We’ve all been there – you’ve spent hours on a blog post, but hardly anyone has read it. The practice of copywriting is necessary if you want to sell your products, services or ideas online. That doesn’t always make it fun.
So, what are the secrets that can make your writing more effective? Here are four easy ways to include in your copywriting right now.
1. Anticipate what people want
Let’s start with the bad news: nobody wants to buy your product. People aren’t interested in what you sell, but in what your product can do for them. They want to know how they can benefit.
You need to anticipate this when you are writing. Talk about the benefits of your product or service, not what it can do. This means that you don’t write that ‘your company offers a social media plugin’ but that you focus on ‘its many possibilities to analyze and improve social media reach’.
When focusing on the benefits isn’t in your system, writing this way can be difficult at first. An easy way to start thinking differently is by constantly asking yourself the ‘so what’ question. Each time you write about the feature of a product, ask yourself so what? If you offer a service that has a quick loading time for example, the answer to this question may be that it provides website visitors with a better experience and can lead to higher conversions.
2. Write just like you speak
Most writers tend to write differently than they speak. They get behind their computer and go into writing mode. The spoken word, however, is often more clear and direct. Exactly what you need when you want to write good copy.
Spoken English uses short, simple sentences and short, simple words. It is just simple ideas expressed in a simple way. Spoken English is also much more relaxed and less stuffy than the written form. This allows a writer to really connect with his or her readers.
Don’t worry if you struggle to write in spoken English. It is often much faster to start in written English. You can then go through your text to shorten sentences, simplify words and so on. Read your text out loud and ask yourself – does this sound like me speaking?
Please do keep in mind that spoken does not mean sloppy. You should still conform to basic grammar and spelling.
3. Be positive in tone
Most people have plenty of problems. They don’t need to hear more from you. That’s why you always need to keep a positive tone of voice in your story.
Staying positive can really motivate your readers to act. It is much easier to take in tips that help you become better or more efficient, than to read about a list of problems and come up with the solutions yourself.
Keep a positive tone by always working toward a solution. You can mention the problem, but you also need to fix in as you go. In addition, stay away from jargon when possible and try to include positive words.
4. Pick a headline that stands out
On average, 80% of people read the headline of a story. This may seem like a lot, but only 5% read the rest of the text!
These statistics show how important a good headline is. It needs to capture the attention, so spend plenty of time on it. Always know the medium you are writing for, the audience for a newspaper expects very different headlines than those reading a blog.
If you focus on online articles, try to keep your headlines to 70 characters or less. People are busy online and want to spend the minimum amount of time reading headers. Grab their attention by using numbers in the title, or make your readers an offer that they can’t refuse.
