What is Copywriting and Why You Should Learn It?
Copywriting vs Copyrighting Copywriting is often confused with copyrighting especially by people who are not familiar with marketing or advertising. While copyrighting (with an r) is related to copyright laws, rights, claims and sometimes even demonetization on YouTube or other social media platforms. Copywriting (with a w) is a subtype of writing and sales communication.
What is Copywriting Copywriting is written copy crafted to make people act after reading it, resulting in a conversion. You are using words to persuade, influence and engage the potential customer so that it may later, turn into a paying customer. The goal is to increase conversion rates when compared to regular copy. The action a visitor or reader takes after reading might be: Click Sale Opt-In (submit email, phone number etc.) Sale
Copywriting vs Content Writing Copywriting is also different from content writing in the sense that the first is solely focused on closing a potential customer through a more strategic approach. While content writing is more about writing to get more brand awareness, traffic and educate visitors on a specific topic through different content formats like: Blogposts YouTube Social Media About Page
What is copywriting used for Copywriting is used for marketing/ promo materials on: Sales Pages Websites Emails Video or VSLs (Video Sales Letters) Direct Mail Ad Campaigns
Why learn copywriting By learning copywriting, you can help your clients but also get some benefits as an employer or service provider. Let’s say we have a Funnel. On that funnel there’s a Landing Page and Offer which can be a product or service. The Funnel is generating $50 000/ year with a 1% Click Rate (CR). If you multiply the conversion rate by the number of visits: For every 100 visits, 1 person buys For every 1000 visits, 10 people buy For every 10 000 visits 100 people buy You as a copywriter come in and change: Headline Offer CTA Page Layout Image And after some testing you were able to improve the conversion rate from 1% to 2%. Now that funnel is making $100 000/ year with a 2% Click Rate. For every 100 visits, 2 people buy For every 1000 visits, 20 people buy For every 10 000 visits, 200 people buy
So, if you are good at copywriting, you are bringing massive value to businesses. I couldn’t put it better into words than this Dan Kennedy quote. “The most valuable ability in the world is the ability to generate new customers for businesses.” And as a service provider on an agency or freelancing your service fee or rate will become one of the highest in the market and you gain more experience.
Structure of good copy A good copy will follow an AIA structure where…
A stands for Attention And it’s when you capture the prospect’s attention or keep the reader hooked with a headline so that he is interested enough to read further into the copy.
I is for Interest Which means you need to maintain the prospects interest often with a promise of benefit they will get from buying into the product. Benefits are not to be confused with features. A benefit is the reason why a prospect buys the product and the impact it will have on his life. Features are just statements about the product.
The last A is for Action At this stage you will ask or make the prospect take a specific action often by using a call to action (CTA). CTA are displayed a lot of times in form of a button with the words: Call Visit Sign Up Buy Now
How to become a great copywriter You know by now that writing copy can increase conversions rates and therefore make more sales. To learn it effectively the best option is not to just read tons of proven ads or copy but to analyze copy by running your own ads and testing it! That task has become much easier with all the Ad Networks and Ad formats available online that you can start doing with 100-$1000 depending on the Ad format.
Another way to test your copy can be by creating email marketing campaigns and selling products. Sales and KPIs will allow you see how it’s performing and split test copy or other elements.
Great copywriting books Here are a few copywriting books I highly recommend you take the time to read. Don’t think that because they are old, they are no longer applicable. I found that a lot of the concepts taught in these books can be switched from a Direct Mail and Paper perspective to modern advertising: Tested Advertising Methods Scientific Advertising Cashvertising The Adweek Copywriting Handbook