When it comes to bringing your brand online, it is all about choosing the right combination of digital marketing tactics. You can get a custom website designed for your business, hire SEO managers to help increase online presence, or go onboard social media platforms to reach a bigger audience. Whatever your choice is, content marketing is key, and it all boils down to good and straightforward copywriting that drives your brand’s message through to your target audience.
Let’s start with understanding what copywriting is and why it’s important.
Is copywriting just putting words together?
A quick definition of ‘copywriting’, it is the practice of writing text for some purpose. Some examples of common copywriting purposes include writing an advertorial copy or tagline, creation of content for a blog, or other activities that support organisational goals. For digital marketing, the copywriting should prompt readers to take the desired action, such as purchasing a product or signing up for a mailing list. This is what we often refer to as ‘digital copywriting’.
With the aim of gathering leads and closing sales in a business context, digital copywriting usually follows a certain structure achieved by developing content that appeals to customers and utilizing sales strategies that address customers’ pain points.
Most digital copywriting material will include a Call To Action (CTA) at the end of its structure, to drive visitors to take appropriate action.
Good copywriting helps create and build a better brand image, representing the business and allowing customers to connect with it, contributes to sales, and potentially attracts new customers.
Keeping it short and sweet, and other essential tips
In a digital world full of ideas and images flooding every single page, it is of utmost importance to grab your target audiences’ attention. And that is why we often say ‘keep it short and sweet’, because research suggests that the average internet users’ attention span is only 8 seconds.
Keeping to keywords, and using typography to bold and highlight important messages, is just one of the many strategies to win screen time and not get swiped away.
Here are some tips to copywriting, so your content can improve, and your brand can grow.
- Catchy headlines snatch attention
Follow the 4 U’s of compelling headline writing: Useful, Urgent, Unique, and Ultra-specific. This will attract your audience to read more of your copy’s contents.
There is advice you can use to create a catchy headline. A great start comes from knowing your audience so you can use language that appeals to them. For digital marketing purposes, it’s also useful to utilize SEO-optimized headlines and numbers so that search engines display your content higher in search results, resulting in more clicks.
- The power of storytelling
Consumers don’t just buy products, they buy into solutions and their emotions often guide them towards a specific purchase. A great story helps by embedding the solution within a narrative, leading the consumers to ‘feel’ and not just read.
By using the power of storytelling in your copy, you evoke an emotional response from those who engage with your content. This way, you assist your audience in identifying with your product and better understanding its purpose.
- Facts attract (stats and links too)
This is a time-tested tip to create a copy that sells. Notice the statistics and representative numbers in many advertorials? By adding relevant facts and statistics to your content, you provide a logical explanation and evidence supporting the wisdom of purchasing your product.
Don’t just throw out stats and facts, however. Support these with links and images from authoritative sites (remember to credit them). Do note, however, that making up numbers presenting your own opinion as fact will hurt your marketing efforts, as these will eventually come to light.
- Use the right words
Something copywriters learn in school is to refrain from using adjectives or adverbs to make an ‘okay’ good enough. Though your copy should cater to your audience, it’s still a good practice to avoid words that indicate uncertainty, such as ‘perhaps,’ ‘maybe,’ or ‘tried.’ Using power words in conjunction with modals like ‘could,’ ‘would,’ and ‘should’ suggest that something must be done, bringing your reader to take the necessary action.
Great copywriting tips from other writers suggest using active voice as it’s both engaging and suggests movement. And, bring product descriptions to life by using colorful, expressive language rather than sticking to physical descriptions.
- Monitor the metrics
It’s almost impossible to predict exactly what copy resonates with your target audience. That’s why you must regularly take note of your metrics, to see what’s working and what’s not. Follow key performance metrics from search engines or social media platforms, noting the number of visits, bounce rate (visitors who leave within a short time), top pages, and other numbers related to your website, email marketing or social media channel, to determine what works. Then, work on creating similar content that works.
Leave your digital marketing worries to the experts
Still unsure about the whole digital copywriting business? Or need a hand in dealing with your brand’s digital marketing efforts? Let the team at I Concept help you with it. Other than assisting you with crafting quality digital copywriting material, we can also help you with creating a refreshed brand persona. A leading agency in Singapore, we specialise in helping to build and develop brand narratives, with dedicated copywriters and designers who’ll make your work tick. Be in touch with I Concept today.
