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A complete guide to copywriting

Creating exceptional content is no walk in the park. Your content should be engaging from the start and interesting to the end. Otherwise, it’s rubbish.

We’ve previously explained how planning is a vital step in creating great content, just as much as it is crucial in starting any business. 

But strategizing is only the first step towards your success. Executing your plans is just as important. 

So you’ve gone through the steps for creating a strategy, you’ve come up with your main theme, and you’ve broken it into smaller topics. Now all that’s left for you to do is to actually create the content.

Copywriting is still every marketer’s best friend. While SEO and digital marketing will get you the coveted clicks and views, it is still high-quality copy that will get them to actually trust your brand and buy your products. And, not to mention, it’s also the most cost-effective means of creating content.

But how do you produce content that will convert your audience into loyal customers? Well, we’ve got you covered.

Attention. Interest. Desire. Action (or AIDA)

Writing copy that makes people read from start to finish is always a challenge. Normally, there’s just so much that you want to say, but unfortunately, in such a fast-paced environment, people now have the attention span of a goldfish.

The moment you write something dragging and meandering, you risk readers leaving the page out of boredom. And they probably didn’t even get to the most crucial part. 

A well-known formula to hold the attention of your reader is the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) formula, which is great for sales copy. 

Attention: First thing’s first: people won’t read your copy if they don’t get hooked by the first line or two. All that Big Brain content you’ve saved up for the body won’t even be read as readers exit the page quicker than you can say ‘au revoir’.

And trust us, you don’t want to take that risk.

Write something witty, or if you’re brave enough, controversial. Pose a question, strike up a conversation with the reader. Get them curious and intrigued.

Assuming you already have a content strategy, then you know who your audience is, so you should be able to discern what they want to see in your copy.

Interest: Now that you have their attention, the next thing you have to do is maintain their interest and amp it up. Give them a reason to read about your product.

Anecdotes are a good way to hold their interest. Sharing a relatable issue in the form of a story can help your audience feel how deeply a certain problem is affecting them on a personal level.

When they realise that they’re in fact encountering this problem, they start seeking a solution.

Desire: You’ve established that they have a problem. Present them with a solution (i.e. your product or service).

This is where you flaunt what you’re selling them, and now that you know they need something that you have, make your product sound mouth-watering so they don’t have to consider any other competitor. 

Show them why your brand is unique and better than the others.

Make them drool for what you are offering.

Action: Your copy should always end with a call-to-action (CTA). Since they’re now starving for your offer, tell them what to do next. Where do they click? How do they contact you? How can they buy your products or services the fastest and easiest way? 

Guide them on the next step. Remember that the goal of your copy is not just for them to read your material, but for them to be converted into loyal customers of your brand.

Google Algorithm

Understanding how Google works will make it a lot easier for your website and blogs to reach the first page of a Google search.

Search engines like Google have three main functions:

  • Crawling: Sifting through the internet for content that matches the search, looking for the code for each URL.
  • Indexing: Storing and organising the selected relevant content.
  • Ranking: Ordering of the indexed content from the ‘best’ results to the most irrelevant results.

Your goal then is for your content to be found through the crawling process, stored in the indexing stage, and of course, ranked near the top. 

To get this done effectively, there are four areas that Google takes into consideration as it selects which searches go to the top:

Relevance: When someone searches for something on Google, they expect that the top results will be the most relevant ones. For Google to consider your copy as relevant, your article, from the title and body to even the URL should include the keywords that the user searches.

You have to use these keywords several times for Google to grasp that your copy revolves around the given subject.

Authority: Authority is measured by how many backlinks your website or blog has. These are called votes. The more votes there are to your page, the more authority it has. If you see that there are only a few links to your page, don’t fret. If one of the sites that linked you have a lot of backlinks, those count as votes for your page too.

In this regard, relevance still plays a key role, because you want other upvoted pages to find your page relevant enough for them to link.

Trust: Trust is difficult to manipulate, as it has many metrics for Google’s consideration. Age of the content or the domain are some of these metrics. It also checks the sites you link if they are trustworthy, and in the same manner, it also checks if the sites that link to your page are trusted sites.

If they see any affiliation between you and any ‘bad neighbourhood’ links, your page might not even appear in the search results. But if you’re linked to pages with academic sites and domains like ‘.edu’, that will increase your trust score.

Google also knows information about your sites such as the frequency that the domain has changed hands or the registration expiry. These are difficult to manipulate but are still important to take note of.

Usability: Google wants to give its users the most convenient and user-friendly results. The more attractive your page is to the potential reader, the higher your usability score will be.

For instance, readers often hate pages that are filled with ads, so plastering your page with too many ads will decrease your chances to get to page one. Another factor is the loading speed of your page. The slower it loads, the lower your score is.

Study how to balance and incorporate all these four areas when creating your content. That way, when you understand how the Google algorithm works and apply it, it will help boost your pages near the top of Google searches.

Understand what your customers need in your copywriting

Knowing what to write in your copy means knowing your customers first.

Creating a customer avatar that includes all their pertinent information – from their basic information like name, age, education, location, and etc., to their business, values and motivations, lifestyle, and workplace environment.

Every month, you should also review which of your articles had the most engagements from your customers and which ones had the least. Based on that, adjust your future topics and content accordingly. 

Knowing all of these details is important so you’ll be able to target your content to your specific niche. It will feel more personal to your target readers, and they’ll think your content was made for them.

Remember that your content does not have to please everyone. It just has to please and cater to the right people.

Break Copywriting into Themes

Since you need to release content consistently, it’s normal to feel like you might be releasing some that may be similar to other pieces of your content you upload. The lack of variety starts to become bland after a while. 

This is why it’s best to break copywriting into themes. In one of our blogs, we introduced six copywriting themes and explained what they are.

With this variety, you’ll be able to deliver more flavorful content that will feel new to your followers and viewers.

Here’s copywriting you need to create. 

Story-based content

If you want to gain the trust and capture the emotions of your audience, the best way is through storytelling.

Hero’s Journey: This talks about your story as an entrepreneur. Narrate to your audience your humble beginnings, your greatest hardships in your business, how you grew, and how you succeeded. By making your story both dramatic and relatable, your audience will form a connection with you, mainly one of trust. Since you were able to go through all those hardships and rise through it all, they’ll believe that you’ll be able to help them do the same through your offer.

Customer Case Studies: People often look at the reviews of items they want to buy or services they want to use before they proceed with their transaction. This is because testimonials from actual customers are the easiest way to know that your products or services actually work. Interview your satisfied customers and turn their voices into meat for your content. When your audience sees that you have proof that what you’re selling is effective, you’ll start to gain their trust.

Educational content

If your goal is to answer a query or propose a solution to Google users, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and opinion copywriting are the most effective means.

SEO Keywords: SEO increases the quality and quantity of traffic to your website by making your content easier to find on search engines like Google. If you want your copy to be found on the first page of Google, it needs to answer common queries that users have. 

Opinion: Opinion copywriting isn’t just about announcing your brand’s stance on a specific trending issue. It’s also about educating your readers on your stance. Opinion articles are filled with facts, data, and statistics to get your point across. Giving a strong opinion backed up by research will make your brand more humanised while building it as a reliable source of information.

Unique content

Copywriting is saturated, so make sure your content is unique and stands out. When 5,000 blogs are uploaded every minute, it’s a great way to cut through.

Thought Leadership: If you want to be seen as an empowering visionary, then this theme is for you. Thought leadership copy should provide new and refreshing perspectives to your audience. It must go in-depth about a new theme within your industry. Thought leadership pieces are usually lengthy and backed up by tons of research. This theme aims to uplift not only your brand but also you as the entrepreneur.

Joint Venture: This copywriting theme basically showcases your support network. Joint venture copy features other businesses that have helped you build yours, while of course not being your competitor. Through this, you can also share perspectives from other businesses that you agree with, and likely, they’ll do the same with yours.

Branded content

If your purpose is to build your brand, establish its identity, and make its name more well known, then the Branded Hero’s Journey is a great theme to use. It’s just like the Hero’s Journey, but instead of writing from your point of view, you write it from the brand’s perspective.

Have a killer CTA

As mentioned earlier, every copy should end with a call to action. This is why you’re writing all this content in the first place. At the end of it all, you want to convince them to buy your products or services.

So while you must share education and knowledge with your audience, you’re still essentially selling to them. Your CTA is what converts a reader into a customer, so you need to have it and it has to be a strong one.

The best CTAs have a powerful, commanding tone. “Buy now!” is a generic go-to CTA, so adding a creative flair while keeping its enthusiastic and convincing voice will do wonders.

Keep your CTA short and make sure that it’s direct to the point. Word it so your audience will believe that they’ll be missing out if they didn’t bite on your offer.

Copywriting services is an ever-reliable method of making your brand more visible and snagging viewers that you can convert to loyal customers. There are many factors to consider in making sure that your copy is top-notch:

  • Does it follow the AIDA formula?
  • Does it score high on Google’s algorithm metrics?
  • Does it cater to your target audience?
  • Does your website have a variety of themes that will keep your audience interested in reading the next article?
  • Does the CTA do its job?

If you’ve answered yes to all these questions, then you know your copy is good quality. 

To further improve the quality of your blog, join our content workshop. Contact us below about how to get a deeper insight into how to write copy that will generate more leads and boost your content towards the top of Google searches.

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” ―Orson Scott Card, American novelist, public speaker, and essayist. 

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