Copywriting is a critical element of business in the digital age. This is because when done right, it’s the single most powerful tool to get people to buy literally anything. It generates higher leads and conversion, gets more social media engagement and lets your customers hear what they want.
If you’re reading this article, you might already have a decent base in writing copy or are coming from our foundational article on the same. This article will discuss more in-depth psychology of classic copywriting techniques and some fail-safe formulas for you to plug into your business immediately to test it out for yourself.
Main types of copywriting
· Video scripts
· Blog posts—headlines, content and call to action
· Webpage meta descriptions
· Outreach emails
· Facebook/Instagram posts
· Press releases
· Content on your company website
If you have some experience in copy, you know the key components of the process is knowing your audience, picking a consistent voice and medium, and shaping the content of your copy accordingly. Let’s dive deeper into each step to see the most time and cost-effective way to get it done.
Know your audience:
Say you have a general idea of your brand and product and want to create a dummy customer profile. Find their demographic- age, gender location etc. You can go further by asking their personal dreams, hobbies and lifestyle.
Example template:
| Personal data | Name, Marital status, Sexuality, Kids etc. |
| Demographic data | Age, Gender, Education, Income, City |
| Career data | Job title, responsibility, skills and experience |
| Career and life goals | More money, a promotion, a house, industry recognition, more time etc. |
| Hobbies and interests | Leisure activities |
| Moral alignment, attitude and values | Frugal, Environment conscious, aware of humanitarian and political issues? |
| Challenges | What keeps your customers up at night? |
| Potential objections | What could stop your customer from using your product or service? |
However, a good copy needs more. You need to know the needs and challenges of your customers in relation to your product, and you need to know their language. A great way to find data on this is to go on various social platforms like Facebook, reddit, Instagram, Amazon, Flipkart etc. and search for your industry. Analyze the discussions and find the problems and language to use for your product. You can also use surveys for a more direct approach.
With this, you can create an “ideal” customer profile and work towards marketing to them to attract customers that are close to that ICP.
Finding the right medium and voice
This one is a no-brainer. Now that you did your research across the internet and found websites where your customers are lurking, the next natural step is to use those social media platforms as the primary marketing mediums. This is where you can generally pick up warm leads.
Similarly, finding your brand voice is directly related to finding what your customers are saying and how they’re saying it.
Example
Let’s see an example of how it can be done. Say, you’re launching a streaming service. You can go on reddit or product hunt and look for discussions based on various existing services and what problems they have.
From this, you can ascertain that users want a consistent cross-country library, easy subscription models and good cataloguing. They’re also tired of market saturation in the streaming service. Now, you can base your copy around the language used here. So, your pitch would be something like:
“Do you feel like streaming services are getting more expensive and confusing by the day? With Popcorn, things are simpler than ever before. Watch intense, thrilling shows that keep you on the edge of your seat, or comfy, peaceful shows that make you snuggle into your seat. Subscribe, cancel and re-subscribe anytime with no strings attached.”
Content Strategy:
The meat of copywriting is the choice of your words, the structure of the words and its length. Copywriting can be broken down into three parts:
· Headline
· Body
· Call to action
On every business page, website. ad or blog these three components are crucially present. It’s utilised in every step of a marketing funnel copy to make sure the brand voice is consistent, and the customers’ interest is piqued and maintained until they reach the purchase stage. This is the best way to get organic traffic, but it’s important you research other aspects of the funnel too. It’s a very detailed subject that needs good funnel architects, usually a digital marketing agency. With that said, how do we ensure the best copy in these aspects?
- Headline:
A good headline asks your reader to check out a cool product but a great one invites them to check out how cool your brand is. Headlines carry the huge burden of entrancing your reader to click on the article and know more. So how does one create an enticing headline? Use hypnotic words like “You”, “Power”, “Instant”, “Miracle” and “Free”. These appeal to our innermost desires to be lazy and get fruits without any labor.
Example
If there’s a headline that says “Waiting for your Fed Ex to arrive already? Here’s 4 delivery companies that are cheaper, faster and miraculously efficient”, or something like “7 Free tools to automate your monthly subscriptions”–words like “cheap”, “fast”, “automate”, “free” etc. trigger our inner sloths that want to get instant gratification and free stuff without working at anything. Hence, people will be interested to know about them, and click on the link.
Quickfire Headline tips:
1. Ask questions
2. Include Numbers
3. Keep it simple and direct
4. Make a bold claim
5. Don’t clickbait.
Use an online tool and analyse how effective your headlines might be. Write around 10-20 lines as a brain-dump and then analyse the best ones.
- Body:
The biggest mistake businesses make when writing their brand’s copy is using “we” language. To put it bluntly, people rarely care to read commercial write-ups unless it’s relevant to them. When writing something, keep WIIFM in mind—What’s in it for me? Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and think, “why would I want to read this?”
Example
Flip your product’s description and features into benefits. Look at Apple’s features for it’s Apple HomePod.
Source: Apple (IN) product page.
Now look at their product description copy to see how they converted all these things into simple, concise imagery for their customers.
As shown above, it’s important to keep your copy short, elegant and descriptive so that you don’t isolate your customers. Additionally, it’s a good practice to ask a lot of questions! Injecting questions into your write up makes them search for an answer in their head beforehand. This is when you come to a solution using your product or service.
You can even use social signaling in this by talking about how many users are already using it, or if it has gotten any industry recognition. However, don’t use complicated jargon and buzzwords.
Make the copy easy to skim through and keep your Unique Selling Points (USP) easy to identify (since most users don’t actually read longform copy in the first viewing). A good way to keep the tone casual is to pretend like you’re saying the things you write to a friend in a coffee shop. If it feels too formal, it needs to be re-done.
Quickfire Body tips
1. Features –> benefits
2. Short and simple. Less “we”, more “you”.
3. Keep it conversational and ask questions.
4. Don’t be afraid to show some personality!
5. Maintain easy to skim structure.
3) Call to action:
Humans believe they make transactions based on rationality, but emotions are secretly the driving factor for decision-making. Even in B2B marketing, where traditional appeals to the emotion is overlooked, emotional decision making is equally prevalent as B2C.
Examples
How do you tap into these emotions to motivate your reader? There are a multitude of ways
- Use pain points related to the product. Say you’re marketing a pizza place, what could be its possible pain points? It could be slow delivery, cost or even limited options. In your CTA, you address these frustrations and prime the readers to a solution—your product. In the former example, it would be something like “Hate waiting on the same boring pizza order? With Mama Jane’s pizza you get endless customisation and lightning fast delivery. Order now!”
- Intrigue your readers by asking a “did you know” question. For example, “Did you know 90% of the internet is under-searched? Use our fast and intuitive browser to get a fully new experience of the internet in its whole form. Download now!”
- Inspire your readers by creating a fantasy scenario. Use “imagine” to do this. “Imagine you’re at the Maldives, sipping your Pina Colada. That’s how relaxed you’ll feel with one of our patented massage services, and that’s a Marco guaranteed promise. Call now for a consultation.”
- Tap into your readers’ fear by unsettling them. Be careful to use completely valid fears, or your reader will not take you seriously. “50% of home robberies happen because of unchanged locks after a move. Order Patron Locking Systems’ safe and secure locks now and get the locksmithing service for free”
It’s important to include a CTA at the end every time. If you don’t show your readers an action to do, they will just wander off to another page that holds their attention.
As you’ve noticed in the above examples, you can also use power words like “special”, “unique” and “guaranteed” to draw people in. Using power words can be a great hook and using urgency can be a great line. Words like “now”, “hurry” and “limited” create a time pressure to make readers act immediately. Now, the sinker will come in to remove any doubt about the product by providing customers with a failsafe like “100% money back guarantee”, “Cancel anytime” or other variations.
Quickfire CTA tips
1. Be direct and use active language
2. Be interesting
3. Use power words
4. Hint at urgency
5. Remove Risk
Side Bar: Search Engine Optimization
SEO should definitely be a priority when you are copywriting because it’s one of the few ways you can gain traction without putting in too many resources. SEO is the process of making your copy more search-engine friendly so that google’s search engine algorithm can pick up the necessary keywords and make your blog or webpage crawl up in search results. SEO is a humongous concept that warrants its own specific guide. It’s a complicated subject that changes depending on if it;s On-page SEO, Off-page SEO , link building etc. which is why it’s best to outsource this to a branding agency that knows it’s in and outs with SEO strategy, but there are a few basic tricks you can follow to get a headstart.
- Use as many relevant keywords as you can without making it seem unnatural
- Keep your blog length 1800-2500 words
- Use a lot of sub-headings
- Use a descriptive headline that has the keyword in it
- Write a meta description that covers all your bases with keyword searches.
Your webpage copy and longform blog copy need to be a healthy trade-off between SEO friendly practices and User friendly practices. Remember, too many SEO tools can cause the reader to be fatigued easily and not using enough of them will stop the algorithm from identifying you.
Copywriting Formulas
These formulas are a good foundation to start with, so you can add your own brand-characteristic twists and make them interesting.
1) AIDA
· Grab Attention
· Drum up the Interest
· Tap into their Desire
· Make them take Action
Sometimes people add a “C” for conviction too, which is used to push the more skeptical readers to become customers. This can be testimonials, social signaling, endorsements etc.
2) QUEST
· Qualify the prospect
· Understand where they’re at and show them that you do
· Educate them of a better alternative
· Stimulate them to want this alternative
· Transition them into a customer.
3) AICPBSAWN
While it’s definitely not a memorable acronym, this all encompassing formula is the full basic formula for copywriting, and is often used for web pages. Here’s how it might look on a home page:
Hero Section:
· Attention grabbing aspects like Benefits, problems you solve, USP
· Reason why people should hold interest in your product
· Reason why your word has any credibility (endorsements)
Middle of the page
· Proof that your claims are true
· List all the benefits
· Create a sense of scarcity (eg: limited edition. Selling out, only x left in stock)
Bottom of the page
· Call to action
· Warn them what might happen if they don’t take action
· Motivate them once again to take action now.
Other resources
There are also tons of resources to use as inspiration.
A complete digital marketing template library
Copy trends have to be revised constantly to match the general public outlook at the time. A ton of digital marketing is now geared towards COVID and how it impacts an individual. For examples of different copywriting styles (topical, native, B2B, B2C etc) read the Case Studies section
