Copywriting is both an art and a science. The art brings your creative ideas to life in your marketing, but the science follows tried and true methods that produce results.
In this episode, I unveil copywriting tips that will impact your marketing success. Words can transform browsers into buyers by using language that resonates with the deepest wants and needs of your ideal customer.
In this episode, I pull back the curtain on 11 copywriting hacks that I've honed from my more than thirty years of marketing.
Join me as I look at the essence of what makes copy enduring, and how a deep understanding of human behavior is the cornerstone for communication. Whether you're building your brand from the ground up or looking to inject new life into your marketing copy, this episode will help you get there!
Copywriting is both an art and a science. The art brings your creative ideas to life in your marketing, but the science follows tried and true methods that produce results.
In this episode, I unveil copywriting tips that will impact your marketing success. Words can transform browsers into buyers by using language that resonates with the deepest wants and needs of your ideal customer.
In this episode, I pull back the curtain on 11 copywriting hacks that I've honed from my more than thirty years of marketing.
Join me as I look at the essence of what makes copy enduring, and how a deep understanding of human behavior is the cornerstone for communication. Whether you're building your brand from the ground up or looking to inject new life into your marketing copy, this episode will help you get there!
I'm Janice Hostager. After three decades in the marketing business and many years of being an entrepreneur, I've learned a thing or two about marketing. Join me as we talk about marketing, small business and life in between. Welcome to my Weekly Marketing.
Janice Hostager:
Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to another edition of my Weekly Marketing. So I've actually been pretty excited lately. I have been putting together a new course, so I want to give you a sneak peek into some of the things that I'm going to be covering about copywriting.
Janice Hostager:
So, to be clear, copy is a marketing term for text or the wording that you use in your marketing, so it's the words right.
Janice Hostager:
So I've been writing copy for decades, not as a professional copywriter, but as someone who owns a business, who has been working in marketing. As someone who owns a business, who has been working in marketing, and even when I was an art director, I would help write copy, because the design and the copy kind of go together. But the great thing about copywriting is that the words that we would use to sell something when I started writing copy back in the day they're still words that work today and I love that because they are based on human behavior, and human behavior, of course, really doesn't change over time. I mean, read some ancient texts or the Bible and you'll see that people are people, no matter when they lived right. So any of the copywriting techniques or even the marketing techniques that I teach, are all based on human behavior and that's what makes them so powerful. And then also, once you master that, you're kind of golden Going forward. You just learn it and then you've learned it, unlike, maybe, social media, where things are always changing, or technology, where things are always changing changing or technology, where things are always changing the basics of copywriting and the marketing that I teach they really hold the test of time. So let's dive in today to copywriting hacks that will make you more money.
Janice Hostager:
So, as you know, at its core, marketing is communication. It's actually persuasion, right? So no matter how pretty your website page is, if you don't have persuasive marketing copy, you're not likely to see many good results. So let's get your pen and paper ready. Here are 11 things to include in your copy. And don't worry if you're driving or you're out and about. By all means don't write anything down. Everything is going to be in the show notes that will be at myweeklymarketingcom that you can access online.
Janice Hostager:
Okay, tip number one understand your audience, more specifically, your ideal customer. If you don't know who that is, I have a free handout that I'll put in the show notes so you can define who that is for you. This is always number one on my list because if you don't know your audience, you aren't likely to know their pain points and their desires and what motivates them to buy. So your messaging won't resonate with them, your strategy will be off and you'll do the wrong things and waste money on ads that won't get conversions because they're on a platform that they don't visit, or just the wrong platform. So my recommendation is to really chat with your customers to see why they buy from you. Or, if you're just starting out in business, I would go to Facebook groups, chat rooms and places like Reddit to find out what your ideal customer is really struggling with, and also pay close attention to the language that they use. You'll want to use that same language, those same phrases, in your copy too. Then you'll be able to write your copy to speak directly to your ideal customer's needs, desires and pain points.
Janice Hostager:
Okay, number two write headlines that pull people in. Use attention-grabbing headlines that promise a benefit or solution to entice your readers to continue reading. If the headline doesn't do its job to hook people in then it doesn't matter what else is on the page. They're never going to see it because they're going to stop reading before they start, basically. So I always spend a lot of time on headlines and test them to make sure that they're really good and powerful. I've also been using a site called subjectlinecom, which gives your subject lines or headlines a ranking for how effective they are. So check that out. It's a free site, subjectlinecom.
Janice Hostager:
Number three appeal to people's emotions. I see a lot of landing pages that focus on the nuts and bolts or the rational side of what they're selling, but many studies tell us that we buy on emotion, but we justify those purchases with logic. So having both logic and emotion in your copy is important for sales. So how can you add emotion? Think about words that evoke feelings such as joy, fear, sadness or even nostalgia. Good copy will cause an emotional response.
Janice Hostager:
Number four include a clear call to action or a CTA. For every paragraph I write on a website or a brochure or any piece of marketing, I always include a clear CTA, whether it's to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter or make a phone call. A clear call to action tells people what they should do next to get the result that you're referencing. For example, even if it's a blog post, you might want to send them to a free download or invite them to schedule a call or simply to like a Facebook post. Right when you're writing on Instagram or Facebook, make sure to include a call to action there as well. A study by WordStream found that including call to actions in Facebook ads increased click-through rates by 285%. So don't forget to give people the direction they need to take the next step. So don't forget to give people the direction they need to take the next step.
Janice Hostager:
Number five use power words. Words like free, new, exclusive and limited time can create a sense of urgency and encourage your viewer to take action. Things that save your visitor time or money or get them results quickly are always going to be powerful. Here are a few more Discover, revolutionary, transformative, exclusive, ultimate, guaranteed empower, effortless, sensational, pioneering. So if you get stuck while you're writing, you can go ahead and Google copywriting power words, and there are a lot of ideas online. Okay, moving on to copywriting hack.
Janice Hostager:
Number six highlight the benefits, not the features. Write and talk about how your product or service will improve a customer's life, rather than just listing the facts about it or its features. Prove a customer's life rather than just listing the facts about it or its features. For example, the features of a TV are things like high resolution, hdr, color expression, but the benefit is picture quality. A feature is also like energy efficiency, and the benefit is lower electric costs. You should also be clear in your mind before you start writing about what you're really selling. For example, you're not really selling fitness. If you're a fitness coach, you're selling a happier life and maybe better relationships. Or you're not really selling jewelry. You're selling confidence and beauty. Not sure what that is for you or your product. I have a free download for that as well. I'll put the link to that in the show notes too.
Janice Hostager:
Number seven use FOMO or fear of missing out. Create a sense of urgency by highlighting limited time offers or exclusive deals. We'd all rather put off making hard decisions, especially one that involves spending some money, so making your offers only available for a limited time or having a limited quantity available triggers our sense of losing out on a good thing. Go to Amazoncom and you'll see limited time deal or only five left in stock because it's effective. Number eight present the cost or the consequence of inaction. Just like FOMO, the shadow side of putting off a decision is that when your visitor doesn't take action, things will not get better for them. Whatever the problem they have will likely not be improved by doing nothing. So I like to include the stakes of inaction in the copy of two. It helps them to see that your product is actually an investment in their future happiness and success, rather than a cost or something that they want to put off. In business, if you're B2B, putting it off can mean actually losing money. So including a line like don't let another year go by while you leave money on the table by not learning how to close a sale by this course today is an example of the stakes of not making the purchase Okay.
Janice Hostager:
Number nine counter their objections with proof and answers. People are always going to have objections to your offer. Creating a Q&A section to counter common objections will help you move past a lot of the obvious objections. Of course, you're always going to want to allow people to get on a phone call or send you a text if they have additional questions, but backing up your claims with studies or testimonials gives you credibility. So, yes, answer their questions, but for sure make sure that your answers are solid so that it's not just your opinion of why they should buy that you have some proof to back it up.
Janice Hostager:
Number 10, writing like a real person. Remember when we talked about your ideal customer. When you're writing like you're talking to them specifically, it'll feel more personal and more conversational. Including phrases like you know what I mean, or phrases that you say when you're talking to friends, sound a whole lot more natural and also can connect the reader to your brand. Ai tools like ChatGPT are great for ideas or information, but they don't sound like real, sincere people. Chatgpt has its place, but copywriting isn't one of those, at least for right now.
Janice Hostager:
Okay, number 11, last on our list, but definitely not least, keep your copy at a fourth grade reading level. Reading itself burns calories. Did you know that? So when we have to think hard about something, it'll actually exhaust our brain, and when you write or speak using complex technical jargon, it slows down the whole thinking, the retaining knowledge process, and it limits the reader's comprehension. It also generally discourages people from reading what you wrote. Highly technical copy has its place, but for general content on your website or on your promotional materials, make it easy to read and fast to skim. So I hope you enjoyed these few copywriting tips. I'm going to go in depth a lot with a lot more of these in my new course, so I'm going to be opening up the waitlist for that soon so that you can learn to use copywriting to your advantage and get more sales. Thanks so much for joining me today. For information about anything we talked about in today's episode, visit myweeklymarketingcom/ 55. Have a great week! See you next time. Bye for now.