There are countless ways that you can approach copywriting. The difficulty in having these options is most of us find ourselves in a position in which we Struggle with analysis paralysis. This is to say that when presented with too many options it can become quite difficult to settle on one. To mitigate this we have selected some of the best copywriting strategies are there with examples for you to choose from. What would you say makes a successful copywriting campaign?
The answer will usually come down to this CTA. If the customers are responsive to this CTA based on the copy on the page then I can paint has been successful. If that is not the case then it is important that we go back to the drawing board to see where we may have gone wrong. Even in the successful campaigns, you may still need to continue to revisit the drawing board to see how I can pay and can be improved. This is an integral part of the strategy, optimisation.
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Pit emotion against reason
Most copywriting is about convincing the reader to take a specific action that you would have pretty specified. In most of these cases, the reader would then have to opportunity to consider your proposition before deciding on whether to takes a national not. The easiest way to drive action is to appeal to emotion. This is the strategy that pits emotion against reason.
Emotion is a very powerful tool when it comes to convincing anyone to take action. Most of the advertising that we do will arrive at the audience in a time where they cannot make a decision immediately. This is the reason why on average it takes upwards of three interactions with an ad before the user is converted. They need to be made aware of the problem, they need to be made aware of the solution and then convinced that now is the time to take that action. This can obviously be a long process in cases where your product is not dealing with a life and death matter.
Most of your potential customers will fall back on reason to try and find excuses really as to why this action does not need to be taken immediately. They may need to speak with the family, consult their budget and so on. All of these are logical step steps to take.
However, we are not looking to appeal to logic. Is that we are looking to negate logic and go with emotion. This technique is based on finding the emotional angle in your appeal. Check for instance if you’re selling a children’s toy you could list all of the advantages that this toy has in comparison to other toys. Your audience may be impressed with what the toy can do then things such as, “My child has too many toys” or “I don’t have the money right now”, and some other reasons that will come to mind.
What if you were to appeal to their emotion? What if instead of appealing to the reason which is on the advantages of having this gadget, you simply talk to you why the child cannot afford to be the one child that does not have his toy. That’s an emotional touch. No parent wants to have their child miss out on an opportunity.
Reason says, “This is not in our budget”. Emotion says, “I cannot deprive my child of this.” Emotion will always trump reason when it comes to conversion.
Consider any children’s advertisement that you have come across on television. Perhaps one for a fruit juice. They could sell the health benefits, but they sell the emotion, how it would make your child feel. This is even more impressive as a tool when you consider that the child is not the decision-maker.
Emotion is what drives conversation amongst the children. It is what drives them to bring it up to their parents. The parents are buying into the feeling that their children would potentially have. Although perspective will differ, the children are buying into the same thing. Emotions are universal. So how can we build a campaign around an emotion?
Empathy Maps are your friend
To understand emotion we can always begin with an empathy map. This is where we take the target audience’s emotional perspective into account. What are the things that they care about? Although it is near impossible to completely know this you can drill down as deep as possible.
Every empathy map will start with the most obvious things. What is the service that you are offering? For instance, if we were to sell a home, our empathy map would be tailored to the potential home buyer’s emotions.
What are some of the things that someone that is considering buying a home may be struggling with? Perhaps they may not necessarily be struggling. They may simply be concerned or curious about certain things. Let’s connect these concerns to emotions. We can divide these emotions into how they would feel prior to purchasing a home and how they would feel once they have committed to the purchase.
The Prior Emotions
- Curiosity
- Concern
- Anxiety
- Worry
The Resultant Emotions
- Elation
- Relief
- Victorious
- Peace of mind
To drill down on the prior emotions we can create a list of some of the things that may be contributing factors to them feeling this way. It is only when we understand the causation that we can map a clear path to the solution.
Curiosity
- What is available in their area?
- What is available within their budget?
- How can banks help?
Concern
- What are some costs that may arise later?
- What if I buy a home that I do no like?
- What if I fail to notice something during my viewings?
Anxiety
- When would I be able to move in?
- Are there any upfront costs that I should be aware of?
Worry
- Will I have enough money to complete the purchase?
- I have never participated in such a transaction.
Your role is to then connect each one of these prior emotions to a resultant emotion. It can sometimes be done in a single piece of content. In most cases, you would need to create a variety of content to fully address it all. This is one of the main reasons that you will find long-form content to be particularly effective.
It provides most of the information that would allow each reader to find their answers. One thing to always be mindful of when working with long-form content is that it has to be very easy to follow.
If a reader is looking for an answer to a specific question they should be able to navigate to the section in which their answer is without trouble. It should be effortless. Any effort on the part of the reader is likely to lead them to navigate away from your copy in search for a simpler answer.
Testing the user interface is a must. You may think that navigation is perfect by all conventions, but your audience is the only ones that will know. If you can make use of a focus group that fit your user persona, it will go a long way.
Scepticism is the answer
We believe that good copy is fluid, it takes the shape of the container in which it is put. As such, it is never quite final. It is never settled. There is always room for it to be improved. The sceptic will continue to ask questions of their copy. They will continue to probe it in pursuit of something better.
This should be done even when the results suggest that you may have arrived. Consider this scenario. You have created great copy for a product’s landing page. When you launch this page and drive traffic to it, conversions are through the roof. Let’s just say for the sake of argument, you deliver revenue of $100 000 in a short period for minimal cost.
This is going well for you. One can choose to settle and leave that as is. What if you could test that same copy on a different layout? Even if it was to increase your revenue by 5%, it is a massive win for such a small change.
Remain a sceptic.
Arouse Curiosity
Most of us watch the news out of the need to be made aware of what is going on around us and across the world. I do not know anyone who would say he/she particularly enjoys watching the news. It is not much fun. The role of a copywriter is not just to inform, it is to arouse curiosity.
The first thing that will grab attention is the heading. It is what will determine whether your reader engages beyond this point or not. A great heading will generate more responses than one that is poorly worded. Consider the famous one below.
When someone clicks on your CTA it is because they have become curious enough to want to probe further. It is not often that the buyer will arrive at this point on his/her own. They need to be guided through this journey. Part of this guiding will undoubtedly be down to providing key responses to questions that they have.
The method through which this information is provided is important. It will determine the rate of engagement. A good example is the difference between a pitch done in 60 seconds in comparison to a research paper. The research paper will certainly have more meat on its bone, but the audience does not necessarily want to bite into this meat without knowing what to expect.
You can arouse curiosity by delivering your key facts and figures. This is why infographics perform as well as they do. What are the key facts that you would like your readers to know? If you cannot boil them down to a minute, it is likely that your readers will navigate away. Find your key message, and shout about it.
Sell the Solution not the Product
Do you remember the pen scene from the Wolf of Wall Street? If you don’t I will add the video to this section. In summary, Jordan asks one of his colleagues to sell him a pen. This was a challenge to see how he could market the pen for immediate conversion.
The method was simple. He asks the buyer to write his name down, of which he didn’t have a pen to use. Once the need was there, the solution could seamlessly be presented. The best way to sell anything is to simply solve problems. Most people do not care about the million features that your product has.
What they want to know is how it will address the problem that they have. They want a solution. It is that simple. Solutions tend to sell themselves when well presented. Do you think you would struggle to sell food to people at the end of a fasting period? No, they have a problem. You have the solution.
Write for all
It is also very important to be aware that not every reader is ready to be converted. Their journeys are different amounts of time. You can always give them a nudge, but it does not always work. Your goal is to be able to cater for all. Some readers are simply at the curiosity phase. Perhaps you are selling vehicles and the reader has just gotten a learner’s permit.
They will certainly be looking for a vehicle, yet it is not an immediate need. They are at the curiosity phase. Inform them enough such that when the time comes they have built a strong enough, trusting relationship that they will have no choice but to come back to you for the purchase. This can be done by answering the questions that they have. Their questions will not be the same as those of an experienced driver. As such, you would need to create content that is specific to each persona.
Inform the curious, convert those that are reader to buy.
Informing is how you build your brand. People begin to associate your brand with knowhow. They will search for answers from you and invariably purchase from you.
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