There are various forms of copywriting but they all have the same foundation that every copywriter goes through in order to write a copy. As you get better at writing a copy, you might not spend as much time on some of these. For now, These are the fundamental elements of copywriting.
Brush Up: What Is Copywriting?
In this article, we are going to learn the basics of copywriting. The 4 elements that you need to focus on while writing your copy.
1. Research The Topic & Product
Before you write a copy, the first step is to actually do some research about the topic. The goal is to be able to think like your audience, so you can use it to “logic” and “reason” with them.
The goal of this research is to find out the history of the topic, the kind of people who would be interested in this topic, and their age group and try to understand their emotional states and pain point.
So, How do you do such research?
If you are new to a topic, the first step would be to find the most popular book on the topic. This is to help you get a basic understanding of the topic and its history. This is what we call, “Text Book Research”, this is where you will get the definitions and understand the foundation.
For example, if you are to write a sales page to bring in more sales about NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens ), you need to know what it is, and how it works.
When I was hired to write about NFTs and Crypto, I knew what they were but I did not know the nitty-gritty details about it, I could have just written a copy and it would do well, but since this was a new industry that I could tap into, I decided to read every book that’s on amazon about blockchain, NFT and crypto. ( I used audio books). At this point, I knew more about the topic than the clients in just a matter of a week.
Then, Second Step, you need to figure out the pain points of this topic. You can do this by looking at Sub-Reddits, dedicated to that topic. Amazon Product Reviews, Quora Questions & AskThePublic.
The third step of the research is to understand the product that you will be writing the copy for. You need to try to figure out answers to the following questions.
- What problem does the product solve?
- How easy is it to use the product?
- What are the unique benefits of this product or service?
- What special features does this product have?
- How long will it take to get results?
- When will the product be delivered? ( Instantly or Shipped )
- Pain Points of potential users of the product?
- What need does the product fill?
Knowing answers to questions like these will help you craft your copy.
2. Your Audience: Who You Are Writing For
Understand that most of the copy you will write will have a target audience. You cannot please everyone with a single copy. You will need various angles to target a different group of people.
When you are doing research on the product and topic, you will find out who is the majority of your audience: Their gender, Age, Target Location, Income Size, Race & Typical Behaviors.
For Example: If you find that majority of gender is male, then it’s pointless trying to appeal to both gender or even mention the female gender. You need to find out how the majority gender feels about this topic. Their age could also have an impact on the topic. Let’s say we have: Men in their 20s vs 40s, two different groups of people. This could help you determine the price of the product because 40-year-olds probably have better means to invest in your product than 20-year-olds. Every information you can extract can be used to write the copy and to appeal to the audience you are writing for.
3. Benefits: How Does Your Product Solve The Issue?
Whenever you are writing a copy, you can talk about the features all you want but you need to realize that most people buy a product, not for the features but for what those features can do for them, so as a copywriter, your job is to straight up tell them how they will feel or what will the results look like.
- Save money, make money
- Save time
- Get a mate
- Get clout, status
You also need to be able to ADD or REMOVE an EMOTION.
A person might be fearful because he cannot get a date, your copy needs to remove that fear. Maybe he/she thinks they cannot do it, you need to remove that fear, you need to add another emotion maybe: hope, confidence.
Some Examples of Emotions
- Fear
- Greed
- Vanity
- Pride
- Lust
- Envy
- Laziness
- Curiosity
- Optimism
- Altruism
- Love
- Whimsy
- Confidence
- Passion
People BUY with EMOTIONS and Reason With LOGIC
The copy MUST also include logic that supports the purchase because if you don’t they are going to regret next day. The copy must also include proven numbers, examples, and endorsements that show that they are making the right decision.
4. Clear Call To Action
You can have the best copy in the world, but unless you tell people what to do, they won’t. You have to give them the opportunity to take action by telling them what to do.
In old times, copywriter Joeseph Sugarman asked his direct mail readers to send in a check at his address to receive the product, these days you might have a big bright button that says BUY NOW.
Summary
Now you know the 4 fundamental elements of writing a good copy. Over time, you won’t need to worry about these because it will become second-hand, but for now, just make sure that you have all 4 elements on your copy.
- Research the topic and product
- Write for a specific audience
- Talk Benefits not features
- Have a Clear Call To Action
Next Read: 6 Copywriting Formulas
