You want potential clients to pick you – fantastic copywriting is essential to making this happen.
Your copy needs to answer one simple question: ‘why should I choose them?’
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing for social media, new webpages, a blog, leaflet or for any other purpose.
The message needs to be clear in every line of your copy. But how do you do this?
Read through our key bits of advice below – all backed by 35 years of experience and current research in writing killer copy!
It’s all about you!
Your copy needs to be client focused – using the word ‘You’ is a great way to do this.
By using language which focuses on your client, you will make the benefits of using your company clear.
The four most powerful, response-making words are proven to be:
- You
- New
- Free
- Now!
Four little words, with a BIG effect! Use them to maximise your impact.
Avoid using the word ‘We’ too many times (e.g. we are experts in, we are great at) and go for ‘You will want’. Show your reader that they are your priority!
You can visually check you’re doing this right – just highlight in pink all ‘We’, ‘I’, ‘Our’ and company name in your text.
Then mark the ‘you’ and ‘yours’ in yellow. There needs to be much more yellow than pink!
The other three words – ‘New’, ‘Free’ and ‘Now’ are also very important.
All three work for all demographics of customer – even wealthy people like things for free! ‘Now’ is particularly effective in your ‘call to action’ (see below).
If you use the word ‘free’ as often as possible, you attract the attention of your audience – even wealthy people like things for free!
Why you?
Why should your reader choose you? How will they benefit from using your products or services?
Think about how your company is better than the competition and how you offer:
- better quality
- timely and prompt service
- improved solutions
- more cost-effective pricing (ROI)
Use real examples (case studies) of how your services or product has benefitted previous clients. If you can use client testimonials, even better!
Once you have established why your business is the best, give your reader a ‘call to action’.
Tell them what to do to use your services, and how to do it – and don’t forget to tell them to act now! Otherwise, your fantastic copy has been for nothing.
Keep it simple!
When you are browsing online, you don’t want to be confused with complicated jargon. Neither does your reader! Keep your writing as simple as possible and avoid long words – think ‘Daily Mail’ not ‘Financial Times’!
If you need to use technical language to explain what your business does, make sure you explain meanings when appropriate.
Use pictures and captions to enhance your message, when you can.
Other useful tools to keep your copy simple are:
- Short sentences, maximum 20 words
- Use bullet points – six words maximum
- Snappy headlines
- Maximum 300 words per page
- Subheadings and captions
You should also vary your paragraph and sentence length.
If readers click onto your page and see an endless wall of text, they won’t want to read it.
Using short, snappy subheadings are a great way of breaking up your copy
Optimise!
Digital copy (website, social media, blogs etc.) needs to appeal to Google’s search engine.
Using key phrases relevant to your field is a fantastic way of doing this.
Identify your optimising phrase. This is the term associated with what you are writing about – for this page, it would be ‘website copywriting’.
- Use the optimising phrase in the title and first paragraph
- Repeat the phrase 2 – 3 times throughout the text
- Some headings should include the optimising phrase
Using key phrases means that your website shows higher on Google results when people search for your field of work.
Your copy essential for regular lead generation through your website… make sure you do it well!