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LEARNING TO WRITE MARKETING COPY 2

Overview of Marketing Copywriting

Copywriting is creating words that are planned to persuade audience. Copywriters create the words and text for promotional materials like websites, landing pages, sales letters, billboards, brochures, and emails. Also, the copy should be visual creative which means the copy should be include content and visually creative. Copywriting must include three things. First, the copy needs to deliver value regarding return on time invested. Second, it should target niche audiences. Finally, it can affect the company's brand based on provided value.

There are three types of marketing copywriting that include collateral, medium, and style. Collateral refers to all the media you have to produce to engage in marketing such as write a brochure or similar things. Collateral can be including brochure, direct marketing piece, poster, script, one-liner (ex, business cards, social media posts) and product description. Next is a medium that is a way of passing the message through platforms such as online, print or radio. The last type of copywriting is style. There is some certain style for different tactics such as teaching, the straight shot, the laugher, the scare tactic, and the hard sell.

Writing Copy

For writing a marketing copy the writer needs to concentrate for a period of time. Also, some things can prevent a copywriter to stay focus such as interruptions, animals, technical problems lack of examples or inspiration and burnout. So, it is better to close everything that can cause interruptions and set a timer then start writing. After that, it is better to create a plan for writing. It is important to think about your audiences, the collateral and the style that work best in the context. Three things need to be considered for copywriting plan. First, any notes that show how to get the audience’s attention. Second, providing a list of collateral, and last a list of style that works for this audience. Then it's time to start free writing. The best way to get the first sentences down on paper is to set a time for five or ten minutes without pausing the time and begin the writing. Also, it can be good idea to focus on writing first and forget any grammar and spelling mistakes at this step.

There are some tips can help the writer to put the first draft to a paper. It is essential to get your thought down and structure. Also, it is better to write from the inside out when there is a difficulty with writing the first sentence. It is crucial to keep your goal in mind when writing the draft. In addition, for more effective writing, it needs to address the reader with "you" and "your" instead of "one" or "one's" and use direct language. Also, avoid using sarcasm and explain to the customer why for to engage reader.

When you have written the draft, it is time for polishing it. There are some rules that you need to follow. First, always edit and then proofread and also, it is beneficial to ask someone to edit and proofread the marketing copy. Second, try to use active voice in your copywriting and remove clichés from your writing. Last, read the copy and looking for punctuation, grammar, and other errors, then read it backward looking for spelling errors.

Headlines are really important because headlines need to grab your reader’s attention immediately. A headline is your introduction, first impression, opening line, and sales pitch all rolled into one. A headline should not be boring it has to be as descriptive as possible. Also, avoid using mysterious headlines because as other great marketers say, "people don't have time, they have options." and do not use fear mongering or scare tactics because these headlines don't work. Besides, a headline isn't a caption, and you need to write many headlines because often a great headline is a combination of several headlines. Finally, use some methods that can help you to write a decent headline.

There are also some ways that you can test your headlines to find which one works best. One of the old testing methods is direct mail split testing, but with the advent of the internet, there are some great tools available to test headlines such as run an ad with the Facebook ad or Google ads, use an email list to send headlines and also build a landing page to test headlines.

Also, you need to give a reason to the customers to persuade them to read, and it is called sell the page. There are some options to sell the page. For example, attract customers with a funny summary, provide a short bullet list or just ask them to keep reading.

Copywriting for print can have different forms with different requirements and advantages. Marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, and other offline copies provide information about your company that customers can take away. There are a few rules that should consider for structuring a copy for print. First, the copy needs to set in a broader context and images and other information arranged around it. Next, the writing has to work because when it published, you cannot change it. Also, images are very important because readers always look the image first. Finally, provide a clear and instant call to action.

On the other hand, writing copy for online readers is entirely different, and it has advantages such as editable, testable and many ways to find your audience. Also, it is important to consider some rules for writing online copy and effective typography. First, do not use more than 13 words on a line and more than five to six lines per paragraph. Second, for lists use bullet points and numbering and don't use three to four paragraphs without a subheading or image. Third, headlines should pass blank-sheet-of-paper test. Finally, use link when it is helpful for readers.

Rewriting existing copy

Rewriting is reproducing existing copywriting in a different form that can be used again. The key factor in rewriting existing copy is to improve the copy without restructuring. There is three different type of rewriting, rewriting copy for a webpage, rewriting copy for product description and rewriting copy for social media. When you are rewriting web copy, you need to edit for readability, conciseness and proofread. You can do rewriting with a clarified call to action, use active voice and change language and make it more energized. However, rewriting a product description is very important. There are rules need to be followed such as change passive to active voice, make the copywriting scannable with a clear call to action. Last, social media copy can be challenging, so some rules need to be considered because the writing spread so fast, it can easily offend people, and the writing needs to send across different formats. Thus, the message should be short and pair with images for better performance. Also, the use of active voice in posts to get reader attention and have a friendly conversation with customers.

Conclusion

As a manager of a copywriting team, he or she needs to organize, mentor and advocate the team. Also, the manager should respect the schedule and make editing part of the project schedule. If a mistake happened, the manager needs to find a way to prevent it from happening again. Finally, provide one day per month for the team to work on their favorite project.

Editorial calendar is a great tool to keep track of what you want to write, and when you want to write it. Also, it can help to keep content marketing organized and on schedule. For this reason, it is a need to create a content schedule first. The content schedule gives the team a quick overview of your content schedule and also provides the team members clarity about a general set of goals and anything the team needs to add to the editorial calendar.

According to Lurie (2014), "Brand voice focuses on specific choices you make when writing copy for the brand." Some tips can manage a brand voice easier like have a lexicon and personas besides keep a library for approved and rejected copywriting. Also, test different terms in the lexicon, and the various personas. Finally, monitor performance to find out which words show up in high performing content.

My Conclusion

Copywriting shows that by just using text we can manipulate the mind of the audience to buy or make them interested in them. That is why many companies use copywriting to make their advertising more effective. The copywriting is important in increasing the sales of a product. For example, for a fatigued worker, a shopper, massage chair company indulge them in using the massage chair and they need to pay for the service. If the seller can produce a good slogan or tagline, then the prospect will be attracted to buy the promoted product. This skill can be applied to any promotional writing. Even practicable in a newspaper ad, magazine, blog Facebook or Twitter. On the other hand, one bad example of marketing copy is Spy sunglasses. The headline of the company's poster was "Happy to sit on your face". But after a week Spy sunglass taken it down from a billboard in California due to complaints. Because their customers offended with the language that was used in the advertisement. Thus, this shows the importance of copywriting in marketing and also copywriting is the bridge between what you’re selling and your target audience.

References

Lurie, I. (2014). Learning to Write Marketing Copy. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/Business-Online-Marketing-tutorials/Writing-Marketing-Copy/149250-2.html