With nearly every business being online, copywriting is one of the most important tools that you can have at your disposal.
Although often overlooked or ignored, copywriting is the art of crafting compelling and engaging text on your website and marketing that makes you stand out, allows your audience to connect with your brand and ultimately inspires customers to purchase.
We’ve previously dived into the world of what a website copywriter is and how to hire the best for your business.
But to help you truly understand what makes engaging copy, or if you just want to save budget by DIYing your copy, we’ve put together this copywriting for beginners guide with 5 of the biggest tips to write engaging copy from our own team of professional copywriters.
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1. Know your audience
To write good copy, you need to know who you are writing copy for. Knowing exactly who your target audience is, what motivates them, what their needs and interests are is fundamental to making engaging copy.
It’s all about speaking their language. For example, imagine that you are a teacher who has to deliver a lesson about space. That’s an incredibly broad subject – and impossible to plan without knowing:
- The age of the students (are they 5 or 15?)
- The previous knowledge and experience (is this their first lesson, or have they already studied it for months?)
- Their interest level (is this a group of students who have taken an optional class because they love space, or is it taught to everyone?)
Your website copy is the same. If you want to connect to your audience, you need to understand who they are and what drives them.
2. Get the headline right
Headlines are difficult. I’m not going to sugarcoat that fact.
But they are so important to get right, as 80% of users don’t make it past your headline.
That means it might be the only thing your visitors read. Ask yourself what is the single most important thing you want to tell them? Now put that in your headline.
Never, ever go with something like ‘Welcome To Bob’s Building Company!’. It might be polite, but it means nothing. If that’s all your visitors read, they won’t take anything away.
But if you went with something like ‘The most reliable building company in Lincolnshire’ or ‘We’ll beat any price on brand-new conservatories!’ you’re telling your visitors something important. And hopefully, you’re then encouraging them to read on, slowly bringing them closer to the finish line.
3. Tell your audience what’s in it for them
That’s the one tip that will surprise most readers of this copywriting for beginners guide. Humans are selfish creatures. We don’t read websites for fun. We do it to answer a single common question:
“Why should I care?”.
It’s a question that gets straight to the point. Why should your customers care about your business? Why should they buy from you and no one else?
If you’re struggling here, there’s one bit of advice to remember. Don’t list features: tell them the benefits.
Let’s use an example here and say that you’re selling a selection of art pens. This is the list of features and the benefits that they offer to the audience:
- Feature: ultra-fine tip. Benefit: Easier to create fine details for detailing.
- Feature: 50+ different shades. Benefit: Find the exact colour for what you need without having to colour match.
- Feature: comes with a storage case. Benefit: Keep all the pens neatly together in one place that’s easy to transport.
You get the picture?
Benefits are a great way to tell your visitors why they should care and what exactly they are getting from your business.
4. Include a Call To Action
For those that are unaware, a Call To Action (CTA) is where you tell your visitors what you want them to do. Whether it’s buying your product, phoning your company, or downloading a free trial – there’s something that you want your visitors to do.
But your visitors aren’t psychic. They won’t do this unless you tell them, which is why a CTA is essential for any website.
Surprisingly though, 70% of small business websites don’t have a CTA on their homepage. That’s bad.
Imagine it. You’ve got a visitor on your site. They’ve read through your copy and they’re interested… but! They don’t know what to do. There’s no button for them to click or visible number to call. They haven’t got time to go through your entire website – so they leave.
That’s how you lose potential customers.
It may sound condescending, but you really need to hold their hands every step of the way. If you don’t guide them, they’ll leave.
A CTA isn’t just needed on your homepage either. It’s needed on every single page. If there’s an action you need your visitors to take, tell them.
And don’t waste your time being polite about it either. No ‘Please’ or ‘Thank yous’ are allowed here. Be direct, be short and be upfront. If you want them to call your business, a simple “Call Now On XXX” will do.
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5. Don’t underestimate proofreading
Errors happen. There’s nothing more devastating than putting so much time and effort into crafting the right copy for your audience, all to have it undone because you’ve made a crucial spelling mistake.
Mistakes look unprofessional. They make audiences doubt your credibility and can destroy any trust that you have built up.
So never, ever, skip the proofreading and editing stage.
It can be hard to spot your own mistakes, so before anything goes live try:
- Reading your copy out loud. Saying words out loud can help you spot mistakes that you can otherwise skip over.
- Give yourself a break. If you stare at something for too long, you stop seeing the details. Make sure you have time to step away, clear your mind and give yourself a rest before looking back over your work.
- Get a second pair of eyes to look over your work. Ask for help from others to check your writing and make sure that your message is consistent and comes across clearly. Bonus points if you can run your copy by a customer to get their insights (they are who your copy is aimed at after all!)
- Use spellchecker, or tools like Grammarly, to help catch any mistakes you miss.
This process may seem tedious, but it’s so worth it.
Remember our copywriting tips for beginners
Writing your own copy can be a good way to save money. And with our copywriting for beginners guide you can create your own content for your website.
But if you want to take on this task yourself, remember to:
- Know your audience inside and out, so you can write content that speaks directly to them.
- Create an engaging headline that states the most important fact – and entices your visitor to read more.
- Be upfront and clearly show your visitor what’s in it for them. Don’t list the features, tell them the benefits.
- Get your visitors to act with a direct and effective Call To Action.
- Always proofread and make sure that your work is clear and error-free.
Do these right, and you’ll be converting visitors to customers in no time. Alternatively, if you want to hire someone for your copy instead, find out how to hire the right copywriter in this guide to website copywriting.