You have a good idea. Your idea worked out and your team developed a new product which is amazing. Now what? This is the time to sell your wonderful product to your prospective customers. But how do you take your product in front of them? As a matter of fact, there are many ways to do so. But the most effective approach is copywriting. In general, Website copywriting matters. More than that, website copy really matters. It is where business relies on generating sales for your business. Words have the ability to convert, and more so often it makes the business to fly or flounder. Hence, it is important to write in an artistic way.
Most of the digital markets think that they can produce effective copy, even without prior experience. But the challenging task is that they need to write compelling copy to persuade a stranger through words.
It takes days and years of practice to write a perfect copy. Of course, here are a few tips to excel before writing the copy but there should be a continuous hard work and patience. Despite all that, the copy should be relevant, simple, memorable and intimidating to look at. Overall, make it appealing to read.
Wordcount does matter
While writing a content, you always end up thinking Whether it should be a long or short content? Which works better. The more the better or the less the more. Well, to know the answer to this, there is no one prescribed approach for this. Moreover, it depends on the Rankings
Keyword Optimization
Followers
Popularity
Engagement
Authority
Conversions etc.
According to one they say, short articles rank well on social media. On the contrary, others prefer to have longer content. Hence, it is complicated to stick to one. Meanwhile, there was a study conducted where they say, long content is well alive. The content which has 2000 words or more have more rankings. The ideal blog posts consist of 1600 words.
Albeit, others say that you have to be considerate with the words. Especially when it is the case of web content. Research says that there is only 7 sec to impress the audience. That’s not a lot of time, obviously, we need to show the value of your product in that short-time. Above all the persuasive content always typifies “What in it for them”.
Follow the below steps to make an excellent copywriting
- Visit your competitors’ website
- Browse all different pages-About us, Services, blogs etc.
- Copy and paste, various pages content and note down the word count.
- Observe any differences
- Think why does the word count differ from page to page
- What is the main goal of these web pages? How do you accomplish?
- Know how many words did you use on those corresponding pages. Edit accordingly.
Know your viewers
While writing the content, many writers have the habit of focusing on themselves. But never make that mistake and focus on the agenda. As there
200 millions of content being generated online for every minute.
205 millions of emails being sent.
3.5 million Facebook posts, tweets being posts
And 1200 words blog posts being published.
You need to stand out in this rat race.
It is difficult to stand high in the crowd. Hence, one of the best approaches is to know the audience and developing a target personas. In the first place, you need to focus only on one person, and rest follows the race. Equally important to use
Personalization with a unique voice
Humour
Including details of the brand or businesses as much as you can
Consider this as a compelling copy by which you will make a lot of improvements. The value of what you are selling and to who needs to be prioritized.
- Don’t use jargon which is difficult to understand.
- Use a transparent copy and never create a barrier between your sales and websites
- Mention your goals clearly. Every website page has a copy with a certain mission to accomplish.
- Write down the chronological steps followed by your journey. Write everything in detail and don’t presume that your viewers know everything
- Last, adjust and modify your original copy
These few guidelines can make your content look appealing. Moreover, it is your target audience who guides you the language and tone. Resonate and influence them to take action.
Leave behind the academic writing
Academic writing should be professional writing and need not be scientific. There are certain guidelines, which does not appeal to the target audience. Forthwith, don’t dump everything which you know, just be simple. Use everyday words and conversive language. This approach reaches a wider audience. There is a two-step process for this
After writing just read the paragraph aloud to yourself. If there is anything that doesn’t look like conversing with a friend. Change it.
Read out loud to another person and ask their opinion. If their point of view doesn’t match then modify it accordingly.
Generally speaking, it sounds like grammar and spelling are more vital. But in terms of academic writing, school teachers used to stress more on vocabulary and sentence structures.
With this in mind, how do you create brand awareness without any grammar rules? The first thing to remember is copywriting is not all about the rules, it about when you break them. It is how your copy typifies your brand and adjusts according to the audience’s mindset. Add headlines which hook the reader and appeals them to click on the tab. Use power words with space around. By all means, every word should have a purpose in it.
Right Voice
The voice is something where the article feels and sounds. It is always supported by language, word choice and style. It should not be copied version. There should be an individual and unique style which resembles your brand. Although you developed a unique voice, it doesn’t stop there. On the other hand, you need to continuously hone your skills. As a writer, style is your most prized possession. It should be evolved with you over a certain period of time. If you are the one who didn’t find your voice then try this
Find at least 5 writers whose content seems to be more appealing
Choose one article from each that is relevant and allures you.
In contrast, read your content samples, slowly and loudly if necessary.
Never try to be clever or cute. Don’t use a thesaurus. If the word doesn’t strike you at the exact moment, think harder. Simplicity is the mantra to take you nearer to the audience. Choose everyday vocabulary.
Copy the words of other writers, observe their tone carefully. Given that, this doesn’t mean you are having plagiarism. In reality, there are thousands of websites out there, by imitating your favourite writer, you are just developing your skills. There is no other way to rip off other’s work and claim it as yours. Hence, what approach you can take is read about the writers you like and write like the same person you read.
Most compelling evidence is adding a humour if your writer has just done that. Try this for at least 5 to 6 articles and see the impact.
Research
To emphasize, when beginning to write a compelling copy, what is that all go is preparation. By all means, there should be a detective work and spy on everything about your
- Service or Product
- Target audience
- Market and competition
- Buyer’s perception
Collect a lot of information that should be at your fingertips. There are a lot of writers who think that they knew everything but in reality, they know only a few things. If you flip through some of the pages written by budding writers, you end up thinking its an inaccurate information. But if it continues like this, most often Google will penalize your account as there will be more bounce rates. Hence, it is advisable to do thorough homework prior to publishing the content. Must be remembered that dig little further, than just merely doing a cursory overview.
Truly, you are not going to be an expert by doing this but the write-up you made will be a great contribution to the website. Moreover, there are online tools like https://brandmentions.com/ which helps you to research your topics easily. Additionally, try doing your own research, add statistics and ensure that the sources are appropriate to the content. Even for an amateur writer, this looks like a professional page.
Active Language
While writing content you might have come across terms like active and passive. But while writing the content, it may be email or blog posts active voice is more appealing. To put it differently, consider the below examples.
Ram bought a camera
The camera is bought by Ram.
Which is more appealing. Obviously the first sentence. As it conveys the active voice. When comes to writing marketing content most of the writers prefer to have Active voice as it is
- Engaging
- Persuasive
- Easy to read
- Better momentum
- Quick and simple to digest
A trick for this is to use many strong verbs and action words. To be sure, this makes more impact. In either of this case, it really leaves the content more powerful and controlled. This brings more ranking to your website. Correspondingly active voice makes it clear of what the content is all about. It easily resembles the headline. Likewise, it eliminates ambiguities and additional responsibilities.
How to identify the passive voice in a sentence is a big challenge
- Verbs like to be, was, were, are, could be, and have been, specifies that they are passive sentences.
- Second, a past participle with the words ending in “-ed”.
Hence,it is always recommendable to use these words as sparingly as possible.
Master Punctuation
After grammar and spellings, next comes the punctuation in content writing. Definitely, it needs special attention. Bad punctuation, totally changes the meaning of the sentence. As a matter of fact, “its” versus “it’s” needs a special mention. Read the copy again and check which makes the sense. Use Commas wherever it is necessary. As an illustration, consider
Don’t be a psycho
Do not be a psycho
Which sentence has rhythm in it? In either case, the first sentence makes sense. Ultimately, it boils down to having a rhythm in the sentence. Thus, for clever copy punctuation are a must. It might also influence your audience’s traits, experience, beliefs and social background.
As can be seen, if you want to convey any sentence urgently, use semicolons instead of full stops. In the middle of the sentences use parentheses, dashes and commas if you want to detour your sentences. This makes people pay attention to. Amid all other things, This seems to be paying lot more attention to details. But once you understand the impact punctuation gives, you may end up giving more attention to punctuation. There is always another side of the coin.
Ensure that the commas are not overused. Read out the text loud and replace the commas when necessary.
Second, try not to use exclamation marks, and be more dramatic.
Conclusion
If you want to write a fascinating copy for your website, first you need to learn how to attract the right audience. In the foreground, put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Think from their perspective. Have an eye-catching attitude. Though you imitate others for the first few articles. Try to incorporate a unique style for your content. Moreover, research well and add keywords wherever necessary. Make the content skimmable by using active voice. To emphasize more, in the field of content marketing always use everyday language and don’t use jargons. It is an art and science to master. By the same token strike a balance between killer content and SEO content. To put it differently, follow the above few tips along with others that make Google easy to understand and readable.