The Basics of Copywriting

What follows are the basic fundamentals of copywriting you’ll need to know as a copywriter.

1. Know Your Audience

As a copywriter, who do you think you’re writing for?

Understanding your audience, and how to connect with them, is critical to writing effective marketing materials.

“Learn all you can about people and what makes them tick. You are not in the business of writing words... you are in the business of motivating human beings to take action.” — Mark Everett Johnson

Try some of these steps to get started:

👉Visit websites that offer similar products and services to your client. Take note of the type of language they use and topics they cover.

👉Read as much marketing material as you can find that targets a similar group of people as your client. Are there any promotions that stand out? Consider what makes them so effective.

👉Visit online forums of your target audience and see the issues they discuss and what seems important to them.

👉If possible, talk to people in your target audience. Get to know what they’re like and what matters in their lives.

2. Do Your Research

Another fundamental of copywriting is providing extensive proof that your product or service is effective.

Try to answer questions like:

What are the product’s features and benefits?

How does it work?

What will it do for the user?

What makes the service your client offers better than the competition’s?

What technical, medical, financial, or similar proof is there to support the claims your client is making about their product or service?

What scientific research has been done on a topic you’re writing about on a website?

3. Understand the 3 Fundamental Rules of Selling

Whether you’re writing sales copy or website content, a solid understanding of the fundamental rules of selling will strengthen whatever you write.

Rule #1: People don’t like the idea of being sold.

Rule #2: People buy things for emotional, not rational, reasons.

Seven age-old emotional triggers that copywriters often use are:

Fear

Greed

Vanity

Pride

Lust

Envy

Laziness

Positive emotions you can also target include:

Curiosity

Optimism

Altruism

Love

Whimsy

Confidence

Passion

Rule #3: Once sold, people need to satisfy their emotional decisions with logic.

4. Talk About Benefits, Not Features

Features are technical aspects of a product, service, or website.

On the other hand, benefits are the specific advantages a product, service, or website can offer a prospect. How can that product improve their life?

Copywriting will include the features of whatever you’re writing about, but what you’ll really need to focus on are the benefits.

“The only way to advertise is by not focusing on the product” — Calvin Klein

5. Start with a Bang

No area of copywriting gets more attention than headlines and leads.

These are how you catch your reader’s attention. And if you fail, the rest of your writing is pointless.

When you’re crafting headlines, keep in mind that a good headline should accomplish most of the following:

Set the tone for the entire piece of writing, reflecting the emotions and personal values that will be expressed.

State exactly what the piece of writing is about. The more specific, the better.

Include key benefits of the product or service being offered.

Communicate something of value to the reader.

Suggest that the written piece contains something unique that the reader has never read before.

Regardless of how you decide to write a lead, it always needs to do two things:

Deliver the big promise.

Introduce the big idea.

6. Use Clear, Personal Language

Whatever you write, your reader should feel like it’s written just for him.

Strive to be on the same level as your prospect and use the type of language they would naturally use.

7. End with a Call to Action

As the purpose of copywriting is to persuade the reader to take some kind of action, always make this clear at the end of your webpage, sales letter, or other marketing materials.