Tackle It Tuesday – find that ONE task that you keep avoiding and hunker down to do it TODAY! It will be a great relief to get it finished! One of the tasks I know people often avoid is “writing copy” – though they can put together a great sounding message there is a fear of writing. With that fear comes dread, with the dread comes the avoidance, with the avoidance comes a plate full of writing tasks! SO let’s look at cleaning the plate…
What is Copywriting exactly?
Copywriting is the use of words and ideas to promote a person, business, opinion or idea. Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing (as in the body of a newspaper article or book), the term copywriter is generally limited to promotional situations, regardless of the medium (as in advertisements for print, television, radio or other media). The word copywriting is regularly used as a noun
A lot of people believe copywriting takes a massive skill and even though this is true it is a skill that can be developed over time. What you don’t want to do
Copywriting can be done!
is to continually tell yourself you “cannot” do any copywriting – if that is true maybe you should not be in something that relates to sales in the least. As you see in the definition above copywriting is the use of words to promote your business, person or opinion – well if you network you say your 30 second elevator speech… you did copywriting, if you are out sharing your opinions about business you are copywriting… so even if you did not realize it you are doing it everyday! It is kinda like when you learned to ride a bike – someone is running along side of you holding the bike, next thing you know you are so excited and you turn to look and no one has been holding you for a bit and you were doing it without even knowing it!
Copywriting takes practice! A lot of practice! But good copywriting skills are achievable. There are great copywriters out there, you get email marketing everyday from copywriters – which ones sound good, which ones are way over the top? Save the good ones. Refer back to them when you start copywriting something and see how yur message can fit into their format…
Copywriting will come to you more and more as you put in the effort to do it!
There are a couple of things you want to make sure you maintain when you go to do any copywriting…. Your Brand and Your Voice! Don’t think your marketing materials or the items you copywrite need to be staunchy, stuffie, and over the top boring to be professional.
Be creative, informative, entertaining in all of your copywriting! Be YOU!
There is a formula you can use to guide you in copywriting – this was put together for advertising but when you review the items, I really think it is a great guide for all copywriting. It gives you a check list of items you should include then you put it all together with your filler words not missing any of the gotta haves!
Copywriting Worksheet
This was taken from Fundamentals of Copy & Layout (1984) Alber C. Book and C. Dennis Schick and amended.
Product (or Service) your focus is on:
Primary Selling or Why Points:
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Primary Benefits: (Prospect Points: what buyer or reader getting from using the product or service)
Pain Points: (The pain the prospect feels in which this product/service will solve)
Who is your Intended Target for this Message:
- Demographics: (Age, sex, education, income, occupation)
- Psychographics: (Lifestyle, attitude, personality traits)
An Understanding of What you want this ad/article to establish:
Reasons why prospect should believe it:
- .
- .
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“Big Ides” to dramatize this belief (not always and don’t overdue it, you want to be credible):
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- .
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Action you want reader to take:
Remember copywriting is doable – just have a clear thought, a clear message, stay true to your word, be yourself and share great content!
If copywriting does not appeal to you in the least there are great copywriters out there for hire, contact me for some referrals.
I invite you to leave comments, share ideas and suggestions!