What is Copywriting?
“Words are free. It’s how you use them that matters the most.” This is indeed true in the case of copywriting. Copywriting is all about weaving the words to make the right impact.
The motto of advertising is call-to-action and copywriting is the most effective tool of this creative industry. A copywriter writes for advertising and promotional materials. Hence, the copywriter must write to entice consumers to buy the product with its promotional copy and communicate the message in fewer words.
A copywriter is responsible for building the right image of the brand and must ensure that the brand is well represented to its target group. He must carry out the necessary research to be able to produce the right kind of engaging copy material and inform the consumers about the brand’s products and services.
An advertising company with talented copywriters helps to enhance the brand’s presence and create an informative and persuasive copy. This can sometimes be the first mode of communication that goes directly to the consumers, so the copywriter should be extremely careful about the brand messaging.
Tips
1. Make your headline impressive
Your copy headline is the first thing that catches the audience’s attention. There are high chances that your prospective customer can miss your advertisement if your headline is not interesting. One of the basic copywriting tips is to write an impressive and effective headline.
Communicate about the product through your headline and focus on what people might think. Use subheadings, when required, they help you add details to support your headline and make an impact.
As a copywriter, you must also be aware of SEO practices and make your copy SEO friendly to gain more visibility. It is not necessary that a headline must always be witty. You must mainly aim to avoid using complex headlines and keep your headline simple and to the point.
2. Keep it short and crisp
As Leo Burnett quotes “Make it simple. Make it Memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read”.
It is the copywriter’s job to write a sweet and simple copy that can be easily understood. You must avoid using industry-specific jargon if your copy will be read by a mass audience. Also, make your copy as engaging as you can. As a copywriter, you can use different emotions.
Imagine yourself to be a storyteller, but keep it short. Just like an elevator’s pitch concept, where you only get a minute to explain your idea; Even through your copy, you only get one chance to attract the audience. Avoid exaggeration and repetition. Keep it as direct as possible. You can also add a touch of humor to your copy; the humorous and fun element makes your copy more memorable and adds a recall value.
3. Know your target audience
When you write a copy, the copy has to resonate with the target audience. It is necessary to know their demographics, psychographics, buying intentions, their response about the brand and anything else required to connect to the target audience. This helps to get an insight and get into a consumer’s mind, before writing the copy.
A copywriter must carry out in-depth research of his target audience. He must have a thorough understanding of the readers. Once, a copywriter knows what appeals to a consumer, it is easier for him to write a copy directly for the target audience.
He cannot write a copy with words targeted to a teenage girl when he wants to reach out to the working women. His copy has to reflect the image of the target audience, what they want to hear and what appeals to them.
4. Focus on the benefits
There are ample products in the market today. And it’s not an easy task to convince the customer to buy your product. Your product has to be of great use to the customers, for them to even consider your product.
This is where a copywriter plays an important role. He must ensure his copy talks about the product benefits. Everyone wants to know how the product is going to benefit them before they spend their money on it. This must be highlighted by the copywriter in the copy, be it for a banner advertisement, hoarding, newspaper advertisement, social media,or anywhere else.
For instance, if a copywriter is writing the copy for a shoe brand, the audience is more interested in knowing about the benefits the shoe offers. He will want to know if it fits properly, will prevent pain or help him run miles in comfort.
5. Use the right tone
The tone you use in your copy is extremely crucial. A copywriter must understand the communication platform and accordingly use the right tonality. Advertisements placed on different mediums use different styles and tones, based on their target audience.
You need to understand the medium where your advertisement is being placed. Is it for a billboard or a magazine? Is it for a regional publication or a national publication? You can not write a copy with words familiar to a local audience for a national publication. There are several ways to promote your business, it can be via emails or messages as well. Hence, a copywriter must be very cautious and understand his medium before writing a copy.
6. Be persuasive
The main objective of writing a compelling copy is to sell your product. One of the core copywriting tips is to remember that your copy must be persuasive enough for customers to visit the store and buy your product. They must also be persuaded to visit your website, sign-up, comment or share.
A copywriter must include a call to action approach to increase the conversion rate. If a beauty product in a magazine has persuaded customers to visit the store, then you know you have achieved the goal through your copy. As part of persuasive copywriting tips and techniques, a copywriter must write to appeal to human emotions, highlight exclusivity and direct imagination by using descriptive words. Sometimes using rhyme phrases also tend to create an impact on humans.
Effective copywriting examples
1. RX bar’s packaging
RX bar brilliantly demonstrated their product benefits through simple and effective copywriting tips. They went from complex copy to concise copy. The brand packaging highlights the product ingredients, which earlier couldn’t even be pronounced and concludes with No B.S, meaning bad stuff.
2. Hiut Denims
The brand clearly shows how you can keep your copy short and yet communicate a lot. Since the brand only manufactures denims, they used simple copywriting tips and visual image representation to sell their USP.
3. Rolls Royce
This copy is a perfect example of how deep research and thorough understanding of the brand and its product can help you create a brilliant copy. Advertising legend, David Ogilvy spent three weeks on brand research before writing this copy.
Conclusion
With the digital evolution, digital marketing services are growing in India and SEO copywriting is becoming a vital part of it. Hence, to be a good copywriter, he must also have an understanding of SEO practices involved in writing a copy.
Copywriting is an extremely creative process and it requires you to think, analyze and then execute your copy. As they say, ‘Practice makes a man perfect’ so keep practicing, understand where you lack, hone your skills until you start writing good copies.
