EDM, etc. It connected to their audience praising them in their terminology. This fueled the way for many meme materials and boosted their app downloads by 21%; it’s about striking the right chord.
- Storytelling
If you’re looking to write a long format copy, a story format would be suitable to keep the readers engaged till the end. People love stories, at least that’s what Linkedin reveals to us, as every post has a story to it with a motivational quote. The thing to figure out here is the very first sentence; if that isn’t catching eyeballs, then the rest of the copy is out of sight.
- Solution Factor
When you write a copy from a salesman point of view, focus on the customer’s pain points. The customers know the product but do you have a solution? For example, when writers log onto SEMRush to search for keywords, the problem is to gain more visitors, so Semrush advertises their domain with Grow your Online Visibility, giving us the perfect solution there. When pitching for sales, pitch straight to the point.
- Test Your Copy
A copywriter will be an all-around marketing strategist, so test your copies before the audience and hold a poll. The customers know best when they are wooed by the copies and too much fluff in long formats.
A successful digital strategy is defined through its message, and the message is transferred through the main text. Nike’s ‘Let’s do it’ is an excellent example of how impactful marketing through copywriting can be to promote a product. Copywriters are all-around marketing strategists due to their ability to include the audience and the company’s vision. Your best copy can be sold through the above call to action tips and create solid material for advertising.
