Copywriting Tips for Beginners |10 Principles to Optimize Your Content
Copywriting is an essential aspect of content marketing and can be challenging to master. Copywriters have many tools at their disposal, but knowing which ones to use when can make a world of difference in the success of your copy.
There are many copywriters out there who have been doing it for decades, while new copywriters may struggle with even the most basic principles of writing well. If you’re not quite a beginner but want to improve your copywriting skills, here are ten copywriting tips that will help you optimise your content.
Copywriting Tips for Beginners
Table of Contents
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is a type of advertising that focuses on words and phrases to encourage readers to purchase a product or service.
Copywriters often work with clients to create copy for their marketing campaigns. Copywriting differs from other types of writing because it is explicitly designed as an advertisement, rather than being informational content like blogs posts.
Every niche has copywriting requirements, like legal copywriters and technical writers. The main goal is to make it so that the client sells their product or service on their own – without having to do any selling themselves.
Copywriting has been around for decades, but with new technology come updates in marketing techniques and copywriting principles. As a result, people who have been doing this work for years may find themselves struggling with even some basics concepts, whereas newer copywriters might not know where they can start.
If you’re looking to improve your skills to be competitive within an industry driven by words-based advertising (like social media), here are ten principles from which you can learn more about optimising your content:
Embed storytelling in your copy
The story, in copywriting, is the critical component that makes people want to read on. You can use storytelling to get your point across in a way that will resonate with readers. The story should be told using simple, relatable language and avoiding any complicated jargon or terminology.
Stories will motivate your prospective customers to take the desired action. A good copywriter will know how to perfect this skill and use it in their copy. When you’re telling a story, make sure not only do you reveal details but also incite emotion as well. This can be accomplished by using figurative language that appeals to the senses such as sight, smell, touch or sound.
Stories are all about creating empathy with your audience – so remember what would cause an emotional response for them and put yourself into their shoes when telling your story from beginning to end; taking care of every detail, of course!
Focus on the benefits, not features
In today’s world of information overload, it is crucial to get your point across quickly and efficiently. The best way to do this? Focus on the benefits, not features, in your copywriting.
Who would have thought that the difference between a good sale and a great one is how you describe your product? When it comes to copywriting, we often get so caught up in the features of our products that we forget to focus on what matters – the benefits.
Have you ever been reading a flyer or brochure but got bored by all of the information about specifications and production statistics? The problem isn’t just lack of interest from customers, and it’s also because there’s too much information for them to process.
So next time you’re writing copy, make sure you cover the reasons why your product or service is different and better than everyone else’s.
Master conversational copy
One of the most important things you need to master is conversational tone. Conversational copy is all about sounding like a person and not an impersonal corporation. It’s about using language that speaks to your audience in a way that feels natural and easy – as if they were having an honest conversation with another human being on their level.
There are a lot of different ways to make your copywriting more conversational. One is to use contractions, such as “you’re” instead of “you are” or “I’ll” instead of “I will.” Another way is to create a sense of familiarity by using first-person pronouns like “we” and phrases like “just say no.”
If you’re writing copy for a site about financial services, using words like “can’t afford” instead of “cannot afford” may seem more natural to your audience than if you were targeting people in another industry.
Another strategy is to use social media-like language – abbreviations, hashtags, emojis. Using these types of shortcuts can make it easier for readers who only have short attention spans because they know that everything on your website is relevant to them and what they want from you right now!
Write plainly and concisely.
Many people who are new to copywriting think that the key to success is writing in a flowery and dramatic way. This may be true for some industries, but not all of them.
The most important thing you can do is focus on your audience. Your blog post should grab their attention and hold it for as long as possible, so they will read what else you have written about the topic at hand. You want to make sure that your reader finishes reading every word of your post, so don’t try anything too complicated or hard-to-follow when it comes to sentence structure or verb tenses.
Your sentences should be short and concise because this allows readers to get through more words in less time with greater comprehension levels.
You should also pay attention to sentence length. Try not to use sentences that are more than 20 words long because this will put off your readers, and they may stop reading after just a few lines.
Also, don’t forget about the importance of white space! Too much text on one page can overwhelm your reader and cause them to skim over portions or skip parts entirely, so make sure you have plenty of spacing between paragraphs and sections for easier readability.
And lastly, be consistent with punctuation when it comes to capitalisation, full-stops at the end of sentences (unless there is an ellipsis), apostrophes in contractions etc.. This provides consistency across all areas of copywriting, which makes everything smoother and easier to read.
Keep your copy relevant.
It’s not just about writing good copy. It’s also about making sure you’re writing suitable copy for your audience. There are many ways to do this, but one of the most important is understanding what kind of content they want and how they’ll react to it.
One of the best ways to do this is to look at what content they’re currently engaging with and using. For instance, if you notice that your audience is constantly clicking on blog posts about new technology, it would make sense to start creating more copy around the latest gadgets they’ll love.
Most people just skim through content at best and won’t take the time to read anything in-depth. Try to break your copy up into small chunks that are easier to digest, and you’ll be surprised how many more people will read what you have to say.
If someone is going through the hassle of clicking on one of your blog posts, make sure they can find whatever they were looking for by using headlines and subheaders. This way, when they’re scrolling down a page, their eyes won’t need to wander too far before finding the answer to any question or curiosities..
Keep It Simple! Your audience doesn’t care if you’ve been trying hard writing something great – all they want is practicality with as little effort as possible on their part.
Research Aggressively
Before you start writing, you must do some research so that what you’re writing is relevant and fresh. You may think of yourself as an expert in your field, but if there have been recent developments or changes in industry standards, then the chances are good that there are things about which you are unaware.
Knowing what people want from reading your material will enhance the quality of your work tenfold; after all, nobody wants to read something dry and dull when they could enjoy something witty and informative instead!
Make sure you know the target demographic for your copy and, if you’re aiming at a specific niche audience, make sure to research that segment of people as well. Conducting this kind of research will provide insights into what they want from reading content about your topic and how it should be written to appeal to them most effectively.
Research is crucial because even though you might think you know more than anyone else on earth about cats or fitness or being a mom – chances are there’s someone out there who knows just a little bit more than you do!
Write a captivating title.
The title of your blog post is one of the most critical parts to get right. If you want people to read what you have written, then you must start with an attention-grabbing intro and a catchy headline.
Start by considering what your blog post is about and how best to encapsulate it succinctly in one or two sentences.
Don’t worry if you’re not good at coming up with catchy titles for whatever the content of your post happens to be; there are several tools out there that can help. Your title should have keywords relating to its key points, making it show up higher on search results pages like Google and Bing.
The goal is to start by getting people interested enough so they’ll read over some more copy before passing judgement – after all, part of writing compelling copywriting lies in making people want to go through with reading everything!
The title should provide enough information for readers to know what the content is about without reading anything else; you want them clicking on it and reading more!
Lastly, make use of ‘power’ words and specific language that will help paint an accurate picture of the topic in question. Power words will help increase the emotional connection between your potential readers and your copy while also making it easier for them to understand what you’re talking about.
Include a call-to-action
A call-to-action is a phrase that asks a reader to take a specific action. This can be something like “sign up for our newsletter” or “buy now.”
A call-to-action tells the reader what they should do next, and it’s an invaluable tool for any marketer. Without it, you leave your reader in limbo, thereby missing an opportunity to capitalise on the attention your copy has been getting.
The best call-to-action is a robust and short statement that’s easy to understand and doesn’t require any additional words or sentence fragments for clarity.
Don’t underestimate the power of this technique – it can make all the difference in whether someone takes action or not!
Very few people will do something as long as they’re unsure what you want them to do next, so don’t hold back – tell them explicitly. This will also help ensure that those who are genuinely interested will be able to take the desired course of action more quickly than if they had to figure out by themselves what needs doing.
In Closing
There are many more copywriting tips that we could discuss, but this blog post is already starting to get long.In a future article, we will explore several types of copywriters. For now, I hope you found some of these helpful and can use them in your next project!
What are some other ways you have found success with your copy? You can reach out to us across all your favourite social media platforms @pickmeuppoetry for more engaging poetry conversation.