In this article, I’ll list the 8 basics of copywriting.
I’ve been learning copywriting for years now and I can say that these basics can help any copywriter – regardless of their level – create great copy.
Like I said in the content, these are powerful tools that can help you sell almost anything to anyone. Plus, they can be used for all types of copywriting. That’s why you need to be cautious and ethical about how you use them.
1 – Write as you talk
There are a lot of things we were taught in school about how to write. Yet, writing as you talk was definitely not one of them. That’s the whole beauty of learning copywriting because one of the rule of a great copy is to write as you talk.
The principle of writing as you talk serves two purposes :
First, You don’t sound salesy because let’s face it nobody wants to be sold. People want to be free of their choices.
And, You create a sense of a friendly discussion in the mind of the reader. Think about it for a second, how would you talk to your friend about a product ? It would flow naturally, right ? That’s exactly what it’s about.
2 – Focus on Your Customer
There is a saying from Robert Collier that says to “Always enter the discussion that your prospects are already having in their minds“. See, a lot of people tend to get dragged with themselves and their business without taking care of the feedbacks from their customers.
Huge mistake !
Listen, the lifeblood of every business is sales. And you can only make sales if people think that you have their best interests in mind.
In copywriting, the way you show that you care about your customers is through thorough research and knowing their pain points and deep desires.
In fact, the major difficulty of copywriting is that you need to make your reader feel emotions with your words. The fun fact is people can only feel emotions if they can feel connected to you. And the only way you can get your readers connected to you is by having a deep knowledge of what they’re going through. That way you can tailor your message to them.
It may be harduous but it pays dividends to go deep in your research about your industry.
3 – Focus on benefits
The most common mistake beginner copywriters – or those without copywriting knowledge make is to confound benefits and features.
According to the dictionary (1), a feature is a prominent part or characteristic of an object. Basically it’s about the details about an object. What it does and how it does.
On the other hand, a benefit has more to do with the results afterwards.
Think about it this way, the feature is focused on what is now whereas the benefit is focused on the future and the feelings that are linked to it.
A feature relies on the logical sense of the brain while the benefit appeals to the creative, childlike sense of the brain.
In a copy, you have to include both features and benefits to include impulse buyers and logical buyers.
4 – Simplify Your Sentences
Have you noticed that every paragraph in this article has around 2 lines ?
If you’ve made it this far – besides the fact that I’m great at writing 😎 – it’s because of how easy it is to read the whole article.
See, people don’t have the time to read long and complex paragraphs that tend to just say simple things but in a more shakespearian way.
In average, the attention span has dropped from 20 minutes to around 7 seconds. That means that you need to learn to be effective and on point.
Especially in copywriting !
Your message needs to be clear, concise and appealing to hook and keep the attention of the reader. That’s the reason why it’s not uncommon to even see one word paragraphs in a copy.
5 – Use Urgency and Scarcity
Urgency and sacrcity are two psychological tactics used in selling in order to entice people to buy.
Urgency is time-bound. It is often used with promotions and time-bound offers.
Scarcity, on the other hand, is quantity-bound.
Marketers tend to use scarcity as a psychological leverage to bypass the logical mind of the reader.
The greatest offers online tend to use one or both of these tactics to make sales. Now, a little caveat here, for ethical purpose you want to use these tactics the right way.
You don’t want to use scarcity or urgency just to make money. In order for an offer to make maximum sales you need to use your powers for good.
The reason is that if you don’t use the right way, you may trick people into doing what you want once but the longterm consequences will not be worth it.
6 – Use Testimonials
What do you do when you want to buy a product on Amazon ?
Chances are that you look up to the reviews and try to figure out what other people think about the product you want to buy.
It’s totally normal !
Human beings have a tendency to learn from other people’s experiences in order to gain time and avoid mistake.
In life those experiences can take the form of a heartbreak, a great adventure or a great story that you were told.
In a copy, those experiences are called testimonials.
Testimonials are the reviews of the experiences from other peoples that have already used your product.
They can serve many purposes but the main one is to build trust that other people want what you have to sell.
It’s important when you write your testimonials, in the copy, to make sure that you write the position or the occupation of the testifiers because it also helps build authority in your niche.
That will make the buying decision, for your reader, way easier.
7 – Tell Them What To Do
Call-To-Actions play a huge role in every copy that you will write and it helps tie all your efforrt together.
A great copy isn’t complete without telling your reader what to do because the flow tends to lower the logical mind to its bare minimum hence why you have to guide the reader through the « buying gate ».
It’s important to do so because you don’t want to let your reader choose what they want. Let alone, you don’t also want to confuse your reader into thinking about what the next step really is.
There’s a markething saying that goes “a confuse mind, always says no !”
That’s why a call-to-action needs to be concise and precise. As a rule of thumb your call-to-action will give the exact benefit that you claim in the copy. Plus, it will tell them directly how to get the results.
8 – Build Your Own Catalog
The last important basics of copywriting is building your own copywriting catalog, also called swipe file.
Swipe files are the graal of every copywriter. It is where you go back to when you need a refresher or when you lack creativity.
It’s where you go back to when you need to revisit and pick from.
You need to have your own library of letters, sales letters, landing pages, ads etc. anything related to your main industry or any other industry that you find interesting.
That’s how you build your copywriting skills while sharpening your creative muscle.
What’s Next?
These are the 7 basics of copywriting. If you are a complete beginner, you may want to read the ABC for copywriters.
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