I’d like to share with you a very fascinating secret. Copywriting can be done by almost anyone who can write. Good copywriting can be done by these people who also take the time and effort to do it well.
To write “copy” or to produce words to sell something is a craft that doesn’t require an English degree (in fact, perhaps that’s the worst place to start) but it does take some careful thought and consideration. Put effort into writing and you’ll do just fine if you know that you can do it.
The fact is, copywriting isn’t writing a book, it’s not wowing people through your knowledge of language or clever spin on words, it’s making what you want to convey as simple as possible to understand. Knowing a couple of things and knowing them well will help you convert your audience into your followers and most importantly, your customers, but all of those things come later. The main thing to remember is that you can become your target audience and you can sell to them, then, go easy on them, intrigue them and charm them and then do it all over again.
Rule 1. Become your target audience. Know who your selling to, not just “segment X of the demographic” but, Phil from Bournemouth who has a mortgage, doesn’t care about what you sell but does care about getting a cat. Put yourself in their place, get to know them and don’t simply sell to them, enlighten them and recommend them to your product or service which ultimately they would have bought anyway, they just didn’t know about it.
Rule 2. Become their friend or as close as you possibly can be as a brand and intrigue them, make yourself interesting, don’t think about what you want to sell them, think about what they want and if that means they’d be better off with whatever you do, then let them know. Always however let them take the opportnity to buy, and buy quickly and easily. A nice tool I learned was “KFC”, not to eat before sitting down at a keyboard but, Know, Feel and Commit. Give your reader the knowledge to back up their rationale for buying, let them know the benefits of you. Let your reader know what they should feel, calm and safe about your product, frustrated at the current situation or greedy enough to get more and finally, let them take it.
Rule 3. Don’t be an English professor. Write to be read, not to underpin the gracefulness of the English language. Commas, full stops and even sentence structures are tools to create the atmosphere you want to create and tone of voice you hear in your head. Use them to your advantage. Write as if you’re speaking to someone and they’ll read as if they’re being spoken to. Don’t on any occasion spell words wrongly however, strangers are protective, critical and harsh. Spell a word wrong and your faith is gone.
So there’s enough to get started, I believe it to be the most effective way to communicate with potential and existing customers. If you’d like more knowledge to help your understanding, get the book Write to Sell: The Ultimate Guide to Great Copywriting and check out Copyblogger.com‘s Copywriting tips .
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