When someone is going to create a website, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
“Oh, I would love to design it like this, that it had the logo in this way, that it looked like this other one in this section or that it did this parallax effect when I move the content…”.
That person launches to create the web, hires a design team, WordPress programmer, or whatever, and then comes the “uncomfortable” question from the service provider:
“Okay, everything is perfect. One question: do you have the content that will go on the web or any idea of how you want to distribute it in the sections? ”.
Shout, shout, shout.
You remain silent without knowing very well what to say because you had not even thought about the content, beyond seeing what your competition is doing, and then you answer:
“Yes, I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”
3 months later you don’t have the website because the content is still pending, the designer is fed up with you and the website hasn’t come out.
At that point, you start writing and you realize that the content is not so easy and you have no idea what to pass the designer, beyond your resume for the about me or about.
You search Google, trying to understand how people write their websites, and suddenly THE word appears: copywriting.
“Are their people who get paid just to write this? I did not know, I did not know it”.
And you didn’t know it was that hard either, right? 😊
If you have experienced this situation, this article will help you understand what copywriting is all about, why it is so important and why the web is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to writing texts that sell.
Also, if you have ever considered that beautiful thing about “living to write” and reading “getting paid just for writing” has made your skin crawl…
Keep reading, you are interested in following me.
This copywriting… what is it? How can it benefit me?
There are many definitions of copywriting, but I like to give 2: academic and direct.
Let’s start with the academic definition:
“Copywriting is the mixture of your experiences, specific knowledge and ability to process information and transmit it to a text to sell a product or service”
(Joseph Sugarman)
This means that copywriting consists of processing information, based on your experience in the specific sector, past experiences, and knowledge, and transmitting it to a text in any format to sell a product or service.
And now we go with the direct definition:
“Copywriting is about turning words into money.”
I think this needs no explanation. After all, when you hire a copywriter or spend time writing your own texts, what you are looking for is to convert more and, in turn, sell more with the same product and/or service and the same amount of traffic.
That is not always the case, but I think the purpose of copywriting is understood: to write texts that help to convert better through any channel (web, email, ads…).
Benefits of copywriting
I am going to describe the number 1 benefit of copywriting through a specific job with a client. I won’t reveal who he is, but I’m sure you’ve seen his ads and you’re even a client 😊
Two years ago an info producer contacted me and told me: “My sales page does not convert much. We sell well, but the page does not convert well to call “.
There I got to work and, after an express investigation, several meetings, and an analysis of the testimonials, I built a new sales page.
I don’t think it’s necessary to say which column represents the previous sales page and which the one I made, right?
Here we can see the main benefit of copywriting: an increase in the conversion of a communication or sales channel. In this case, it was the sales page.
Normally, when increasing the public as in this case, the conversion is slightly reduced if you keep a “fair” text, but in this case, even increasing the traffic by 217%, the conversion increased by 54%.
The most important? I turned those words into more money, our main function.
Even so, copywriting has other indirect benefits beyond increasing the conversion from visit to sale:
- Increased CTR and advertising performance: an ad with a more elaborate script, that worked correctly and hits the specific points will always help to improve the CTR and all the important metrics at the advertising level (yes, the CPL too).
- Brand positioning: through the writing of frequent emails, advertisements with attractive concepts, choosing a communication style, creating a mechanism, and other techniques related to copy, you end up positioning yourself in a predominant way in the mind of the client.
- Greater consumption of content and permanence on the page: the improvement of the content on pages, emails, social networks, etc… increases the time on the page, social network, or content interaction.
Are there more benefits?
Sure, but just with these I think you’re already starting to think “you have to work on the copy…”.
Elements of copywriting
When working on these texts, we have different elements that must be worked on depending on the piece we are writing. For example, writing the elements of a Facebook ad is not the same as writing it on a sales page.
Even so, the main elements that are common in most formats are the following:
Qualification
Title of the page, subject of the email, or highlighted text of an advertisement. According to David Ogilvy, 80% of the success of a piece of text depends on this point.
Although I do not believe in such a large percentage, the title is the door of the text and what attracts attention… If it is bad, the rest is of little use.
Here is an example of the registration page title for the #SoyCopywriter event:
History
The story is the link between the title and the call to action, connecting the audience with the product, the problem, and the “need” to act. Without stories, there is no sale, and there would be no email sequences or daily mailings.
For example, this is the beginning of an email that we use for an email sequence and is used to “warm-up” the audience:
vignettes
Bullet points are essential in copywriting, especially when defining the offer to show what, but not how.
Look at the difference, at the level of curiosity and call for attention, between these 2 vignettes:
- Why you should write 4-7 emails on the final day of an affiliate offer to double your sales.
- Why releasing the “Email Kraken” can double, triple and possibly quadruple your sales at launch (for some reason there is always psychological resistance to doing this when I show it to people – but every time I do it, sales come in quickly and predictably with a small percentage of unsubscribers (Details on page 31).
They both talk about the same content, but Ben Settle is an artist when it comes to cartoons and he writes wonders like the second one we just read. I want to release the Kraken, not write 4-7 emails 😊
Testimonials
Social proof, through writing testimonials and success stories, is part of almost any text or campaign.
If you analyze the market, today most people are skeptical and don’t believe anything, so social proof is one of the few ways to get someone to say “ok, this man or woman is not selling me smoke”.
Call to action
At the end of a text, there should almost always be a call to action. If it doesn’t exist, how are we going to convert it?
Writing closings, generating trust near the purchase button, or working on the microcopy writing of a button is essential to write texts that work.
Here is an example of the text prior to the purchase options on the sales page of Create Your Good Relations by Álex Rovira:
Are there more items?
Of course!
The big idea, value proposition, subtitles, mechanism, guarantee, frequently asked questions, postscript…
There are tons of them, but with the five I’ve outlined you can form an ad, registration page, sales page, and just about any piece you can imagine.
Do not try to get to the bottom of the matter so soon 😊
Where and how to apply to Copywrite to your business
This is the next question that appears when you say “come on, I’m going to put those elements in my texts… although I don’t even know where to start”.
As I have already told you, copywriting is not only used on the web. The scope reaches much further, encompassing this entire list:
- Web: home page, about me or about, sales page, registration page, contact, forms, registration boxes, etc.
- Email: welcome sequences, email funnels, abandoned carts, daily emails, cold emails, onboarding, etc.
- Ads – Ads from Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TV, Radio, Print, etc.
- Presentations: webinars, Launch Formula, pitch for attracting investors…
- Success Stories – Writing testimonials, success stories, and detailed customer stories.
- Social networks: publications, stories, scripts for direct, etc.
- And beyond: everything you imagine at the level of communication, except for errors or ignorance, should apply the copywriting techniques described in this article.
Copy literally encompasses all communication. I have come to use it to negotiate with my bank manager, convince someone that watching a movie was a great option, or motivate my team.
The person who masters copywriting masters communication and sales. And that, my friend, is something that will help you throughout your life.
And I… could I be a copywriter?
This is the final question you will come to, after understanding what it is, how it works at a basic level, and what applications it has.
The answer is complex since I know very different people who are dedicated to copywriting and who have few things in common. Of course, there are 3 main elements that mark a person who is dedicated to this:
- Curiosity: the copywriter does not like to “know about something”, he likes to “know everything and in-depth about that something”. We are curious by nature.
- Ability to communicate: I am not talking about writing with excellent syntax, but about knowing how to communicate, tell stories or be the center of attention with your social media posts or stories among friends.
- Visual thinking: ability to create images with words, to go beyond the “letter”.
There are 4 other elements, less important but relevant, that also mark whether a person can dedicate himself to this or not. Even so, I think that to know if this is your thing you have to experience it 100%: understand it, live it, build a sales text with some instructions and go out and offer the service.
That, which sounds terrifying and scary just to read it, is just what my team and I are forcing you to do at the free #I’mCopywriter event.
There, through 3 classes, you understand in depth what copywriting is, the 4-step process to write any sales text, and how to go out and attract the first clients.
If you want to go deeper, see you there.
And if with just this article you already know that copywriting is your thing or that you want to apply it to your business, tell me in the comments how you are going to do it.
