All language subtitles for 5. Copywriting Essentials

Introduction to Copywriting.

I've been asked to sum up everything I know about the art of creating great content for this guide to

mastering copywriting so you can use it to quickly start winning more signups and sales.

I know many marketers wonder if copywriting is still relevant as we live in an age where video, visual

and podcast content are the most shared mediums, yet copywriting is still so vital as it has the power

to improve nearly every aspect of your marketing.

If you know how to write content that grabs people from the start, you can raise your game and boost

consumer engagement massively.

So how can mastering the art of copywriting benefit you?

From your sales pages to your press releases, video scripts, blog posts, headlines, meta descriptions

and email campaigns to your Facebook posts and press releases.

Knowing how to create great copy will help your marketing efforts enormously.

When you learn how to do it right, you'll be able to get higher conversion rates on key pages, improve

the structure of your blogs, get more engagement on social media, and have many more people share

your content.

Most importantly of all, you'll be able to understand your customers needs, which will help you connect

with your target audience much better.

To create truly great copy, you first need to know your audience.

You must understand what drives them their hopes, dreams, thoughts, fears, and desires.

Once you have this knowledge, you'll be able to write copy that immediately connects with the people

you're trying to reach because you'll be speaking their language.

This will make all your content 100% effective and you'll find it easier to be able to get people to

take the action you want.

Knowing how to write good copy is an essential marketing skill that will help you boost your reach,

sell more and get more customer engagement.

It will also make you much more employable.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 73% of employers want to hire people

with strong writing skills to become a master at the art of creating copy.

You need to nail down some fundamentals.

I'm going to go into more detail on the magic formula you can use to guarantee great copy for all your

content in a bit.

But first, I want to give you my top tips to optimize your copy.

I'll be covering some of these points in a little more depth later.

Top ten Tips to Becoming a Master Copywriter.

One.

Know your market.

To sell more, you need to understand what your customer wants.

And to do this, you need to conduct customer research into your target market.

I'll outline two excellent techniques you can use to do this later.

To be clear, people have to be able to understand you or you'll lose them quickly.

So good sentence structure is vital.

Be brief and don't waffle on endlessly or use long and complicated words when shorter ones would do.

The American Press Institute conducted a survey which found people had 711% better comprehension when

reading shorter sentences.

Three.

Get seen.

To do this, you must get found either on search or through social media.

That means you must know how to use SEO correctly so you can optimize all your content for search engines.

You must also understand the importance of hashtags and how to use the most relevant tags to boost all

your content on social and on the web.

For.

Be understandable.

Make sure your grammar and spelling are top notch, which is easy to do these days as there are many

great tools out there that can assist you with this aspect.

Five.

Be persuasive.

Never pushy.

You must learn how to write in a persuasive but not pushy way.

As if you come on too strong.

You'll look desperate.

Desperation is the ultimate turnoff if you're trying to sell something.

Six.

Don't be boring.

People have limited attention spans, especially online, so you'll need to grab their attention from

the get go with punchy sentences that make them want to keep reading.

Use a mix of short and long sentences, ask questions, and drop fun facts.

Seven.

Be original.

There is far too much choice out there and an ocean of content, so you need to make yours stand out

in a good way.

A great way of doing this is by adding value, and you can do this by telling people something they

didn't know or making them think about things in a different way.

Eight.

Structure your content.

Content structure is also key.

No one wants to read through a jumbled disorganized mess using gaging headers and sub hatters to divide

your content into bite sized sections that are easy on the eye and easy to understand.

Make use of numbered lists where possible, as these are a superb way of adding structure to your copy.

Nine.

Learn what works and what doesn't.

You can do this by observing your competitors.

So look at successful brands to assess where they're going right in their content marketing and see

how you can incorporate their approach to your own content or even improve on it.

Ten.

Stay relevant.

It's no good using ad techniques that might have been effective in 2016 but aren't working so well anymore.

You need to know what makes customers click through or sign up now, so make sure your approach is fresh

and current and that you're not just relying on old out-of-date strategies.

Speak your customers language.

Speak to your customers in a language they can understand.

An excellent resource for helping you to do this as you start out on your copywriting journey is Reddit,

where you can find millions of threads written by people from all walks of life.

It's a great place to find out what makes different types of customers tick and why from working professionals

to stay at home parents to students and retirees.

You can go really niche finding special interest forums on everything from rock music to pets.

So you can see how people with an interest in these subjects really think, talk and speak.

Amazon reviews can also help you understand your target markets needs by observing how customers describe

products they love and noting what they don't like.

You can angle your copy to hit their pain points and outline the solutions they require.

The best thing of all about Amazon reviews is that they show you how customers actually talk about products.

It's smart to implement this approach in your copy so you can then connect with people in a language

they will understand.

So go on Amazon, look up the products in your niche and see what others are saying.

See what brands that perform well are doing right and see what brands that receive bad reviews aren't

doing.

This is truly invaluable market research that you can conduct right now from your computer or smartphone,

and it will help you greatly as you'll know how to write for your market.

Why you must, Master SEO.

SEO is a fundamental part of copywriting and an essential skill you must master if you want to sell

more or gain more clients from website meta descriptions to optimizing your content so it ranks higher

and gets you found.

You should be constantly learning about ways to enhance your copy for the search engines so they will

score you highly.

There are some tools you can use that will help you find the most relevant keywords for your niche.

Google Keyword Planner and Google trends are just two of the tools you can use to track keywords.

But remember, don't make the mistake of plumbing for a more general term that appears to rank higher

because in the long run, using more targeted keywords will serve you better.

What do I mean?

Well, for example, if you Google the most searched keyword, the term real estate is currently ranking

at the top.

Now, if you have a real estate business, you might think, great, so I'll use the highest scoring

keyword and then weigh my site or my content will score highly too.

But wait, imagine how many other people are using that keyword.

Hundreds of thousands of people with billions of contents, all using that term mean it's going to be

incredibly hard for your page to get found.

So what should you do instead?

You should be specific.

Look for keywords that have a good ranking that more specifically describe what you do Is your real

estate business in California.

Do you specialize in condos or in family homes?

How about real estate, California condos or family?

Real estate, Kelly.

Make sure the phrases or words you're picking are searched for and do rank highly.

But they don't have to be at the very top and make them as specific as possible as this way you'll be

able to stand out and get found easier.

Think about it.

If customers are looking for a real estate property dealing in condos in California.

That real estate company in Ohio isn't going to be on their radar if you've used the right targeted

keywords.

Otherwise, if you use a more general term, hundreds of thousands of other sites all using that term,

are going to bury you.

People are going to have to wade through pages of search results to find you.

And the chances of them doing that are very small.

Market research has proven most people typically only look at the first four pages of search results

and then only if they can't find what they need.

Many are only looking at the first page.

So you need to optimize your SEO to make sure that when people use those specific terms to search for

what they want, your site appears right at the top.

Local SEO is crucial too.

You also need to optimize your content for local search as this is becoming an ever more important part

of any effective SEO strategy.

As 43% of all people conducting Google searches are looking for a local brand or service, and 82% of

smartphone shoppers conduct near me searches.

It's vital your content is primed for local search.

Optimize your title tags, ensuring you get specific.

Generic title tags that don't mention your location won't help people searching for a local business

to find your brand.

As well as your title.

You'll want to include local terms in your H one and H two tags.

You also want to use relevant keywords that people are searching for.

H one and h two tags are HTML equivalent of the title and main header on your page and are extremely

important when it comes to local SEO.

Why?

Because they tell both Google and Google users that your page is specific to a local area and they show

that your page is relevant to a specific topic or niche.

Semantic search is also vital when it comes to local SEO, as Google now ranks pages higher that have

a natural array of related words rather than many repetitive or unrelated keywords.

So write as naturally as possible, incorporating similar phrases and words to your target keywords.

Getting semantic search right will make a fundamental difference to your page rankings.

So it definitely deserves your attention if you want to improve your local SEO.

One final factor you should consider if you want to boost your local SEO is the creation of a community

page.

This is an extremely effective way to target all your local content.

A community page could serve as a resource for the local community, where people can regularly find

important news and updates about local events.

Alternatively, you could create a shopping portal where you can link to other local brands and they

link back to you.

Define your unique selling point.

When creating marketing content, your goal will be to sell or promote a product or service.

So you need to define your USP or unique selling point, something you offer that is different or better

than your competitors.

You don't want to let people know you're just another garden supply store.

You want to tell them that you offer same day delivery or free seeds with every order.

Or you want to highlight that your products are sourced organically or that your local based business

or have supplied products for a celebrity gardener, etc..

The importance of social proof.

Social proof helps you sell like no other, and it's a crucial element you can use to enhance all your

copy.

It's a really useful persuader when customers who typically are overwhelmed with choice have to make

a decision.

People flock to the safe.

They don't like to take risks, especially with their money.

If you've been proven to be trusted by someone they've heard of, like a well known brand institution

or celebrity, you should always mention this in your promotional content as it will help you sell more.

Social proof doesn't always have to involve mentioning a big name.

It can be pointing out how many satisfied customers you have, or even spotlighting individual customers

who have had amazing results from your product or service.

If you're struggling for sign ups, consider featuring positive customer testimonials in your content

instead.

But never be tempted to fake these as people can always tell.