The purpose of copywriting is to persuade other to act through emotion. Its purpose is not to inform, education or entertain. It may do some of these along the way or produce them as an indirect result. But that is not what copywriters try to achieve. We want to write copy that compels our readers to take a specific a course of action. Here are some broader strategies we employ to make copy compelling.
Audience
Have a laser focus on your particular audience. What are their chief concerns and their burning issues? What pain do your clients that and how does your product/service solve it? What do your loyal customer rave about the most? Who is the actual and idea audiences?
Brief
Construct a detailed brief. You need to know the overall project and how your copy fits in to it. You need to know how the copy will be displayed or published. You need to know what they want your copy to achieve and how those results will be measured. You need to know the key marketing messages and product USPs.
Headings
Use an attention-grabbing headline. Make them short and descriptive. Centre them around keywords you’ve researched and confirmed that people use in searches. Jargon is permissible in a heading if it is what people call the thing you’re prompting. Obscure words and complex, wordy structures are not good. If you lose readers at the header, you’ve lost them.
Language
Rid your copy of clichés, corporate-speak and unnecessary jargon. These are the death of emotion. The only exception is if your audience is technical or scientific and you know they will have very specific search words. Then, you can allow for some specialised language, used in a targeted and restrained way.
Benefits
Write in terms of benefits rather than features. Features are obvious. Benefits are what you’re really selling. Of course, the two are closely related. A feature is what the product has, and a benefit is the product’s result when a customer uses it. Features are factual but benefits are emotional value statements.
Visuals
Include visual elements if possible. This doesn’t necessarily mean inserting graphs or pictures. It does mean you can use highlights and colour to emphasise the title, key words or the CAT (Call to Action).
Action
End with a call to action. What do you want your reader to do? Use a command verb, like Click, Read, Purchase, Book, Tell, or Find. Don’t give your readers too much work to do. If possible, use buttons rather than text because they stand out more. And set your CTA in a colour that stands out from the test around it.
If you'd like some tips on what specific words to use, see 9 Ways to Inject Emotional Words into Your Copywriting.
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