With only 7 seconds to capture someone's attention, digital marketers need to understand the best ways to make someone stop and take notice. Getting your content right and developing this consistently is tricky, so here are my top tips for creating copy that captures your audience.
Writing compelling digital copy is a bit of a dark art, but luckily it can be learned and doesn't require you to have a magic wand or potion to master.
If you're struggling to get your copy to land, take a look at my top 10 tips!
10 Top Tips for Awesome Marketing Copy
1. Know your audience
This one seems to crop up no matter what you're doing with your marketing, know why? Because it's ruddy important! If you don't know who it is you're trying to entice with your writing, how are you going to be able to write for them?
Understanding the basic demographics is one thing, but to get under their skin you need to look into who they are on a deeper level. Creating a persona is a great way to understand pain points, opportunities, wants, needs, and even channels where they are most likely to engage.
To create a persona you'll want to conduct some research into your current customers, or ideal clients by taking a look at their buying habits, any data you hold on them already, social media posts, verbatim comments, and reviews, as well as using a little bit of creative license to make informed assumptions on the way that they might consume your content.
Once you know who you're talking to, you'll be able to write in a way that speaks to that group of people. University students will react very differently to marketing copy than grandparents for example. Acknowledging these differences and writing for the different groups of people who might make up your audience will mean you get a better response from them all.
2. Figure out your Call to Action (CTA)
What is the objective of the marketing copy you are putting out there? Are you wanting people to purchase something? Or are you aiming to get people into a physical location? Are you expecting them to sign up to get more information or share your content on their social media channels for more exposure?
Figure out what this Call to Action is for your campaign before you start and ensure you tailor your writing to shepherd the audience through to complete this.
3. Create urgency in your copywriting
No one likes the feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), but if you can inject this into your marketing copy you're more likely to encourage people through to that CTA.
It could be something as simple as adding in a 'don't miss out' sentence, or a count down to a particular event (only 10 more sleeps to Christmas), etc. However you do it, make your audience feel that if they don't act now, they might miss out!
4. Keep it simple
Marketing copy should be scannable and easy to read. Reduce jargon, three-letter abbreviations (where possible), and make it super simple for your audience to understand and consume. Yours won't be the only piece of marketing content that they will have consumed that day, there is so much information out there and it's pushed to wide audiences all the time.
A big paragraph isn't pleasing to the eye when someone only has a couple of moments to take in your messaging. Break your copy into bitesize chunks to make it easily digestible.
5. Exploit exclusivity
People love to feel important, so where you can, try to make your audience feel special. "You've been hand-selected" and other sentences may feel a bit cliched, but they speak to people on a psychological level. Self-esteem is so important to us as humans, that we'll often overlook the fact we know it's a marketing ploy! Capitalise on this in your writing!
6. Focus on your customers
While your copy is usually being used to sell a product or service (after all, that's what marketing is all about), be careful to avoid falling into the trap of making it all about you. Compelling marketing copy focuses on the customer! Talk about the issues you can solve for them, how you'll take away any stressors they have or how you'll make doing that thing they hate easier!
Knowing your audience (see tip 1), is key to making sure your marketing copy is fit for your customers, and understanding their wants, needs, and problems will allow you to speak to them directly.
7. Enhance your credibility with detail
With marketing copy present everywhere these days, people have become wise to it. So one way to ensure that your content stands out for your audience is to back it up with detail. Statistics, technical info, and evidence all give weight to the content you pull together and enhance trust in what you're saying.
Presenting exact details like names and data shows you know what you're talking about and act as a sign of expertise. People want to buy from others that are at the top of their game, so make sure you can evidence your claims and provide proper information in your marketing copy, and not just lovely words!
8. Make sure you challenge objections
Your marketing copy needs to persuade your audience to purchase. It's not enough to tell the audience how good the product or service is, you have to anticipate their objections and have an answer for them.
Overcoming these objections clearly and methodically will allow you to reassure potential buyers that your product really can help them.
9. Use analogies
Depending on what you're marketing, there may be some complex ideas that you need to sell but in an easy to understand and digest way. Analogies are great at helping in this scenario.
By relating what you're selling to something that most people know and understand you remove the complexities. Analogies can also help breed empathy, another great way to bring people with you on the buying journey.
10. Stand out & grab attention
Marketers are used to grabbing attention with design, but you can (and should) do the same with copy! For compelling marketing copy, lean into words that evoke emotion, speak to the audience directly and focus on your most important benefits.
Struggling with your marketing copy?
If you're looking to grow your business through content marketing but aren't sure where to start or don't have the resource to dedicate, get in touch with me to discuss your requirements and see how I can help.
Email: rachel@baines-moore.co.uk
Text: 07507070032
And why not check out more hints and tips related to marketing your business on social media.
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