Although simple or seemingly casual, words can cast an ever-lasting impact on the reader. A Korean proverb says,” Words have no wings, but they can fly a thousand miles.” These words alone explain the impact of writing compelling copy in digital marketing.
Copywriting is the art of writing a compelling copy orchestrated to get a conversion of any sort. Whether incorporated in emails, social media content planners, a jingle, a long blog, or even an ebook, a cogent symphony of words can go a long way.
Copywriting can be defined as a guide for users to navigate their journey across your content with a simple goal of conversion, leading them to a CTA.
Unlike advertisement writing, copywriting is truly the art of developing a bridge between users and brands by focusing on their problems, paint points, agitations, and motivations and offering them the solutions they need to overcome these issues, all while keeping the content informative and humane.
Although copywriting has been used in marketing since the times of scrolls, in the modern era of digital marketing and social media management tools, it has evolved according to the behavior of people.
The rapid pace of modern lifestyle demands clear, concise, compelling, and credible copy across every touch-point to balance with the short attention span of the contemporary consumer.
(Data Source InsiderIntelligence)
Gen-Z is the most significant target audience among businesses as they are the largest demographic of modern buyers. A study shows that the attention span of Gen-Z is 1.3 seconds for ads. This attention span varies across different social media platforms.
Difference between Copywriting, Content Writing, and Advertisement Writing.
This might come as a surprise to many, but all of these three types of writing have different styles and goals in mind.
Content writing, on the other hand, is focused on informing and educating the reader with a long-lasting and future-oriented goal in mind. Advertisement writing aims to get customers to either buy something, subscribe to something, or get any other kind of conversion without bothering with the information. Content writing is extensive, while ad content is brief and precise.
Copywriting is a balanced combination of both techniques. It is the process of creating a unique copy or imitating the research the writer focused on to get some conversion from the reader, all while providing helpful information.
Consequently, every social media marketing manager focuses mainly on copywriting and the necessary add-ons of content and advertisement writing for an effective content marketing strategy. Once the content is created, Social media management tools are used to productively market it.
Most effective copywriting techniques and formulas for user’s attention.
Copywriting is a vast field entailing many success formulas tested and executed by digital marketing experts. Here are a few most used formulas to help you format your copy.
AIDA
A_ Attention: Get the reader’s attention, ask them a question, make a statement, and give some statistical indicators.
I_Interest: Build on the reader’s attention, give them interesting information to engage them, and personalize the solution according to their problem.
D_Desire: Focus on the benefits of your products or services, entice desire, and how it can make their life easy.
A_Action: Drive the desire to get a conversion
The 4Cs
Clear: Don’t wander off from the topic, ensure you are clear in your approach, and avoid using wage assumptions and unnecessary buzzwords.
Concise: Stay to the point, offer concise and targeted content,
Compelling: Focus on benefits instead of features, write from a persuasive vantage point and ensure that the user is aware of the benefits early on.
Credible: Be believable, don’t make false claims, and offer unattainable benefits.
The 4Us
Useful: Show the usefulness of the product or service to the reader, something they see value in for themselves, a solution.
Urgent: Give a sense of urgency in acquiring the product or service, limited products, and countdowns.
Unique: Make the reader believe your offer is special and stands out from the other options. Even if it’s a single feature of extra benefit.
Ultra-Specific: Bring in personalization in your copy, resonate with the reader’s problem, and give details to ensure your authority and expertise in the field.
FAB
F_Feature: What can you or your product do for the customer? What are your features and capabilities?
A_Advantage: Why should the reader choose your product? How can it help with the problem at hand?
B_Benefit: What problems can the reader overcome with your product or services, and how can you make their life easy?
BAB
B_Before: Show the current problem and mention the misery of their current state; it could get worse.
A_After: What would your situation be if the problem is solved, a stress-free time? Imagine progressing without this hindrance.
B_Bridge: How can the reader achieve the desired state you mentioned? How can your product solve the reader’s problem and bridge a connection between pain and solution through your product?
PAS
P_Problem: Identify the reader’s problem, what they lack, and their shortcomings, and mention pain points.
A_Agitate: What emotions are triggered by these pain points and issues, stir these emotions, and ruffle their feathers.
S_Solution: Offer them the solution, a way to relieve the pain, and overcome the hurdles.
SCH
S_Star: Who is the star of the story you are telling to convince the reader— your product or services highlight your features.
C_Chain: A series of facts and features designed to compel the reader, what they can achieve with your product, and how you are helpful in their story.
H_Hook: Get them to take an action desired to you, subscription, sale, any other conversion, clear CTA indicator.
ACCA
A_Awareness: Create awareness of the problem to the reader, and show them the issues and hurdles.
C_Comprehension: Explain how this problem will affect them and comprehensively explain to them that you have the solution.
C_Conviction: Entice a desire to solve the problems and how your problem can solve it.
A_Action: Direct them to take action.
Bob Stone’s Gem
Strongest benefit: Start your copy with your best feature, the strongest benefit for the reader.
Expand the benefits: Build on the most potent advantage, and show how it can help your situation generically.
What you will get: Explain to the reader what they will get in the entirety of the product and what other benefits entail.
Proof of statement: Proof that you are credible; give testimonials, case studies, and documented evidence of your proficiency.
What will happen if they don’t choose: Focus on the pain points, imagine the problems you will have, and what you are losing.
Summarize all the benefits: Sum up all the benefits and how they align with the reader’s problem.
Call-To-Action: Ask them to take action.
The Fan Dancer
Be vaguely specific about something: Create curiosity in the reader’s mind by stating something that the reader is familiar with and tantalize his interest by building on it. Intrigue the reader without giving any information, with their curiosity.
How to craft the best Copywriting Strategy.
The techniques mentioned above are the most common ones used by writers. There is a long list of formulas used by different marketers and writers, but these formulas only offer the format for copy, not the copy itself.
An effective copywriting strategy entails a lot of other variables, from the copy format to social media management tools like Adublisher, that will be used to market the written copy across different platforms.
Digital marketing experts must answer questions like what you are writing, who you are writing, who will read your copy, how the copy will reach them, content marketing strategy, and so on before choosing the format.
No matter what copywriting technique you opt for, the copywriting methods will remain the same.
Know your audience. (Who will read your copy?)
Knowing your audience is the first step in every modern business model, whether selling cars or posting blogs online. A one-size-fits-all strategy has no place in the ever-evolving digital world.
What you write and how it will reach the prospective audience starts with finding the said audience. An example would be KFC; if you are writing a copy for KFC, you will focus on fun, fried chicken, family, taste, enjoy, celebrate, and other factors and key phrases entitled with the topic.
Contrary to that, if you are writing for a corporation like IBM, your technique will take a 180-degree turn as now you are jumping from the world of fun and teenagers to the realm of professionals and businesses associated with technology. Social media management tools help marketers analyze their posts and audience easily.
Similarly, your approach to cooking and crude oil will differ, although some facets of both demographics coincide. A specific audience targeted at your product is necessary for the success of every content strategy.
Set a goal. (What is it that you want?)
Copywriting is the art of writing compelling copy targeted around a “goal” or type of conversion. As mentioned above, copywriting is a vast field encompassing emails, ads, and engaging copy to be used and published by social media management softwares or blogs.
Different businesses want different conversions from these marketing channels. If you are selling products, you want more sales; if you have a blog site, you want affiliate referrals; if you offer recurring services, you want subscriptions.
Finalizing your end goal after funneling your audience is essential to move the process forward effectively.
Write Compelling Copy. (What to write and how to write)
Write compelling content execution the techniques and formulas mentioned in the blog. If you analyze closely, all methods focus on a few key points.
- Be clear in your content and use humane language.
- Focus on your audience and set the tone of your copy.
- Be concise and precise, don’t beat around the bush.
- Identify the problem for the reader.
- Explain the outcomes if the problem persists.
- How can the problem be solved?
- How can your product make their life easy by providing a comprehensive solution?
- Convince the reader with your copy by adding facts and features.
- Focus on benefits rather than features.
- Create a desire for your product.
- Drive an action from the reader.
Making your copy visible to readers. (How will the copy reach the reader?)
SEO and search engine optimization are the most effective and tested strategies to market your content online. SEO is driven by keywords, phrases, and words people use to search for answers online.
Conduct thorough keyword research and finalize primary and secondary keywords based on the high-volume and low competition. Orchestrate your copy around these keywords for maximum visibility in SERPs.
Since multiple search engines like Google, YouTube, and Pinterest exist, your SEO strategy must focus on the respective search engine for better results.
Since social media dominates the digital realm, limiting your efforts to just Google would be unwise. Utilize social media management tools like Adublisher to market your content and copy on social media to eliminate the organic reach issue everyone is so worried about.
[Here is how you can schedule posts on social media with Adublisher]
These softwares offer features like social media content planner to create a social media posting schedule and post the entire calendar with bulk scheduling to get ahead of the competition, saving time and money.
Validate your claims. (Why should they choose you?)
Validating your claims shows the credibility of the services you offer readers. One thing that people prefer more than anything is word of mouth. No matter how advanced the marketing is, word of mouth has been the most potent motivator for people from the stone age to the Age of Pixels.
(Data Source Invesp)
Word of mouth generates a mind-bending $6 trillion annually. It’s essential to add some social proof to create a sense of trust in readers’ minds to get a conversion. Adding testimonials, case studies, reviews, or endorsements from social media influencers is crucial.
These validations will help with the negative question that the reader might have.
Use prominent and strong Call-To-Action. (How can they give you conversion?)
Since the entirety of the copywriting is fixated on getting a conversion by beguiling an action from the reader, it’s only logical to ease the process by adding a non-missable CTA in the copy.
Be bold in your approach, and make your CTA stand out by using different techniques like bright colors, hovers, animations, etc. Another way to beat the competition is by using relevant CTA like if you are selling, buy now; if you are a newsletter, subscribe now; for a music platform like
Spotify, listen now; and for affiliate use, Click now.
Conclusion
Copywriting is an art, and you need to bring out the artist in you to think the entire process through before publishing your content. Use different writing formulas, marketing channels, and social media management tools, and write clear, concise, and compelling copy with bold CTA to get a conversion.
