The Internet remains all about content engagement. This in a world of online information seekers with the patience of a fly. Everyone is frantic as it’s extremely easy to become distracted. One click of the mouse and they’re gone, this in mere seconds, you’ve lost them.
This usually happens instantly and the reason they leave can be as simple as a single typo or a grammatical error. It could be a poorly designed website which loads too slow, that offers no immediate benefits. We live in a “Give it to me right now” mind frame.
But despite what the experts claim, the majority still crave for content on the Web, so your copy does matter, just make it relevant. The copy that you present particularly on your blog posts, your ads, video scripts, sales pages, and your infographics does matter.
Your customers are constantly reading, absorbing, and hearing your content. They make an immediate judgment on whether they’re able to trust you with the information that you provide, what type of business or concern you are, all based on the words and images that you present in the next two seconds.
What you need is to project the right image and do so immediately, this by providing better copy. It all comes down to the words.
Write So Your Audience Understands
The most obvious reasons why, as a business or a marketer, is that you need to understand what ticks your audience. Doing so outlines every step of the marketing cycle, which ultimately comes down to writing precise laser targeted copy.
Great content, is content that makes your customers feel relief, smarter, problem solved. What it does is immediately solves their issues, addresses what their current worries are, and does so in a manner which makes the most sense to them.
It doesn’t push your product into their face, or use language which makes you come across as too slick, or a know it all expert, thus making them feel inferior to you.
To write precise content which is targeted towards your audience, you need to understand exactly what they want, what they need, who they are. Pinpoint what type of pain that they’re experiencing, then come up with a solution.
Once you find out, then craft a copy which precisely addresses their issues, and be the savior to provide them with the exact solution. The reader needs to understand elementarily, so don’t go above their head, write down to them, or use jargon beyond their understanding.
The Captivating Opening
Determine what the core issue of your content piece is, and then describe it in your headline. It’s the lead sentence that you write to invite, captivate, and lock in your reader.
The purpose of this is to summarize, to draw someone in to read the remainder of your copy. If you’re able to hook them there, you can then pull them through the entire content. If you can’t, then you’ve lost them forever.
A good lead sentence, a captivating opening snares them immediately, quickly, with lockjaw precision. It can be structured as:
• Describing a personal experience
• Make a daring bold statement
• Providing a ground breaking solution to a problem
• Offering a riddle or an opinion
• Making a big announcement or a captivating quotation
Whichever form you choose, it needs to be engaging, awe inspiring, making them twitch, forcing them to take their finger off the exit button. It needs to hook and draw them into reading the rest of the article.
Write About The Benefits
If you’re writing copy about a product, what you’ll usually write about is how it works, its features, what it does, the price, everything that it can do for the reader. You tell them a story of what the product does, but they don’t care.
Instead, tell them about the benefits of the product that they’ll gain instead, what they’ll miss out on if they don’t buy it. Use your magnetic copy to tell them what’s at stake, why their life will be worse off, what they’re risking, losing, if they don’t act now.
Presenting The Entire Story
Don’t bother writing a long winded story on who, or what you are, what you’ve done, what’s in it for you, again, they don’t care. But instead, structure it so your readers can relate, recognize, identify, and follow you.
Begin by presenting a protagonist, it could be you, your struggles, mirroring the exact state where your reader may be at this moment. Introduce, explain the situation or problem. Write about what you’ve encountered, then offer the fix.
Identify the pain, the angst, and then the benefit once they’ve take action. Document to them the correct steps that they should take, and then invite them to take action.
Write First Then Edit
Writing copy is a process which has proven difficult. Commit to your first draft by spilling out every idea, every benefit, every example. Write everything out, allow yourself to finish without interruption.
Once done, then edit it. Don’t be writing and editing at the same time. What doing so does is it breaks your process, disrupts the flow, while stifling your creativity.
Once completed, then edit for redundancy, poor grammar, adjectives, and words which mean nothing. Remove all the awkward phrasing and substandard language. Edit, go out for a walk, and then re-edit again.
Use Common Language
Never use industry jargon or slang. Speak to them as if they have no idea, that they don’t have a clue. Don’t lose your reader because they fail to understand. As humans, we don’t like that.
Don’t write copy that they can’t absorb. Understand what they want, who they are, how your product is the exact match for them. Write words as if you’re talking directly to them, peer-to-peer.
Your copy is an extreme work of art. The copy you write connects with a customer, at their level, to break the ice, to create an impression. Never waste this opportunity once you have their attention.