Reach More Clients with These 6 Copywriting Practices
If you’re like most business owners, you’ve spent hours, days, maybe months crafting the right words for your marketing. Maybe this is an intensive website, nurture emails, brochures, or social media posts. But when you look at the numbers, your marketing doesn’t seem to be attracting your ideal clients. And all your hard work was all for naught.
This can be extremely frustrating.
But I have some good news for you. With a few simple tweaks, you can transform your copy and get the people you want interested in your business. Here are six copywriting practices that you need to start using—today.
Tip #1: Know your audience.
Ever landed on a website and thought “wow, it seems like they’re speaking directly to me!”
This doesn’t just happen. It takes research and strategy to create content that connects.
In order to write words that spark attention and entice action, you must know your audience. Otherwise, you will create copy that speaks to no one in particular. Which is a surefire way to quickly lose potential clients.
Get to know exactly who you’re writing for.
How?
Start by creating personas for your ideal audience. Find out about these people through internet searches, market research, and tools such as Quora or Answer the Public. Or even better—talk directly to past clients.
Ask questions like:
What do they value the most?
What experiences are they looking for when seeking out your product or service?
What are their pain points and how can you solve them?
What are their objections?
Once you feel like you know your audience on a personal level, speak to them through your copy. Calm their fears and give them what they need.
Tip #2: Use the right voice and tone.
Your brand voice is your business personality. Maybe your brand voice is bold and inspiring. Maybe it’s calm and professional.
Barkbox is knocking it out of the park when it comes to brand voice. They’ve matched their silly, fun, infectious personality to the qualities that all dog-lovers are attracted to. Genius, right?
Your brand tone is what you say and how you say it.
We all express ourselves through our personalities. Think of the tone in your writing as the way you express your business personality in your writing.
Barkbox uses super casual tones that are whimsical, silly, and upbeat.
Maybe you’re quiet and respectful. Maybe you’re sassy and irreverent. While brand voice always remains consistent, tone can vary depending on who you’re writing to or the type of content you’re writing.
Your personality is a great way to express yourself. And the same can be said for your business’s personality.
Begin by establishing your brand voice. Then, infiltrate every part of your marketing with your brand tone. It will set you apart and attract the people you’re looking for.
Tip #3: Create a unique value proposition.
Many companies make the mistake of trying to highlight all the amazing things they do—right from the start. But this will not capture your ideal audience.
When someone first lands on your website, they need to be able to understand exactly what you do and who you do it for in a matter of seconds. And they want to know what makes you different. Why should they use you over your competition?
This is your time to really zero in on what sets you apart from your competition—also known as your value proposition.
Your unique value proposition is a statement that tells your audience exactly what you do, how you will address their needs and solve their problems, and what makes you different from others.
In short, why should they decide to go with you as opposed to your competition?
Once you’ve established this, focus on using it in your copy.
This statement doesn’t need to be long. You can easily say what you need to say in one or two sentences.
Tip #4: Solve your audience’s pain points.
People do not land on your website because they want to know all about your awesome products and services and how much your customers love you.
They land on your website because they have a problem and they’re looking to solve it. These problems are called pain points. And your main goal is to address these pain points and solve them.
Begin by developing a persona for your ideal audience.
Then, find out what their pain points are.
What are they afraid of?
What do they dislike?
What keeps them up at night?
Once you understand why your audience needs your products or services, you can create copy telling them how you will give them what they need.
Show your audience that you actually understand their pain. Practice empathy, people! This will go a long way.
Use storytelling to show your audience that you understand their pains. Storytelling is a powerful copywriting technique that tugs at the hearts of your readers and leaves them thinking, “wow, this company gets me.” You can also use testimonials or case studies. They will show problems that past clients had and how you resolved them (more on this below).
Again, you must understand their problem before you present your product or service as the solution. Otherwise, you will miss the mark.
Tip #4: Build trust.
When looking for a product or service to solve their needs, people will trust other customers over trusting the brand. This is an opportunity for them to hear what other people are saying about you.
And if a brand has great reviews, we trust that it will live up to our expectations.
If you don’t gather reviews or testimonials from previous customers, start now. This is one of the best ways to get your business noticed—in a good way.
Where should you put your testimonials? Start with your website. Places like your home page or about page are a great place to sprinkle testimonials.
You can also add them to your marketing pieces or on social media. The main goal is to simply show those that are interested in you that other people think your business is great.
#6: Use CTAs that actually entice action.
A Call to Action (CTA) is an invitation for your audience to take a desired action.
When it comes to your Call to Action, don’t ever, EVER tiptoe around it. This gives people an “out” or a reason not to do what you want them to do.
When creating a CTA, it’s important—and I’ll even go as far as to say, necessary—to be aggressive. Be bossy. Tell them exactly what they must do.
We all can get distracted easily. If you don’t give your audience a reason to want to click your CTA, you’ll lose them.
Most people are on a website because they’re looking to do something. Give them exactly what they’re looking for!
Don’t be subtle. Be direct…and convince them to act now.
And don’t forget to relate the benefit to the service you’re providing!
Many business owners don’t understand that copywriting is an essential piece to growing their business. It’s an investment that you don’t want to skip! If you’re looking for some copywriting help, send me a message. I’d love to chat.
