Copywriting Skills 101: How to Craft Compelling Copy

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Basics of Copywriting
  • How Copy Functions
  • Writing Error-Free Copy
  • Being Persuasive
  • Don’t forget CTA
  • Optimize your Copy
  • Be Precise
  • How to Craft Compelling Copy
  • Getting the Headline Right
  • Explaining the Benefits
  • Pay attention to minor details
• Resources for Writing Excellent Copy
• Key Takeaways
• Conclusion

Copywriting is an art—no wonder businesses use it to increase their online sales and establish their corporate identity. A marketer must therefore develop excellent copywriting skills to write compelling copy. All efforts at marketing online depend on this core element – engaging copy.

It doesn’t matter whether you send marketing emails or write blog posts that you mean to share with hundreds of readers; quality copy makes all the difference. A website’s content makes or breaks the site, so pay attention when crafting copy.

The Basics of Copywriting: 6 Essential Copywriting Tips

The fundamental idea of copywriting is to persuade users to take a specific action like signing up or buying a product or service. It all revolves around one crucial thing – conversion. What’s the point in having hundreds of casual visitors to your website with no conversions happening?  Copywriting helps you achieve better conversions almost effortlessly.

1. Know how copy functions

Copywriting can be an ad slogan, short or long-form content on a web page, sales or marketing document (brochure), social media post, case study, or a white paper. All these can be defined as copywriting, though copywriting generally puts things in a nutshell. Expert copywriting skills involve using short but powerful words to trigger a chain reaction. Words are just words unless they convey a powerful message.

2. Write error-free copy

Your copy must be grammatically perfect. Glaring grammar or spelling errors will defeat the very purpose of the copy. Most readers have above-average skills, and when they spot errors in a marketing copy, it puts them off. You can’t afford to have homepage content with grammatical errors.

3. Be persuasive

The trick lies in writing persuasive copy that coaxes visitors to take action by default. Being just persuasive enough to achieve the desired impact is one of the best copywriting tips you will ever get. Your copy helps people take action and buy your product or service.

Be aware that while your words can be compelling, your influence on the visitor has to be gently persuasive. Always identify your buyer’s persona before writing the copy for your target audience.

4. Provide impactful CTAs

The best copy may not serve the purpose unless it features a call-to-action (CTA). While describing your products well goes a long way, it’s just halfway through. Your copy should gently lead the way to the CTA, which is the ultimate purpose of your writing. You can’t afford to have people wondering what to do next after they’ve read your copy. Having a CTA at a strategic point in your copy helps drive your conversion rates.  

5. Optimize your Copy

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial from a rankings point of view. The copy you write must be search-friendly, which is only possible if you insert the appropriate keywords in the flow of the content. One of the best copywriting tips given by industry experts focuses on having SEO-friendly copy.

However, while keywords can make your content noticed by Google, keyword stuffing is not a good idea. It can visibly hamper your content’s readability and even result in a search penalty that removes your content and page from search engine result pages.

6. Be precise

A golden rule of writing winning copy is to be precise and direct. The trick lies in conveying as much as possible with a few words. Ensure that you keep your sentences short. Avoid using complicated words. Ad slogans, in fact, are known for being short and punchy. Lengthy sentences tend to distract the readers, resulting in an increased bounce rate.

How to Craft Compelling Copy

1. Getting the headline right

You’ll feel utterly helpless with your marketing efforts if you don’t have an engaging copy. One of the sanest copywriting tips is getting your headline right and watching everything else fall into place.

Write a direct headline that hits the nail on the head. Indirect headlines also work, though they take time to sink in because of their subtlety. An indirect headline kindles the reader’s curiosity and encourages them to read on.

In short, a headline must produce the desired results and provoke curiosity. It is no wonder then that copywriting tips from seasoned experts advise you to assign half your writing time to craft the headline.

Most writers have starting trouble. Hence, the focus should be on the first sentence, which needs to be read. Get that read, and it is child’s play to get your readers to continue reading the second, third, and the rest of the copy. It all depends on how you, as a copywriter, put your thoughts into words. Be clear, concise, conversational, and, more importantly, use simple words and sentences.

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2. Explaining the benefits

Once you have the headline and first sentence in place, it’s time to focus on explaining the benefits to the readers. One of the essential copywriting skills a writer must develop is writing engaging copy that dwells on the benefits rather than the features. It pays to highlight each benefit that every feature carries leads to better engagement and subsequent conversions. It pays to remember never to exaggerate because exaggerating leads to faking a benefit and defeats the very purpose.

The right approach would be to list out the features of your product or service first and dwell on connecting each feature with your customers’ wants and desires. It makes sense to make an emotional appeal at this stage to make the user understand the true benefit that lies within. Of course, if the product or service is highly technical, features take priority—no emotional appeals to a technical person, who relies more on the features than the benefits. However, if you finally dwell on what’s in it ultimately for the customer, you’ve won them over.

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3. Pay attention to minor details

In most cases, paying attention to the minor details leads to sure-shot conversions. For instance, instead of saying there’s a $2 fee, it sounds better if you say, “there’s a token $2 fee. You’ll be amazed by the increase in conversion rates attributable to the addition of just this one word. There’s a psychology behind this, which is rather interesting. The term “token fee” works well with highly conservative spenders who count every dime they spend. These conservative customers may be called cheap by some; however, they are spenders, and all it takes is a word to swing them in your favor. That’s the power of great copywriting, according to copywriting tips from industry experts.

Resources for Writing Excellent Copy

You are great at writing, tested a few formulas, and know where to insert which power word in your copy. However, you’re still missing some vital resources. Here are some excellent copywriting resources:

1.     CopyHackers’ step-by-step guide is not merely a blog post; it dwells in detail on old-school formulas that still work and can be applied in any situation. While most ads get blocked out, testimonials are read eagerly because people trust existing users. So, use testimonials in your copy for maximum benefit.

 2.     KlientBoost helps you create your landing page the way it should be. Add subtlety and an irresistible appeal to the most important page on your website by writing some of the best copy for increasing your online sales. KlientBoost helps you set the stage with infographics and case studies before going for the kill. The resource helps you decide if your landing page should be short or long, depending on your target audience and buyer’s persona.

3.     ConversionXL offers you the ideal course on copywriting, especially for web pages. This resource helps you create a copy with the sole purpose of converting. It also helps coax your customers into taking quick action like sharing their details and even their credit card details. This handy resource offers some of the best copywriting tips in the form of a foundation or process that helps you create some stunning copy.

4.     It is always the headlines that help decide the fate of your ad copy; Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks is probably one of the best resources for honing your copywriting skills. This amazing resource helps by giving the initial torque to your copy through a catchy and irresistible headline that’s so crucial for engagement. Don’t allow weak headlines to abort your copy before you can get started; just let your headlines speak for themselves.

5.     How great would it be if you could experiment and get the best results with minimum collateral damage to your copy? Such experimentation is possible if you read Claude Hopkins’ Scientific Advertising.  Hopkins was probably one of the pioneers who split-tested (A/B testing) ad campaigns and tracked how his ads performed and how many customers ended up buying the products. Here’s the PDF version for your records.

 Key Takeaways

• Copywriting is more about quality than quantity. The less you say in words, the more impactful it should be.
• A punchy headline is the only best way to start, and the following sentences should be equally engaging to hold the readers’ interest.
• CTAs play a significant role in your copy and should be placed strategically.

Conclusion

Although you can polish your copywriting skills with practice, you can never be adept at this art unless you know how to play with words. Referring to tested copywriting resources will certainly help make you a better copywriter.

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