Know your target audience
You can build the best offer in the world and write the best copy, but if your copy doesn’t speak to your customers’ emotions or values, you’ll struggle to get them to buy or take action.
Understanding your customers and why they’re buying from you is essential because your content marketing strategy will reflect that. It’s one of the best copywriting tips for beginners I can give you!
If you can get inside your reader’s heads and think about the words they would use, you’ll be able to create a compelling copy that will resonate with them. It’s just about using the language they already know and understand.
Fortunately, you are in constant communication with your prospects and consumers in your business.
When you’re in their company, don’t chat; instead, listen!
Also, keep in mind the terms and phrases.
Employing their vocabulary may strengthen the bond between your business and them.
They’ll be more affected.
They’ll know they’ve been heard and trust you to find the most surprising answer to their situation.
Keep writing
The more you write, the better your copy will be! Every piece of content you create is a perfect exercise to keep practicing copywriting! You can write a blog post or answer questions on Quora or Reddit.
You can also use these articles as an opportunity to test out new ideas and concepts you have in mind for future projects!
Also, it helps to experiment with different styles and techniques. Copywriting isn’t just about ensuring your text is well written—it’s about finding ways to connect with readers. You want to find the best way to tell your story, whether it’s through a compelling headline, subheadline, image, or video.
Once you have written a few pieces, look closely at each one. Analyze what makes it stand out from the rest. What do you like most about it? What don’t you like? Determine why people respond positively or negatively to certain aspects of your writing. This will help you become a better writer.
Turn every feature into benefit for the reader
Here is the most common copywriting tips for beginners! Let me explain: when you buy a new coffee machine with a time programmer, don’t just say there is one. Instead, say: your cup of coffee will wait for you every morning!
Do you see the difference in the example?
A feature is that makes a product different from another. It’s a technical aspect of the product, like the time programmer.
On the contrary, a benefit is how the feature makes the life of your target audience, like waking up with a fresh cup of coffee every morning.
The more specific you can be with a benefit, the more you will convert.
To help you write better benefit, here is a formula: “With (feature), you will (benefit).”
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Write as you speak
To make people feel more comfortable reading your copy, you must learn how to write as you speak. Otherwise, your copy can sound robotic, not natural, and your readers will run away!
Writing as you speak means learning the vocabulary your audience would use if they were to talk about what you are saying.
By understanding the psychology behind how people communicate, you can create compelling and personalized messages that will catch people’s attention and make an emotional connection with you.
For various reasons, you should write as you speak:
- Allow your potential customers to feel close to you
- To be understood by the wider audience,
- By presenting yourself as you are, you may be transparent and whole
- To establish a sense of familiarity and connivance with your target consumers,
- Create a welcoming atmosphere in your interactions…
To write great copy, think of yourself as someone speaking to a friend. You want to convey your message in a friendly, conversational tone. This means ensuring people understand things using clear language, and contractions to mimic a conversationally-intimate style.
For example, instead of “As a result of working with me, you will gain clarity and examine how to get past the SEO hurdles that are pulling your blog down”, write something like: “Together we’ll look at what’s your current strategy doing and create an easy plan that’ll get to the heart of your aims so that your blog go in that direction.”
Use Hemingway’s help
The objective is that a 6-year-old child can understand.
The goal here is to have people read your content and come away with a better understanding than when they started. We want a deeper understanding of our topic, not just a superficial understanding of a particular point.
When we speak in more straightforward, accessible terms, it’s easier for anyone to understand. That’s the key to writing that’s clear and compelling to readers.
In other words, there are no big words, fancy phrases, flowery language, abbreviations, or acronyms. You’re trying to explain something to a six-year-old, and you’ll be much more successful if you use a simple vocabulary.
You can use straightforward language to describe things in the most concise way possible, which will help you better convey your ideas and information.
It’s here that Hemingway comes in! The app will help you identify complex sentences and words to simplify your copy!
Tell stories whenever possible
The easiest way to write copy is to tell a story. A good story tells a compelling reason why someone should care about something. Good copywriting uses stories to teach, inform, persuade, entertain, inspire, motivate, and much more. If you want people to read your copy, tell a great story.
You don’t need to be a writer to tell a story. You just need to know how to use words effectively. And there are many ways to do that. You can use active voice, and it is simply speaking about actions—not nouns. The story should also be straight. You must write a story with a goal in mind.
Do competitor research to know them better
Before starting to write any piece of content, you should run a competitor analysis. This includes reading competitors’ pages, looking up keywords, and tracking down the competition. You want to know everything about them, including their strengths, weaknesses, and current strategies.
One of the easiest ways to conduct this research is to take your target keyword phrase, google it, and look at the top 10 results. These are the pages people are searching for, and they often provide a good indication of what works and doesn’t work on a particular topic. If you see something interesting, check out the site to see what else is there.
For example, if you’re trying to figure out how to improve your social media presence, google “social media marketing strategy.” Read through the first few pages of results to get a better idea of what’s working today, like how many words these articles have, the content structure, how the content is formatted…
Just keep in mind not to simply copy and paste your competitor’s works! You should model it and make it your own.
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Develop an editing process
I’ve been writing online for a few years now, and it wasn’t until about 9 months ago that I finally developed a process for myself. Before that, I’d just write whatever came out of my head and hope it didn’t suck. But once I started developing an editing process, I could produce much better content.
Many people struggle with creating quality content because they don’t know what to do next. They’re stuck in a cycle of “writing,” “posting,” and “hoping.” And while this approach might work for some people, it doesn’t help anyone improve over time.
So here are nine tips that I use every day to make sure that I’m producing high-quality content:
1. Research
Before I begin writing anything, I spend 30 minutes reading articles related to my niche. Then, I take notes and jot down ideas that come to mind, which helps me avoid wasting time later trying to figure out how to start a post.
2. Research & organize ideas
After I finish my initial research, I organize my thoughts into bullet points. I usually keep each idea on a separate sheet of paper and rearrange them based on what makes sense for my topic.
3. Write the first draft & proofread
Then, I write the first draft of my content. Once done, I proofread the content, shortened the sentence, simplified some parts, and removed the unnecessary ones. To help me with grammar and spelling, I use Grammarly.
If you need help with this part, I highly advise using an AI copywriting tool like ClosersCopy! To learn more about it, check my complete review here.
Spend the necessary time for a compelling headline
Your headline will make or break your content. It’s the first thing that people see when they come to your content. It must be impactful, arouse their curiosity… In short, they must be eager to click!
So, you have to pay extra attention to that part. Write a full page of headlines before finding the one that will work for you! If you can’t choose between two options, you can A/B test the headlines.
Develop a brand voice
Developing a brand voice is about communicating the personality and values of your business.
You want to talk to people in a way that feels authentic. When writing, think about how you would describe yourself to another human being, what makes you unique, what you love, and what you believe in.
You have to impact your target audience, and it must resonate with them and help you connect with them on a deeper level, and show them why we matter to them.
The best part about defining a brand voice? You don’t even have to know everything about your product or service to start doing it. All you need is a pen and paper. So go ahead and start brainstorming!
Recruit a copywriter mentor
Being surrounded by like-minded people with the same goals is very important, allowing you to grow faster to shortcut your success.
Doing things on your own is great, but you risk losing a lot of time learning (sometimes wrong technics), have strong self-discipline…
You need help from people who’ve been doing this for longer than you, from experienced copywriters. By working with your peers or mentors, you get constructive feedback on your work, helping you to quickly improve your skills and the quality of your content.
Read it aloud
Sometimes, you are convinced that you just wrote the best content ever… But, when you read it aloud, you don’t understand half of it!
It’s simply because we generally don’t write as we speak. Your content can be confusing or overly wordy… When you read it, you will identify the part that needs some modifications.
Be specific
People tend to be convinced by facts, so don’t be afraid to be specific. For example, you may say that your fitness program will help them lose weight, but if you say that a member of your program has lost 32,3kg.`
Like this, it gives people reasons to go for your product and shows that it is as good as you pretend to be.
Use power words
Copywriting is all about persuasively convincing people to do something. But how do you persuade someone to buy from you? How do you convince them to read your ad? Or even just to click on a link?
The words you choose are just as important as what you say in your content, like a social media post. Use words that get your reader’s attention.
You want to sell your product and services to your reader quickly, and the words you use can help you do that. Think of words that will speak to your readers and induce emotional responses.
So, use powerful words to make prospects’ heads spin and your clients cash in.
These words can be simple, helpful, effective, obscure, mysterious, beware, danger, cryptic…
Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)
Any good copy has this in common: a strong call to action. A CTA is here to tell exactly what action the reader needs to take.
This could mean directing them to a landing page, making them sign up for your newsletter, calling them to schedule a meeting, or sending them to another product page. Whatever it is, make sure there’s a strong call-to-action (CTA).
Keep a swipe file
Keep swipe files, which are collections of emails, advertisements, and other content you enjoy and that worked well, since this is one of the most common copywriting tips for beginners.
That way, whenever you’re struggling with a misleading headline, need some inspiration, or aren’t sure what to do next, you can go through your swipe file and jump-start your creativity.
Induce the reader to say “yes” regularly through your question
Generally speaking, the more yes you say, the more likely you will purchase an offer. It’s a classic persuasion technique used by Socrates and car salesmen.
So, don’t hesitate to add multiple questions to your copy!
How is copywriting helpful in content writing?
Copywriting is the art and science of writing compelling content that convinces and persuades potential buyers to take action.
Copywriting is used (among other things) to:
- Capture and keep the attention of your readers (and thus your prospects),
- Persuade with emotions,
- Convince with rational arguments,
- Allow your reader/prospect to take action,
- Create an emotional connection…
With the copywriting tips for beginners above, you start to create effective copywrited content!
