So, you need help with copywriting?
Welcome back small business owners and content creators! This week's blog is all about helping you write killer copy for your website/social media pages/emails/etc..
In this post, you'll learn how to write copy that’s easy to read, provides value to your audience, and converts your readers into LOYAL clients/fans who love supporting you and investing your products, programs, and services.
Providing relatable and easy-to-digest copy for your audience is one of your most important jobs as a small business owner. So you'll definitely want to keep reading this one.
We’re going stop worrying about grammar rules or “doing it wrong,” and just go for it. You ready?
Tip #1:
Write a lot (and often!)
As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”. While we aren’t looking for actual perfection we are looking to improve our copywriting skills!
If you don’t think you’re any good at writing, do more of it! No joke. You have to build this skill up just like anything else.
If you commit to writing something like... I dunno... 15 minutes every other day - over time you will get better at it. I PROMISE.
Sometimes I will be writing a stream of consciousness that I think is terrible and that I'll never use for my business, and all of a sudden an amazing idea will come out of nowhere! The key is - I just do it. Thank you Nike for the inspo.
Tip #2:
Know your brand voice, and make it honest!
A copywriting tip for entrepreneurs that can help everyone: knowing your brand voice. This starts by knowing your brand archetypes and your audience.
For example, if most of your customers are Gen Z-ers you’re going to have a different tone than if your audience is mainly baby boomers.
One copywriting trap that I find SO many of my clients falling into is trying to sound too “smart” or too "perfectly put together".... if that makes sense? Their vocabulary can get too complicated or their sentence structure may be too long. OR, many times, I see them trying to fit in WAY too much research that isn't necessary. Don't make this mistake! Write like you're chatting to one person, and make that person your dream client.
Write like you talk! It’s as simple as that. If you curse like a sailor in real life, it’s okay to use swear words in your copy too. My dear friends, be real. You have an amazing, wonderful, and unique personality that no one else has. Show it off!
The brands that are able to “stand out” from the rest have an understanding of one thing: their own frequency. Find this for your brand and hold on to it for dear life.
Tip #3:
Just shorten it
Another copywriting tip for small business owners to consider? Just shorten it.
In the age of social media, you only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention. Most people respond better to short chunks of information than one gigantic block of copy. Use this knowledge to connect with your audience better.
If you’re writing a blog post, for example, think two-to-three-word sentence paragraphs instead of big blocks (see this entire blog post for an example). Not only can you lose people’s interest right off the bat, but it’s so much extra work for you.
Instead, think about the words that are absolutely essential to get your message across.
Tip #4:
Position Yourself As The Expert
Because you ARE the expert! Confident copy will make your potential clients feel comfortable that you know what the hell you’re talking about, and will get them excited to sign up for whatever you’re offering.
To do this, give specific examples of your work. Say things like
When I do this with my clients
My clients have skyrocketed their business after they completed Module 3 of my online course
Do these 3 steps to get back 15 hours of your week
*BONUS TIP* The most persuasive word in your entire copywriting arsenal is “because” and psychology has shown us that this little word is magical as we automatically believe whatever comes after the word “because”.
The reason for this is that our brains are lazy as we don’t want to search through all of our memories and our experiences or things we’ve read to disprove every time we come across that word and whatever comes after it.
So we automatically believe anything that comes after the word “because” which makes it very effective for influencing people. And the more relevant your reasons, the better.
Final Thoughts:
I hope that this post encouraged you to have FUN with copywriting and encouraged you to play with the words. Because copywriting is truly never done. You should never put a piece of copy out there and forget about it. You always need to go back and tweak it and experiment with different headlines and other things.
KEEP EXPERIMENTING AND DON’T FREAK OUT IF IT’S NOT WORKING IMMEDIATELY.
And most importantly... have fun and never stop providing value to your audience. They will always keep coming if you do those 2 things!
