It’s a question fledgling copywriters everywhere want to know:
What separates good copywriting from great copywriting?
How do you start making your skills and talents speak for themselves, so your work is more in-demand and highly-valued? (And, equally as important, worth more $$$? )
These simple secrets hold the answer. To reach the highest echelon of copywriting, take them in stride.
[bctt tweet=”You know the basics of writing good copy, but something might be missing. If you’re craving to improve your writing skills to create a top-notch copy, check out @JuliaEMcCoy’s 5 #copywriting secrets ✍️✍️” username=”ExpWriters”]
5 Simple Secrets to Write Amazing Copy Every Time
If you can master these secrets, you’re well on your way to greatness.
Above all, the greatest, most effective copywriting is personal to the target reader.
Whether that means a 65-year-old grandmother, an investment banker, or a college student, your writing needs to hit them where it matters. It should speak to their wishes, fears, pain points, and needs.
No two readers are alike. Treat their problems and desires as important, unique, and vital, and you’ll not only grab their attention – you’ll strum their heartstrings.
Tips to Make Your Copywriting Personal
Get to know your target persona as if they’re your best friend. Understand their personality, demographics, and preferences on a deep level. (Interviews, surveys, and social listening come in handy, here.)
Imagine them as a real person sitting in front of you. What do they look like? How might they talk about their problems, interests, and dreams?
Speak directly to them in the copy:
Ask them questions.
Repeat their realities/problems back to them so they feel heard.
Empathize with them.
Address them using the pronoun “you” (e.g. “Do you wish you had more free time?”)
[bctt tweet=”‘…the greatest, most effective copywriting is personal to the target reader. Whether that means a 65-year-old grandmother, an investment banker, or a college student, your writing needs to hit them where it matters.’ @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”]
2. Surprise, Delight, or Entice Your Reader
Besides making your copy personal, clinch grabbing your readers’ attention by adding a pinch of surprise, delight, or enticement to your copy.
In the introduction, she starts out by saying something we’re not expecting:
That element of surprise (her against-the-grain opinion about online readers) hooks us and makes us commit to reading more. We want to know why she’ll never forgive Jakob Nielsen (of the Nielsen Norman Group).
Another example from another great copywriter, Henneke Duistermaat of Enchanting Marketing, is this blog post on banishing perfectionism:
In the post, Henneke takes a moment to describe why imperfection is actually perfect. She uses a metaphor about stained glass in a church to do it, and transports us in the process:
For just a moment, you’re caught up in imagining that stained glass, and you understand Henneke’s meaning much more deeply. How delightful!
As you can see, there is more than one way to inject an unexpected element of surprise, delight, or wonder into your copy. No matter how you do it, it’s an effective trick that snags and holds your reader’s attention – and keeps them coming back for more.
[bctt tweet=”‘Besides making your copy personal, clinch grabbing your readers’ attention by adding a pinch of surprise, delight, or enticement to your copy.’ @JuliaEMcCoy on her 5 simple secrets in great #copywriting” username=”ExpWriters”]
3. Write Subheadings Like You Mean It
Writing great copy is more than wordplay.
In blog/article writing, particularly, it’s also about helping your reader achieve an understanding of your topic as seamlessly as possible.
While you’re writing, think of ways to make the text easier to understand. What can you do to ease comprehension?
One major way is to focus on writing informative subheadings for each section of your copy. At a minimum, they should summarize what each section is about. If you want to go further (and you should), try to add these other elements:
Describe how the reader will benefit from reading the subsection. This subheading from a Smartblogger post shows how it’s done (the promised benefit: read the editing tips and you’ll transform your next blog post):
Use intriguing words to incite curiosity. Scour your vocabulary and consult a thesaurus to use interesting verbs and adjectives to spice things up. Look at this example (from the same Smartblogger post as above):
Tell a story with your subheadings (connect them to each other). Let’s look at another post by Joanna Wiebe for a good example. In this post on time management, she uses the subheadings to both describe each section of the article as well as tell a story (structured like she’s talking it out with herself). I’ve compiled them so you can see the whole picture:
Good stuff, right? Try this technique in your own copy and see how much more compelling it becomes.
[bctt tweet=”‘While you’re writing, think of ways to make the text easier to understand. What can you do to ease comprehension? One major way is to focus on writing informative subheadings for each section of your copy.’ @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”]
4. Write with SEO in Mind
The best copywriters use keywords in their copy without breaking the flow or making the tone sound unnaturally stilted. Keyword-optimized copy is worth its weight in coffee (because I love coffee), so this ability is major for copywriting greatness.
The thing is, great copywriters never need to count keywords. They have a natural feel for where to use them, how to use them, and when to use variations, synonyms, and related terms.
If you’re still learning, though, there are ways to make your SEO copywriting better.
Don’t be afraid to play with grammar in keywords. Keywords that sound awkward WILL make your copy sound equally awkward (“dentists San Diego” et. al, I’m looking at you). Insert prepositions, pronouns, etc., as needed to smooth them out. Your SEO won’t suffer for it.
Use variations – Google won’t know the difference. For example, “San Diego dentists” sounds WAY better than “dentists San Diego”.
Reword until it sounds right. Some keywords are tricky, period. If one isn’t playing nice with your sentence, take some time to reword, rearrange, and tinker with it until it sounds smooth and supple when you read it out loud.
[bctt tweet=”‘Don’t be afraid to play with grammar in keywords. Keywords that sound awkward WILL make your copy sound equally awkward (“dentists San Diego” et. al, I’m looking at you). Insert prepositions, pronouns, etc., as needed…’ @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”]
5. Use Power Words Where It Matters
Every great copywriter needs a stash of power words in their back pocket. Power words make your readers react, respond, and feel a rainbow of emotions.
Think of them like little bombs inside sentences. Wherever you use them, the impact will be explosive.
Here’s the thing about power words, though: If you overuse them, they lose their power.
That’s why the best copywriters use them judiciously. They know exactly where to use power words to best advantage:
Headlines – Your title/H1/headline is one of the most, if not THE most, important place to use power words. This one line of text does a lot of heavy lifting, so make it work hard!
Introductions – You need to capture your reader’s attention if they make it past your headline. The introduction is the perfect place to use your powers of description to make an impact.
Subheadings – Once again, good subheadings are essential to a good piece of content. Using power words in them helps lead your reader down the page.
Calls-to-action – Neck and neck with headlines, calls-to-action are essential spots to use power words. The stronger your wording in CTAs, the more irresistible they become.
To truly show off the zing and pizzazz of power words (nudge-nudge, wink-wink), let’s see what they can do to overhaul a boring headline:
10 Copywriting Tips for Beginners
becomes >>>
10 Genius Copywriting Tips to Transform You from Novice to Master
Which article would you rather read?
[bctt tweet=”‘Every great copywriter needs a stash of power words in their back pocket. Power words make your readers react, respond, and feel a rainbow of emotions.’ @JuliaEMcCoy on her #copywriting secrets” username=”ExpWriters”]
The #1 Secret to Great Copywriting?
Great copywriting is not mastered overnight. It takes work, practice, and most importantly, lots and lots of writing.
Keep writing, keep improving.
The more you write, the better you’ll get. It’s that simple.
Soak up as much knowledge as you can, write like heck, and soon you’ll be able to count yourself among the greats. ✨
Good headlines are tough to write. But, when you get them right, they pack a punch and make your content unstoppable.
That said, the best headlines are not always showy.
It’s not about the shock factor. It’s not about making your readers’ heads explode.
It’s mostly about being useful.
That’s right – usefulness matters more than writing a pretty, punchy, or compelling sentence. When you look at headline writing from this angle, the task gets a whole lot easier.
So, what can you do to make your headlines uber-useful? How can you write them so they speak to the heart of your readers (and thus become as powerful as Wonder Woman)?
Follow me!
7 Smart Tips to Write Powerful Headlines (& Add ‘Oomph’ to Your Content)
[bctt tweet=” With thousands of content out there, having an irresistible headline can make your post stand out. How do you do this? Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s 7 tips on writing powerful headlines. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
1. Make Your Headlines as Important as the Body Copy
Rule number one: Don’t just dash off your headline as an afterthought after you write your main content. Don’t scribble something down and call it a day.
Instead, give your headline the time and craft it needs to soar.
Write variations of your headline using different words and phrasing.
Play with various sentence lengths.
Add numbers, turn it into a question, or try deleting it and starting from scratch.
If you want the headline to be good, you have to give yourself time to hone it, edit it, and polish it until it shines. Great example: Jeff Goins, a successful online writer, spends as long as 30-60 minutes deliberating on his headlines – and, more often than not, he still goes back and changes them later.
[bctt tweet=”‘Rule number one: Don’t just dash off your headline as an afterthought after you write your main content. Don’t scribble something down and call it a day.’ – @JuliaEMcCoy on writing powerful headlines.” username=”ExpWriters”]
2. Write Headlines with Their Purpose in Mind (for Users and for Google)
While crafting your headline, think about the job it does in your content. This covers two areas:
The purpose headlines serve for your readers:
It tells readers what to expect and what your post is about.
It (hopefully) piques their interest.
It aligns with their information needs.
The purpose headlines serve for content, SEO, and Google:
It summarizes the topic of the post.
It uses your focus keyword in a pivotal spot for SEO – the H1.
It signals to Google that your content is topically relevant to various search queries.
If/when your post ranks, the headline will often determine whether users click or not.
As you can tell, the two main purposes of headlines intermingle. Crafting good headlines for your readers is good for SEO and Google.
In Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, Google explains that the page title/headline is part of the main content (MC). Above all, it must be descriptive and helpful.
As you create your headline, keep these roles it plays in the back of your mind. Try to make sure it fulfills them.
3. Always Address the Reader (Entice Them, Play to Their Needs, or Grab Their Attention)
If you’re not talking to your reader in your headline, you’re doing something wrong.
Headlines MUST address the reader to be truly useful for them.
This can mean a few things:
Talking to them directly using “you”
Asking them a question
Telling them something amazing/surprising/useful/interesting
Above all, describing the content they’re about to read
Addressing your reader is always more engaging than talking about yourself. Your readers don’t care about how great you are – they want to know what’s in it for them. Give it to them!
They found that the headline phrase that got the most engagement on Facebook was “will make you”. In fact, it won by a landslide.
Is it any coincidence that this phrase contains the word “you”? I don’t think so.
As BuzzSumo explains, this phrase serves as a link between the content and the potential impact it will have on the reader. When this phrase is present in a headline, the reader KNOWS how they will benefit from consuming the content because you’re telling them directly.
The typical headlines from the study with this phrase all include a direct benefit – how the content will make you feel, what it will make you do, or how it will make your life better.
For best results, follow suit and talk to your readers in your headline.
4. Focus on Benefits for the Reader
We already addressed this briefly in point #3, but it bears emphasizing: When you talk to your readers in the headline, tell them about a major benefit of reading the content.
What will your blog post help them achieve? How will it make them smarter/savvier? What will they learn? Will it help them boost their lives, business, relationships, SEO, marketing, skills, etc.?
The second you add a benefit, your headline becomes more engaging and powerful
5. Use Strong Adjectives and Verbs
A headline full of weak words will not do any heavy lifting for your content. Instead, you need strong adjectives and verbs in your headlines that pack a punch.
Examples of Weak Adjectives and What to Use Instead
Any adjective with “very” in front of it (e.g. very pretty, very smart, very good) – Adding “very” is a weak way to pump up a lackluster adjective. Nix this formula and instead use one word that’s stronger.
Replace “very pretty” with “gorgeous, or “very smart” with “genius”. (The chart below has more examples.)
Weak verbs are action words that don’t convey much information. When you hear or read them, you can’t quite picture the action they’re supposed to represent. Here are some examples:
How to Have a Lot of Money
Picture someone having a lot of money. It’s unclear and fuzzy, right? Does it mean their wallet is fat with dollar bills? Are their pockets overflowing with change? Do they have stacks of hundreds in the bank? Or does their bank account balance contain a lot of zeroes?
We don’t know – the verb “have” doesn’t tell us.
7 Ways to Be Smarter
It’s hard to imagine a person being smart. That’s way too vague to paint a bright picture in our minds. Does it happen when somebody is winning an expert game of chess? When they’re reading a 1,000-page novel? Or when they have all the right answers to tough questions?
As you can see, neither of the verbs in the above examples are clear enough to give us a concrete picture.
Let’s rewrite them and make them clearer and stronger. To do it, we need to be both specific and descriptive:
How to Have a Lot of Money >>> How to Fill Your Pockets with Cash by Next Week
This helps you imagine somebody walking around with overflowing pockets full of money. Maybe they’re trailing dollar bills everywhere. That person is definitely rich.
7 Ways to Be Smarter >>> 7 Ways to Transform Yourself into a Genius
The verb “transform” makes you think of a complete change from one state of being to another. Coupling it with “yourself” gives the idea that you are in charge of the change from average to genius intellect.
To learn more about the difference between strong and weak verbs, read this tutorial from Sophia Learning.
6. Stuck? Use Tried-and-True Headline Formulas
If you’ve tried all the tricks and headline writing still seems agonizing, fear not. That’s what headline formulas are for.
What are headline formulas?
Easy. These are go-to sentence outlines you can use (filling in your own words) that readers love and share, according to studies.
Take that BuzzSumo study we referenced earlier. The research looked at top phrases at the beginning of headlines that got the most engagement. This list is a goldmine for writing new headlines.
Henneke Duistermaat did her own research into headline formulas using BuzzSumo – her findings are useful and she explains exactly how to write each formula.
A few of the top headline formulas she discovered:
The burning question
The unexpected comparison
The how-to case study
These formulas serve as blueprints for creating headlines that work. Definitely use them if you’re stuck.
7. Test Your Headlines to Find What Works (and What Doesn’t)
The final tip for writing powerful headlines: test, test, test.
You won’t know what works for your audience and boosts your content unless you try.
Test different headline types, wording, and lengths. Note what posts get more traction and engagement. Going forward, you’ll develop go-to formulas of your own that are particular for your brand and audience.
If you want to get more concrete data about your headlines, try split testing (also called a/b testing). If you don’t know how, read this post on a/b testing headlines from Wordstream.
[bctt tweet=”‘The final tip for writing powerful headlines: test, test, test.’ – @JuliaEMcCoy on writing powerful headlines.” username=”ExpWriters”]
Crafting Powerful Headlines Takes Some Elbow Grease
The best headlines aren’t necessarily showy, but they do accomplish what they set out to do:
Attract readers by appealing to their needs/search intent
Effectively summarize what the content includes
Appeal to Google bots with relevancy + keyword inclusion
That means you don’t need to be a wordsmith to write a great headline. You DO need to work on your headline to make it the best it can be.
Put in the work, create a headline worthy of your awesome content, and you just might reap the rewards.
While copywriting is all the rage in the digital business world, online content is only worthwhile if it can drive real results.
Copywriting that sells is worth its weight in gold, and it has the potential to overhaul a company’s online presence entirely. From driving more conversions to helping businesses rake in the cash and build their bottom lines, persuasive copywriting is a powerful sales machine, and every company wants it.
The catch, though, is that not many people know how to craft copywriting that sells.
To be persuasive and compelling, content needs a precise mixture of things, and copywriters and businesses who understand how to create this are at a distinct advantage.
With that in mind, read on for our top five tips to develop copywriting that sells.
Copywriting that Sells: 5 Stellar Tips to Start Creating Conversion-Oriented Copy Today
Think about a brand like Apple.
Among its followers, Apple can do virtually no wrong. People rave about its products, its phones practically began the smartphone era, and every time it has a product launch, people sleep in tents on sidewalks for days in preparation.
Now that is a company that knows how to create material that sells.
Of course, it’s true that Apple has developed a premium product, and that you can’t enjoy such widespread evangelism without it, but it’s also true that Apple knows a thing or two about copywriting that sells.
While Apple is one of the most prominent examples of a brand that does this well, it’s far from the only one. For many marketers, the prospect of becoming a sales machine like these major brands feels out of reach.
Fortunately, that’s not the case at all. Whether you work in e-commerce or you have a local, brick-and-mortar business that’s in need of a sales boost, creating compelling copy is an excellent way to reach your goals, and these five tips can help you do it.
1. Create a headline your readers want to click
When it comes to copywriting that sells, your headline is, without a doubt, the single most important piece of your content.
If you think about it for a minute, a headline is a gatekeeper. It tells people what your article is about, and then invites them in. If your headline is a magnificent one, it brings people in in droves. If it’s not, people get bored and go looking for other content.
With this in mind, you need to the time to craft incredible headlines.
While learning to develop click-worthy headlines can be a challenge, it’s one investment is virtually guaranteed to earn a high ROI. By asking your readers a question in the headline, inserting power words, inspiring curiosity, or using a negative headline to inspire a reader’s sense of risk aversion, there are dozens of ways to ensure that your headlines are doing what you want them to do with your content: drawing readers.
Although headlines are frequently overlooked in online content, they’re easily some of the most important pieces for promoting conversions and bringing in new traffic – all of which helps promote big sales down the road.
2. Break your content into short chunks
If we’re honest, we can all agree that content that looks and feels like an unabridged dictionary isn’t very fun to read. And if you click onto a web page that’s just one long string of unbroken text, you’re probably going to click “back” in a hurry.
When you evaluate copywriting that sells, you’ll notice that 100% of it is broken up into short, succinct sentences. Again, Apple is a fantastic example of this.
Heck – the iPhone 7 announcement on their website is only four words long!
By breaking your text up into short chunks, you do two things: you make it easier for readers to scan and you set your most important ideas apart.
This, in turn, allows users to navigate swiftly through your content and can help your viewers make more sense of the information within it.
3. Keep your content credible with facts and statistics
For copywriting to be compelling, it has to be credible, and there’s virtually no better way to ensure this than to add relevant facts and statistics to your copy. Well-researched facts pack a punch that almost nothing else does, and you can bet that readers will be much more willing to bite if they know there’s a financial, social, or emotional reason to do so.
With this in mind, use facts and statistics to back up your statements. If you’re claiming a product will improve a person’s quality of life, add a bit of research to demonstrate your point. If you’re solving a common problem, add a statistic to prove just how common it is.
People who are going to purchase anything from you must first be able to trust what you say, and quality stats are some of the best ways to inspire consumer confidence.
Additionally, inserting relevant facts and statistics can help improve the authority of your copy and serve to position you as an expert in your industry.
4. Focus on the benefits rather than the features
In the world of sales, this is an oldie but a goodie.
When people make purchasing decisions, they tend to focus on the benefits first and the features second. For example, if you are looking for an in-home voice assistant system, you might want one that would help you streamline your days and stay organized. If a company appealed to those desires with copywriting meant to showcase the benefits and the lifestyle a voice assistant would offer, you’d probably bite.
When you’re crafting your online copy, focus on selling a lifestyle or a feeling first, and the actual tangible facts about the product second.
To revert to the Apple example once more, Apple doesn’t sell phones and computers – it sells efficiency, beauty, creativity, and “buck the man” rebellion. If it only focused on the features of each of its products, it’s safe to bet that the company wouldn’t have grown into the globe-dominating enterprise it is today.
5. Tell an irresistible story in your copy
Great storytelling is inexorably linked with compelling copy.
People love exciting stories, and this is exactly why you see so many brands migrating to storytelling in their advertising.
Need an example? Look at any of the Budweiser puppy commercials the company has done in the last several years.
While it’s true that puppies have very little to do with beer, these commercials tell a story, and they’re among the best-loved I know of.
If that doesn’t make you want to purchase Budweiser beer, I’m not sure what will.
All too often, making a sale is simply about appealing to a reader’s emotions. People want to do business with companies they believe in, and a great story is a powerful tool for fostering connection and excitement.
So whether you’re using puppies or human interest pieces, telling a story in your online copy is a wonderful way to make the sale and close the deal.
Turn Your Content Into Copywriting that Sells
Content inspires, educates, and excites, but great copywriting sells, too.
When it’s functioning well, online copywriting serves many purposes, and brands that understand how to craft copywriting that sells can enjoy a virtually unlimited potential for growth.
With this in mind, it’s time to start crafting copywriting that sells.
By taking the time to craft quality headlines, format your content correctly, input valuable facts and figures, tell a story, and sell a lifestyle, you can easily create compelling content that sells by making your reader want to engage with your product, rather than by tricking them into believing they need something that they don’t.
Today, great sales copy is all about connection, and the writers and marketers who take the time to understand how to build this relationship are in a good position for upward mobility both now and in the future.
Copywriting isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be impossible, either. If you need quality copywriting that sells, visit our Content Shop today.
