What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the art of writing content to influence user behavior. It’s especially important to write focused content on a website that is attempting to influence a visitor to buy a service, join your email list or share your content.
Copywriting includes writing promotional or product campaigns for goods and services online, in order to prompt your readers into taking a desired action. Whether you are copywriting for yourself, or are outsourcing it to a freelancer- always make sure that your content is not only appealing to read, but also attractive to the eye.
Why is copywriting important?
Copywriting is important because it’s the effort to broadcast your company’s message to your existing fan base as well as individuals whose attention you would like to capture.
The manner in which you deliver you written content must be consistent in your brand’s tone and voice. Depending on your industry, the way you write content will be different. For example, a website for a hospital may have an urgent tone of taking care of its patients. You will not often find articles or written content that has a playful or joking tone. On the other hand, an entertainment website maintains its user base by producing fun and engaging content.
On top of the copywriting tone, the content producer must follow writing rules such as grammar. According to statistics, 74% of users pay attention to grammatical errors in your content. Out of these, 59% would refuse to continue doing business with you. Through the quality of your work, you can make or break your visitor buying behavior.
3 Common Copywriting Problems & Solutions
There are various mistakes businesses make during their copywriting campaigns. Whether you are producing blog articles for your website to inform your visitors on a topic, it’s recommended to follow best writing practices. Below are the 3 common copywriting problems and their solutions.
Problem 1: Not optimizing copy for scanability and legibility
When it comes to reading text online, individuals are lazy. If your visitor is looking to find information quickly and you did not segment your large paragraph into bite size pieces with headings, the visitor may leave. If your business website has a 10 line paragraph that takes up the entire width of your laptop or desktop device, you are not offering your visitors content one can scan.
Solution 1: Break up your written content into multiple sections
Written content must be segmented into consumable blocks. Even for a small section, a copy must contain only a few sentences that communicate the idea clearly. This section will have its own header or a sub-header to describe what we are about to read in the copy.
Visitors do not read all the wording if they don’t have to. They skim the text and if they find what they are looking for, only then will they invest the time to read the entire section to get important details.
The headings and subheadings must also be written in a language that is simple to understand. If you use industry buzzwords and complex language, you may confuse your potential client and make them feel inadequate.
If your industry is ridden with complex language, you must dumb it down for the initial presentation and once you get your visitor to invest more time with you, then you can offer more complicated language to describe your service or product.
Optimal Pursuits has a team of designers and writers that work together to write effective content and design a layout to optimize conversions.
Problem 2: Not supporting your claims and statements
When writing content, it is important to reference outside sources that play a role in supporting your argument. Without referencing statistics or mentioning another source, it may be more difficult to influence your visitor in taking you seriously.
Solution 2: Support written content with reputable and trustworthy sources
In order to persuade an individual to move forward with your company, it’s important to back up your statements with facts, statistics and other trust-building techniques. If you make claims and not back them up, then you leave your visitor wondering about your credibility.
During the copywriting process, it’s important to make claims and also support them with details such as case studies that lay out the entire process of a particular project. Or testimonials from prior happy customers, etc,. Make it crystal clear that what you offer as a service or a product is completely backed up. There has to be no doubt.
Problem 3: Discussing service/product features
A consumer is interested in how a product or a service will affect their bottom line. Let’s imagine a visitor is looking to purchase a smartphone. Your content discusses how many milli-amps of power the device has without mentioning how long the phone can last without shutting down.
Your content did not outline the benefits. In fact, you may have confused your visitor. Only technically savvy visitors will be interested in the specifications of a product.
Solution 3: Outline the benefits and uses cases for your service/product
Copy is often written about the kind of features a product offers. Features don’t directly speak to how they’re going to affect the potential client. Instead, the sales copy or copywriting must state the feature and describe its benefits.
The benefit part directly speaks to a potential client and how it can save them time, save money, simply improve their life for the better. The reality is that potential clients are selfish. They like to know what’s in it for them. How will it benefit them? Therefore, we must paint the picture of exactly that – the benefits.
Next steps
Producing persuasive written content tailored for online consumption may be difficult for a small business. Let Optimal Pursuits review your website’s written content and recommend top 3 suggestions on how write copy that converts visitors into clients. Request a complimentary copywriting audit below.
