One of the core disciplines of marketing is writing effective copy. We are going to look at five essential techniques. Each will help you improve the quality of your marketing copywriting.
Be goal-oriented
Before you create any piece of copy, think about your goal. What do you want the reader to think and/or what you want them to do? Everything you write should be focused on achieving your goals. You can have more than one goal in a piece of marketing, but if you do, they should be closely related. And whatever you do, don’t include elements that actively distract or detract from your objectives.
Simplify your message
You should think carefully about what your core message is for any piece of marketing. If you can summarize it into one short sentence, that is ideal. This simple message should appear somewhere in your copy, generally, the earlier the better. You should echo it more than once in your copy, though each time, you can say it a little differently. In terms of goals, the message is what you want the reader to think when reading your copy.
Know your audience
This is so essential. You must know who you are trying to speak to. Create a persona that has the essential qualities of your audience. Give them a name. Imagine their life. Imagine their problems. Then craft your message to speak directly to them, to reflect their thoughts and values. If you have a broad target, try to find points of commonality. Avoid ideas that divide your target audience. It’s better to have two messages for two targets than one that tries to speak to both.
Lead with a strong hook
What are the first words your reader will see? These need to be the most powerful, the easiest to understand, and make it interesting. Ideally, just one sentence can carry your message, build your brand, and motivate action in your favor. If nothing else, you want it to compel people to read more. Speak to the problems people have. Make them curious about what comes next. Promise some value it what you have to say. These are all good approaches.
Be direct
People generally know they are reading an advertisement and they typically have very little patience for adds. You want to use direct language and get to the point as quickly as you can. Once you have their attention, you can elaborate, but don’t waste their time with empty words and don’t make them guess what your message is. Also, don’t make them think. Tell them and show them what you want them to do and why they should do it.