What is Copywriting?

What is copywriting?

This question has plagued newbies from far and wide. But no worries, you have come to a place where all your questions about copywriting will be answered.

In this article, you’ll discover what copywriting is and how it can help your business and career… especially in today’s digital world.

So buckle up and get ready for the ride of your life.

So, What is Copywriting?

Copywriting is a form of marketing that means writing in a way that persuades the reader to take some type of action.

If you go online, you will find many definitions of copywriting. And even though there are many, they all boil down to one central idea.

Copywriting is writing designed to prompt action from the reader.

Why is Copywriting Important?

For any business to exist, it must sell products and services to its customers.

They can do this in two ways:

1. Sell directly (face-to-face)
2. Sell online through copywriting

The first way is the face-to-face human connection.

People come to you physically and buy what you’re selling.

This is how most brick-and-mortar businesses start. The entrepreneur will sell the products and services to customers one by one. Then as the company grows, the business owner hires other salespeople to sell the products and services. (Think pharmaceutical sales reps).

This type of selling is effective but expensive. To make more sales, you’ll have to hire more salespeople and other personnel.

The second way to sell anything is through copywriting. This is done online.

Check this out…

You come across an ad on Instagram, you click on it and it takes you to the product page. You read the description and are immediately compelled to click the Add to Cart button.

That’s the power of copywriting.

You don’t need a salesperson. Instead, your copy does all the work for you. It tells the reader everything about your product or service. It highlights the benefits of your business and even addresses the objections your reader might be thinking about. All of these… without you!

The 4 Core Objectives Of Good Copywriting

Now that you know what copywriting is, let’s talk about how you can start writing good copy for your business or your client.

For any copy to get results, it should accomplish these 4 goals:

The goals are known as the AIDA formula or framework:

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Desire
4. Action

We’ll go through them one by one.

1. Attention: Capture the Reader’s Attention

You need to grab the attention of your readers so that they can start engaging with your copy.

Without grabbing their attention, everything you do doesn’t matter.

That’s why it’s the first and most important objective of copywriting.

The place to grab your reader’s attention is in the headline. This makes the headline the most important part of any type of copywriting you do.

There are different copywriting techniques you can use to grab your reader’s attention;

1. Add curiosity: Curiosity kills the cat but makes the marketer rich. Curiosity makes the reader want to know more. It keeps them reading. It keeps them glued to your copy until the end.
2. Create urgency: When you include a fear of missing out, your audience will be more inclined to engage with your copy.
3. Make a promise: There should be an implied promise that states what the reader will gain from engaging with your copy.

2. Provoke the Reader’s Interest

You need interest to make the reader continue engaging with your copy.

They don’t automatically keep reading just because they’ve clicked on your ad or headline. You must hold their interest in the body of your copy.

There are different ways to provoke the reader’s interest in your copy;

1. Curiosity: Adding an element of curiosity is one major way. This keeps your reader glued to your copy and stays there until they read every word. To do this, you can use the open-loop method.
2. Storytelling: We are hardwired to want to listen to stories and know how they end. If you can add stories to your copy, you’re almost guaranteed that your reader will engage with your copy until the end.
3. How-to education: If you can show people how to do something they want to do, you will have them engaging with your copy to the end.
4. Mirroring: Describing the emotions your readers are feeling will make them think you understand them. This small act will keep them engaged in your copy.

3. Harness the Reader’s Desires

Even though grabbing your reader’s attention and making them engage with your copy is good, it is not a goal.

Engagement only makes people read your copy.

What you want is to get them to a stage where they start to desire your product or service and eventually take action.

First, harness the reader’s existing desires. Then, connect those desires to your product or service.

4. Persuade the Reader to Take Action

This is the main goal of effective copywriting. To get people to take action.

Capture interest. Provoke interest. Harness desire.

But in the end, the only metric that matters is… “How many people took action?”

This is all that matters in copywriting. Did the reader act on your copy?

And great copywriting is written with this goal in mind.

The 6 Fundamentals Of Copywriting For Beginners

Now that you know the main aim of copywriting, it’s time to write.

You can find many copywriting tips online.

But you need these six to get started. And sticking to the basics is the best way to get ahead in life… and improve your copywriting.

1. Start every project by knowing the target audience.

Imagine giving a speech and you have no idea who is in the audience.

You think they are gym owners.

You think about what they would like to hear and what resonates with them.

Then you step onto the podium and realize that everybody in there is a restaurant owner.

What would you do?

For sure, your preparation is useless.

And your speech will bomb because it is aimed at the wrong audience.

Knowing who you’re writing to is the first step to take as a copywriter. This simple knowledge will set the tone for every word of copy you write.

Identifying your audience is half of the many ingredients in your copywriting.

You can learn how to identify your target and create a customer persona here.

2. Know the copy’s objective.

What are you trying to accomplish with your copy?

Just as you need to know who you’re writing to, you also need to know what the copy wants to accomplish.

What do you want the reader to do after reading your copy?

Copywriting is not passive with vague goals. It’s specific and intentional. It’s designed to get results.

Those results need to be clear before you write a word of copy or your copy will flop badly.

3. The goal of every line of copy is to get the next line read.

Remember that I previously talked about the open loop. It makes the reader curious about what comes next.

This is the goal of every line of your copy. To get the next line read.

And how do you do this?

Curiosity.

This is because if the reader does not keep reading, your message doesn’t matter. After all, they won’t get to the end to take the action you want them to take.

Copywriting should be longer than your average blog post especially if you’ve been writing copy for less than a decade.

It is not a natural process for most people to be intentional with every word, sentence, paragraph, and process.

But don’t complicate things. It’s not hard to be intentional.

When you write a paragraph, re-read it.

If it doesn’t make the reader want to read the next line, change it.

4. Your customers’ needs are the only things that matter.

The mistake business owners and non-copywriters make is to make the copy all about their businesses, instead of the customer.

Your customer doesn’t care about your business, at least not in the way you think.

1. They don’t care about the lifestyle that your business and income afford you.
2. They don’t care about the out-of-this-world technology that drives your business (Unless that’s the technology you’re selling)
3. They don’t care about you. Harsh. I know. But it’s the truth.

Like everyone, including you, they only care about themselves.

They’re only concerned about their needs and desires, and every piece of copy you write should reflect that.

If a piece of copy you write is not connected to the customer’s needs and desires, 99% of the time, it should be removed.

5. Write like you’re talking to a friend.

Something happens when a newbie tries to write copy for the first time.

They become stiff and formal.

And they fill their writing with fluff, jargon, and meaningless words and phrases.

Good copy sounds like a well-spoken person talking to a friend. It’s written in a conversational tone and gets to the point without being in a rush.

To know if your copy is conversational, write a sentence and read it out loud to yourself.

If you cringe, change it.

Better still, wait a day and read it out again.

If something doesn’t sound right, change it.

Or, you can have someone else read it out loud to you.

If it sounds like a formal business letter, even if it’s a sentence or phrase, change it.

Think about the main points you’re trying to pass across. Then, imagine you’re telling a friend. That’s how you write good conversational copy.

6. Clarity is the most important element of copywriting.

Many copywriters like to brag about how important persuasion is. And yes, it’s good and important. But the truth is, clarity is one of the best elements of copywriting.

Product/market fit is what sells the most.

Do you want to sell more? Put people in front of the things they want the most.

The goal of your copy should be to make it clear that the product or service is a good match for the things they already want or need/want.

There’s another part of copywriting that is focused on manipulation, fear, and greed.

Although this tactic is good for making fast cash, you’ll never build a brand that people love and keep coming to.

If you’re promoting a great product that people already love, you don’t need all these black hat persuasion techniques, you need clarity.

All you need is a clear message that tells the product why the product is a great fit.

How To Use AI to Write Better Copy 

Recently, OpenAI released ChatGPT, and it blew up overnight.

ChatGPT is built on OpenAI’s GPT-3 language processing engine and is considered to be the best to ever be created.

Even though Chat GPT changes the role AI takes in our lives, its abilities have been overblown when it comes to copywriting with many business owners thinking it can take the place of human copywriters.

Have you tried to tell ChatGPT to write a copy designed to sell something?

Unless you, as the copywriter, give it specific prompts, the output it produces is not strong enough to persuade the reader to action.

And now that you know you need to provide specific, detailed prompts to get it to write something decent, who do you think will be in the best position to write these prompts?

The copywriter who knows what moves people to buy.

And even after ChatGPT has provided you with the copy, who is in the best position to proofread the copy and make sure it is good enough to sell anything?

A copywriter! Do you see what I mean?

So when it comes to the debate that ChatGPT will replace human copywriters, if you’re a copywriter, you can sleep well this night knowing that your job is safe.

Here’s my point.

ChatGPT can write copy.

But if you’re not a copywriter, you have no functional ability to take advantage of its writing ability.

It’s completely useless to anyone who doesn’t understand what makes great copy.

ChatGPT is here to help copywriters because it helps them write copy faster. It’s a productivity tool for copywriters.

But what you shouldn’t do is copy and paste its output. Your results will suck hard. Why?

Because ChatGPT doesn’t have a point of view and strong opinions built on personal experiences. It’s not a persuasive engine. And it’s not a copywriting engine.

What it is, is an amazing brainstorming, outline, and language processing engine that can help any copywriter write better and faster.

What Are the Types of Copywriting?

Sales copywriting focuses on creating content that directly sells products or services. This includes writing landing pages, product descriptions, and sales emails that convince people to buy right away. It’s all about understanding what makes people click “buy now” and crafting messages that speak to their needs and desires.

Website copywriting involves writing all the content you see on business websites. From homepage text to about pages and service descriptions, website copywriters help businesses tell their story and connect with visitors. They focus on both keeping readers interested and making sure search engines can find the content.

Brand copywriting helps companies develop their unique voice and personality. This includes writing taglines, mission statements, and brand stories that stick in people’s minds. Brand copywriters work on making businesses stand out from their competitors by creating memorable messages that reflect the company’s values.

What Exactly Does a Copywriter Do?

A copywriter’s main job is to write words that persuade people to take action. This could mean buying a product, signing up for a newsletter, or scheduling a call with a business. They spend time understanding who they’re writing for and what would make these people interested in what they’re selling.

During a typical day, copywriters research their topics, write drafts, and edit their work until it’s just right. They often talk with clients to understand their goals, study competitor websites, and keep up with industry trends. They might work on several different projects at once, like writing an email series while also updating website content.

Most copywriters also spend time learning about marketing and psychology. They need to understand how people make decisions and what kind of language convinces them to act. This means reading books, taking courses, and staying up-to-date with what’s working in digital marketing.

How Can a Beginner Start Copywriting?

The easiest way to start copywriting is to practice rewriting ads and websites you see every day. Look at successful companies’ content and try to write it in your own words. This helps you understand different writing styles and what makes good copy work.

Next, pick one type of copywriting to focus on at first. Maybe you’ll start with writing blog posts or social media content. This lets you get really good at one thing instead of trying to learn everything at once. You can always branch out later when you feel more confident.

Start building a simple portfolio by creating sample pieces for made-up businesses or offering to write for local shops or non-profits. Even if you do a few free projects at first, make sure they’re for real businesses so you can get actual feedback and results to show future clients.

How to Grow Your Business With Copywriting

Growing your copywriting business starts with consistently delivering great work to your clients. When you make your clients happy, they’ll often recommend you to others and give you more projects. This word-of-mouth marketing is super valuable and can help you build a steady stream of work.

Another key to growth is gradually raising your rates as you gain experience. Start by charging what beginners typically charge, but increase your prices every few months as you get better. Many successful copywriters double or triple their rates within their first year or two.

Don’t forget to keep learning and adding new skills to your toolkit. Maybe you’ll learn about SEO writing or start offering email marketing services. The more value you can provide to clients, the more you can charge and the faster your business will grow. Always keep an eye out for ways to solve more of your clients’ problems.