There’s a lot that goes into digital marketing. There’s design, advertising, SEO, marketing funnels, pricing strategies, landing pages, and more. But at the heart of it all, you’ll find content.
Content is the currency of digital marketing. If you have a lot of it, you can buy whatever you want – including customers. The question is, how do you write better quality content that moves the needle on your overall approach to digital marketing?
5 Helpful Copywriting Tips
As you think about copywriting and content marketing, here are several tips that may prove helpful:
Write to One Specific Person
As a copywriter or marketer, it’s easy to get caught up in a “what-about” mindset. This is where you start writing something and then say, “But what about people who don’t agree with this? And what about people who are 10 years older? And then there are probably people who are 10 years younger who don’t know what this means…”
You can’t be all things to all people. Get clear on who your target audience is and stick to that. Have one specific person in mind when you’re writing and craft everything so that it pleases that individual.
If you’re having trouble zeroing in on your target audience, you might need some help. Look for a local company to lend some assistance in brainstorming ideas.
Focus on Headlines and Subject Lines
Esteemed copywriter David Ogilvy was a major proponent of headlines. He once said that, “On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.” In other words, the headline is what grabs attention and engagement. If you don’t win people over with your headline, they’ll never read the rest of the article, blog post, email, or newsletter.
When writing headlines, focus on “The Four U’s” and make sure it’s urgent, unique, useful, and/or ultra-specific. It can take time to come up with a great headline, and that’s okay. As a general rule of thumb, writing a headline should probably take you half of the total amount of time it takes to write an article. So if it takes you an hour to crank out an article, you should spend 30 minutes brainstorming a headline.
Keep Paragraphs Short and Punchy
Keep your paragraphs short, punchy, and to the point. Long, dense paragraphs with run-on sentences do nothing but intimidate and fatigue your readers.
While it depends on your brand style, one-line paragraphs are great. They keep the eyes moving down the page and prevent readers from becoming overwhelmed by the prospect of reading a long piece of content.
Write to a Third Grader
In a study of email copywriting and conversion rates, researchers found that emails written at a third-grade reading level produce the highest conversion rate. In total, they provide a 36 percent lift over emails that are written at a college reading level (and a 17 percent better response rate than those written at a high school reading level).
The goal isn’t to dumb down the copy and demean the reader. Instead, you want to simplify. Write the way the reader speaks (and avoid using technical terms that they don’t understand).
Use Personalized CTAs
Generic calls-to-action (CTAs) like “click here” or “buy now” don’t perform as well as personalized CTAs. In fact, research shows that personalized CTAs perform 202 percent better than basic ones.
An example of a basic or generic CTA would be something like: “Register now!” A personalized CTA would have more detail like: “Claim one of the few remaining spots today!” In other words, it’s more descriptive and emotional.
Adding it All Up
Copywriting is part art and part science. It requires an intuitive understanding of the art of persuasion, as well as a rigid commitment to following what works. Take these principles to heart and adapt them in a way that allows you to engage your specific audience at the right time with the right message.
When you do that, everything else has a way of falling into the right place.
