Transcripts
1. Introduction: I know from experience
how the right mindset and a few straightforward tactics
can get incredible results. I've seen firsthand
the difference a few simple tweaks
can make when it comes to conversions
and sales figures. Hello, my name is Ruth and I'm a professional copywriter. I write promotional copy for businesses so they
can increase sales, build customer engagement, and achieve their marketing goals. In this class, I'm
drawing on decades of professional
copywriting experience to share with you the
fundamental skills you need to write engaging, persuasive, marketing copy. [MUSIC] I'm a member of ProCopywriters
and I've trained with the Chartered Institute
of Marketing and Google. I use the tried and
tested techniques I'll teach you every
single day myself, both in my in-house role as
a creative copywriter for an international
organization and for my freelance clients. You're about to learn
professional techniques and tools for writing marketing
copy quickly and easily, and I'll show you
exactly how to put your new skills into action with step-by-step tutorials
featuring copy I've written for my employer, and my clients, and examples from
well-known brands. This class is perfect for in-house marketing
professionals. After taking it you'll be
able to approach writing copy with more confidence
and creativity, knowing you have the
skills to do a great job, and your company will see
the difference you've made reflected in its
marketing metrics. For your class project, choose a product or service to write some marketing copy for. It could be something brand new or a refresh of existing copy. You don't need to aim for
a long piece it can be as simple as a couple of headlines
or a social media post. Each lesson put the tactics
you've learned into action. You'll see for yourself
the huge difference these simple techniques
you've learned can make. At the end of the class, upload your copy as a project. Get in touch with me via the discussion section if
you have any questions. What you're about
to learn will take your copywriting
to the next level. Let's get started.
2. Connecting With Your Reader: In this lesson, you'll
learn how to engage your audience and form a
meaningful connection with them. Connecting with your reader is your most important job when you're writing marketing copy. That's because people buy from
those they know and trust. You need to enter into a
conversation with your reader, understand them, and
get them on your side. One tactic to help you come
across as more human and friendly is to use the words
you and we in your copy. Look at these examples. The sentences on the left are written in the third person. They talk about people
and things as if they were remote from both the
writer and the reader. Compare them with the
sentences on the right. They speak directly
from the writer to the reader using
the words you and we. They're warmer and feel
more direct and personal. Here's an example of
this technique in action in an ad for tissues. Between the headline
and the short body copy the word you is
used three times. Another tactic to help your
copy come across as more conversational and engaging
is to ask questions. This is a technique I
use a lot in my writing. Asking questions
encourages people to think about how your
message relates to them, just like it does
in conversation. Here are some examples. There are two types
of questions, closed questions can be
answered with either yes or no, while open questions
invite a longer response. They're both useful
in copywriting. Many sentences can be
easily reworked to turn them into closed questions
just by tweaking a few words. That's what I've done
in the first example. Is just a small change, but it's turned a dry statement
into something that encourages the reader to
engage a little more deeply. It also sets up a
response of "yes". This is a subtle
psychological cue that puts the reader in a positive frame of mind and therefore more
likely to buy. The second example is
a little more complex. This company makes
high-end dog accessories, so it needs to persuade
potential customers that it's worth spending more money
on a premium product. They could just tell
them that it's worth it, but then they would say
that, wouldn't they? How about turning it around
so that we're asking someone what their dog's
well-being is worth. Naturally, any dog owner
is going to respond that their pets comfort
is worth investing in. This is what makes questions in marketing copy so powerful. Instead of telling your reader
what they should feel or do you're guiding them into making the decisions themselves. Here's an ad for olives that
uses the question technique. Martini drinkers
are used to being asked if they'd like an
olive in their drink. This ad turns that
question around to highlight the main selling
point of the product, its size. As well as asking questions so you can also
answer them in your copy. This tactic requires you to get into your reader's head and guess what questions they might ask about your
product or service. This works particularly
well if you zoom in on potential objections or hurdles that might stand in
the way of a sale. Let me show you some examples. The phrase "what if?" is a useful one
for this exercise. Put yourself in your
customers shoes and keep asking, what if? What if it doesn't fit? What if it gets
lost in the post? What if I don't like it? What if I find one
cheaper elsewhere? Answer all these questions in your copy and you'll be
offering reassurance to your potential customer
and increasing your chance of making
a sale. "How do I know?" is another useful phrase that
serves a similar purpose. These questions
really force you to think about your
company's values and safeguards allowing
you to create watertight sales copy that
makes a positive arguments. Credit card company, Zilch, used this technique in a
recent Facebook ad campaign. First, they reference
their ethical credentials. They then go on to bullet
point responses to a number of possible objections
from potential customers, including, what if
I can't afford it, and how do I know
I can trust you? I've used a few
real life examples from social media
in this lesson. If you write a lot
of copy for social, make sure you check out my Social Media Copywriting Masterclass when you
finish this class. It has separate lessons
devoted to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram,
as well as tips for writing bios and handling
awkward replies. It's packed full of tactics
for making social media copywriting more effective
and less time-consuming, and it's designed
to help you reach your engagement and
conversion targets. In this lesson, you've
learned how to connect with your reader by using
conversational language, asking them questions and
answering their concerns. Put the skills you've learned in this lesson into action
on your own copy. Introduce the words you and we, ask questions and think
about what might be holding a potential customer back from buying and how you can
soothe those worries. In the next lesson, I'll
share three ways to get into a creative mindset so you can generate inventive ideas
for your marketing copy.
3. Getting Creative to Generate Ideas: In this lesson, you'll learn three techniques to
help you tap into your creativity and generate
ideas for your copywriting. Creativity is a vital
copywriting skill because inventive and novel ideas
get the reader's attention. But getting yourself
into a creative, experimental mindset
can be tricky, especially if you're up against a tight deadline or you
have a heavy workload. It's worth practicing though, not just because it will help you write better marketing copy, but because creative
copywriting is highly sought after and it will improve your employability
and career prospects. Let me share with you
three actionable tactics I use to unleash
my creative side. Tactic number 1 is to
change something up, either your scenery,
the time of day, or your writing materials. A big part of creativity
involves making unexpected connections
between things or seeing things from a
different perspective. You can trick your mind
into doing this by creating a different setting
from how you usually write. For example, I do most of my writing in my
home office space. But if I want to get
into a creative mindset, I'll often sit in a
different room in the house or take a
walk down the garden, and I've lost count of how many good ideas I've had while waiting for
the kettle to boil. Sometimes all that's
needed to get the creative juices flowing
is a change of scenery. Similarly, how many
times have you tried to find creative
inspiration at work only to have a great
idea come to you on a commute home or first
thing next morning? It can be incredibly
valuable to set aside creative thinking time outside working hours when your
mind is more relaxed. Another thing you can
change to kick-start the creative process is
your writing materials. I bet that like me you do most of your writing
on a keyboard. But there's something very
freeing about letting your imagination run riot with an old-fashioned pen and paper, which leads me neatly onto the next creative tactic;
playing word games. Some of the most successful
copywriting concepts depend on language
techniques such as rhyme, alliteration, and
adapting idioms. But how to get started? Well, I'm going to walk you through it using this worksheet that you can download
and print from the class resources tab. Start by choosing one keyword for your product or service, make it the most obvious one.
So, for my dog accessories, I'm going to use the word dog. You can always create
extra sheets later. Let's start by
listing words that rhyme with our word or
almost rhyme with it. Keep your product or service in your mind as
you're doing this and start to draw out any
ideas that surface. For example, the
word tog might be useful to me because it's
another word for dress, and I'm selling dog clothing, so perhaps tog your dog might be something I can
incorporate into my copy. There's no need to be tidy
when you're doing this. Messiness is part of
the creative process. If you wanted more room, you could re-create
the worksheets on a bigger piece of
paper and don't feel like you have to fill in all the sections in any
particular order either. Remember, this is a
creative exercise. With that in mind, let's list synonyms for our keyword next. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing or very similar. You can use your computer
to search for synonyms, but start with your
own brain first. As you're listing
these synonyms, make a note of any
longer phrases that pop into your head. For example, the word
pooch makes me think of the phrase Pampered Pooch which is a good fit
for my product. Alliteration is using words that start with a similar sound. It's a technique
that makes writing memorable and gives it rhythm. Use what you've written
so far to search for opportunities to
use alliteration. Again, think about your product
and its selling points. I've already unearthed
one nice bit of alliteration with the
phrase Pampered Pooch. Make your mutt feel like
a millionaire is also alliterative and works
well for my products because it echoes
its high-end nature. Finally, jot down any phrases or
expressions that include your keyword or perhaps
the synonyms you've identified that closely
relate to the subject. You can use these
directly in your copy or as a springboard
for other ideas. For example, I've got
an idea right now for how I could take the
negative phrases it's a dog's life and
in the dog house, and use them in an
ironic way alongside images of the company's
high-end dog accessories. This is almost by definition, a messy process, but
I hope you've seen enough to encourage you
to try it for yourself. It really is a foolproof
way to kick-start creativity and generate
lots of ideas quickly. My final tactic for coming up with original ideas is to get very specific about your
product or services benefits. For example, imagine
we're coming up with an ad concept to sell
insurance services online. We've identified that
the key benefit is that people can get
insured very quickly. We could say get insured
very quickly or something like getting insured is
quicker than you think. That's okay. Even better, we could be more
specific and say get insured in
under two minutes. That's more specific
and will probably encourage more people
to click through. Or how about we
think about things a little more creatively and draw a parallel between the
time it takes to get our insurance and
the time it takes to do another quick and
straightforward everyday activity like making a coffee. This copy is effective because not only does it make concrete, just how quick it is
to get the insurance, it creates a parallel with
a simple positive activity, enjoying coffee with a friend, which implies that taking out the insurance will be
simple and positive too. One final little bit of
advice on creativity. Keep your eyes and ears open for great copy you see when
you're out and about reading magazines or browsing
your social feeds and build them into a swipe file you can use for inspiration later. They don't have to
relate to your industry, just copy you find inspiring to kick off the
creative process. In this lesson, you learned three techniques to
prompt creative thinking. Put the skills you've
learned in this lesson into action on your own copy, try a change of scenery to jot yourself into that
creative mindsets. Get playful with word games
and really zoom in on the specifics of
your products to generate more unusual ideas. In the next lesson, I'll share my three favorite copywriting
templates and I'll show you how to use them to make writing marketing copy
quicker and more focused.
4. Picking the Best Template: In this lesson, you'll
learn three templates for writing different kinds
of marketing copy. Copywriting templates
are important tools because they help you stay focused and they can speed
up the writing process. That's why if I need to write
effective copy quickly, I use a template as
a starting point. But there are a lot of
copywriting templates out there. So it can get confusing. To get you started,
I'm going to share my three favorite templates, each of which is well-suited to a common copywriting scenario. The formula I recommend
most often to my clients and students is AIDA. That's because it's
really simple to follow and it's very versatile. You can adapt it to work for product descriptions,
landing pages, social media posts,
advertisements, pretty much any marketing
copy you can think of. AIDA stands for attention,
interest, desire, action. Four stages that lead you through grabbing your
reader's attention, then getting them interested to making them want
what you're offering, and finally, persuading
them to take action. These four stages are often illustrated using a
funnel like this. That's because you inevitably lose readers at
different stages. You might grab the
attention of 100 people, but they drop off at each
stage and perhaps only five of them end up taking
the action at the end. Here's an example
of this template in action in a print ad. The headline is designed to grab the attention of the
target audience, vegans who love chocolate. Calling out your target
customer directly like this is an unsubtle
but effective tactic. Next up, the body copy creates interest by listing
features of the product, less sugar, less fat, and less calories than
other chocolate spreads. The next stage, desire builds
on the interest stage, but creates a more
emotional connection rather than being
based on facts. In this case, sensory words are introduced to
describe the products. It's deliciously creamy,
smooth, and fresh. Finally, action. The call to action in this ad is find us in the chilled section. Stick to one short simple
call to action like this in your marketing copy
to avoid confusion and maximize
conversions. Next up: PAS is a super-simple and
reliable sales formula. Its brevity makes it
especially useful for short form copy such
as social media posts. PAS stands for problem,
agitation, solution. It relies on identifying a challenge that
your prospect has, stirring it up so they're really motivated to solve that problem, then offering them the solution, which of course is to buy
your product or service. Here is PAS at work. The problem being
addressed is over plucked and asymmetric eyebrows. But look at the
amount of agitation going on after that
initial query. The first half of the post is devoted to stirring up
the prospect so they're really upset about
their eyebrows and motivated to do
something about it. Notice the emotive language
being used here too, haunt, tired, struggling. It encourages an
emotional reaction. Then the service
being promoted is introduced as the solution
to all these problems. That's PAS in a nutshell, simple but very effective. The third and final
template I'd like to introduce you to is the four Ps. The four Ps are picture, promise, prove, and push. Here are the four Ps in action. First, we create a
vivid scene that our prospects can easily
put themselves in, whether about an existing pain
or an aspirational future. In this ad, it's a future
of quickly and easily preparing a vast range of delicious meals that's the bait. Then the promise, we introduce
our product or service, the solution that will
end that painful scene or bring that aspirational
scene to life for them. In this case, it's a
fancy new blender. The proof stage is where
we support our promise. How does our prospect know
they can trust us and that our product or service
will do what we say? Ways you can do this include
by using facts and stats, customer testimonials,
talking about how long our company has been operating or how many units we've sold. Finally, push. This is where we tip the
reader over the edge to buy. In this ad, there's
the promise of a reader offer to reduced price, along with information about
how to buy the product. In this lesson, you've
learned three of the most popular and useful
copywriting templates and how to use them to write more
focused copy more quickly. Put the skills you've learned
in this lesson into action. Practice using AIDA, PAS, and the four Ps to promote your chosen product or service. Is there one template you
prefer above the others? Which of your everyday
copywriting tasks might benefit from using
one of these templates? Bear in mind that you
don't need to stick rigidly to any templates. Instead, use them as a starting point and adapt
them so they suit your needs. In the next lesson, you'll learn how a few small tweaks
to your copy can make it easier and quicker to read
and more likely to convert.
5. Writing Clearly and Concisely: In this lesson, you'll
learn how to get your message across
quickly and clearly. This subject is central to
effective copywriting because your reader needs to understand your message before
they can act on it, and you need them to grasp that message quickly
before they lose interest. Clarity and brevity are especially crucial online
because there's a lot of competition for attention
and your reader is likely to be less engaged and
more easily distracted. Tactic one is to
simplify your message. Using complicated words instead
of simple alternatives, is something unskilled
writers do because they think it makes their writing
sound more professional. In fact, it does the
opposite, worse than that, making your message more
long-winded than it needs to be, makes it less likely to
be read and acted upon. Here are some examples of
overly complex words and phrases that have simple
quick to read alternatives. Take your lead from legendary writers like
Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, and Stephen King. Don't use more words than
necessary and don't use complex words when a
simpler alternative exists. Do your reader a favor
and get to the point. Here's another tactic
that will help you keep your copywriting
clear and concise. Use the active voice
wherever possible. Look at the difference
between these sentences. Those in the first column are written in the
passive voice. The subject of the sentence
comes after the verb. The sentences in
the second column carry the same message, but they're written
in the active voice. They follow a clear subject
verb object format. You can see straight
away that in each case the active version is more
natural and straightforward. On the other hand, the
passive examples are more bureaucratic
and long-winded. Writing more complex
sentences using the passive voice
can also become really confusing for the reader. Writing in the passive
voice isn't always bad. Sometimes the subject
of a sentence is unknown or unimportant, so the passive voice is more appropriate and with a
longer piece of copy, the occasional sentence in
the passive voice can help break things up and keep
your reader engaged. But it's a handy general rule to stick to the active
voice whenever you can, so aim to make
around 80-90 percent of your sentences active. My final piece of advice when it comes to making
your marketing copy clear and concise is to
cut out some adverbs. Adverbs are those
little modifiers that tell you how
something was done. They often end with
the letters LY. I've underlined the adverbs
in the first column. Adverbs are a lazy way to
get your message across. They're another cause of
bloated over long writing. Often you can delete the adverb in a
sentence without losing any meaning and the result is
a shorter punchier message. That's the case with
this first example. The word really is
adding nothing of value. By deleting it, we're
making our point more quickly rather than
wasting our reader's time. The second example
shows how strengthening the verb can make the
accompanying adverb unnecessary. Strive means the same
as continuously try, but it gets the
message across in a quicker and more punchy way. There's something
a little different going on with the third example. Remember what we learned in
the earlier lesson about the power of zooming in
on specific details. The phrase, extremely
high-quality materials is weak and vague. It doesn't tell the
reader anything useful. By explaining specifically what the fabric of the
coat lining is, we're making the same point
while at the same time giving more information and bigging
up our ethical credentials. If you count the syllables
in each sentence, you'll see that they're
exactly the same length, so we've added a lot of detail without
sacrificing brevity. Here's an ad that follows
these principles. Simple language,
the active voice, and no unnecessary adverbs. Notice how this ad integrates many of the other rules
we've learned so far, such as using the word you. In this lesson, you learned a few small tweaks that
can make your copy easier and quicker to read
and more likely to convert. Take a look at your own
copy and see how you can put the techniques you've
learned into action. Can you use simpler language? Switch to the active voice or cut out unnecessary adverbs? In the next lesson, you'll
learn how to tap into your reader's emotions
via their senses.
6. Using Sensory Language: In this lesson, we'll explore the subject of sensory language. Using sensory language is a copywriting secret
weapon because our senses are a
shortcut to our emotions. Why is that important? Well, people buy with their
hearts not their heads. So encouraging an emotional
response to copy, is a powerful sales technique. There's an added bonus. It's also a handy shortcut to more creative and
dynamic writing. There are three tactics you can use when you're looking to incorporate sensory
language into your copy. The first tactic
is super-simple. Describe what your
product looks, sounds, smells,
tastes or feels like. Although that might
sound obvious, just thinking these things through can lead you to uncover an overlooked detail of your product you can turn
into a selling point. In this example, we're hardly
going to forget to tell readers what our new
scented candle smells like, but it might be easier to
overlook the other senses. How about considering the
sense of touch, for example. Maybe the artisan
beeswax used to make the candle gives it a
luxurious soft texture. The second technique
for incorporating sensory language into your
copy is more indirect. It also involves using words
relating to the senses, but those words don't have to describe what you're selling. Some common examples
are using phrases like, look at this or have you heard. You might also
incorporate idioms or figures of speech into
your copy writing, as I have here with wake
up and smell the coffee. Remember what we said about how sensory language taps
into people's emotions? That's exactly why we use it
so much in everyday speech, and why so many common idioms and expressions have
a sensory element. If you're marketing copy
is feeling a little dry, try swapping a few phrases
for more sensory equivalents. The great thing about this
technique is that you can use it to sell any
product or service. If you're selling
advertising space or mobile phone top-ups, you might struggle to describe what they smell or taste like. But there's nothing
stopping you adding a few sensory pointers into your marketing copy
to spice it up. A third tactic for getting a little touchy-feeling
with your copy, is to use sensory
language to communicate a concept to your reader by painting an
aspirational picture. To practice this technique, think about how your
product or service makes your customers feel and build an aspirational
environment starting with the word, imagine. Holiday companies use
this tactic all the time. Imagine walking along
a pristine beach, blue sky above your head, soft sand under your
feet and the golden sun warming your skin as gentle
waves caress the shore. This coffee shop example, might be a little more prosaic, but it gets its message
across loud and clear. Our coffee scented candle
will help you recreate the relaxed environment of your favorite coffee
shop in your own home. Here's another example of
this technique in action. This time in a Facebook ad. Trello sells online
workflow solutions. Pretty dry and abstract,
but the phrase, "It's easy for things to get
caught up in the weeds," communicates the problem
they're aiming to solve in an immediate
and sensory way. It then goes on to
introduce the solution, as bringing a clear
visual perspective, another sensory description. In this lesson, you
learned how to tap into your reader's emotions
via their senses, and make your writing more creative and dynamic
at the same time. If this is an area
of copywriting, you're particularly
interested in. Take a look at my class
Write with Personality. It's full of tactics for making your writing more
dynamic and vibrant, including storytelling techniques,
emotional copywriting, and using storytelling to build
rapport with your reader. Put the skills you've learned in this lesson into action
on your own copy. Think about where
you can introduce sensory language in relation
to your product or service, either directly or
more indirectly. In the next lesson, you'll
figure out your product or service's features
and its benefits, and how to focus on those benefits for
more persuasive copy.
7. Linking Features to Benefits: In this lesson you will
learn the difference between features and benefits, and how to focus on benefits for more persuasive direct copy. A feature is a fact
about a product or service while a benefit explains what's in it
for your customer. Benefits sell your product
or service because they connect with your reader's
desires and emotions. That's not to say that
features aren't important. Customers often use them
to justify their purchase, but it's benefits that
actually make the sale. When it comes to marketing copy, the heart rules the
head every time. Understanding or focusing
on your product or service's benefits means
telling people what your product will do for them, not just dry facts about it. These benefits may
seem obvious to you, but you need to make
them crystal clear to your reader to tip them
over the edge to buy. There's a bonus to
this technique. Teasing out all the
hidden benefits of what you're
selling can help to stretch your creative
muscles and generate new ideas for your
marketing campaigns. Here's an easy three-step
plan you can use to identify the benefits of your product or service and use them in
your marketing copy. Features are generally easy
to identify and describe. That's why step 1 is to list
your product's features. Step 2 is to convert those
features into benefits. Take each feature in turn and put yourself into the
shoes of your reader. Ask the question, so what? Your candle has a 60-hour
burn time, so what? I might reply that 60 hours is a longer burn time than other candle which means you
get to enjoy it for longer, and which means it's good
value for money and so on. Keep asking the question, so what like an annoying child until you've drawn out all the
benefits of your product. Step 3 is to sell your product using a combination of
features and benefits. Here are a few
different ways I might incorporate the burn
time feature of my candle and the
associated benefits into some marketing copy. Notice how I've
incorporated tactics we've covered in earlier
lessons into the copy, such as: using the active voice, employing sensory language, and zooming in on specifics. Here's an ad for
olive oil cooking spray that takes a
similar approach. The main features of the
product are that it's olive oil and that it
comes in a spray bottle. That sounds pretty unimpressive when you put it like that, but in this ad the copywriter has
focused on the benefits. You can control the
amount of oil you use, it's versatile, it adds flavor, it's delicious, and handy. It makes a much more
persuasive argument. In this lesson you
learned how to identify your product or services
features and its benefits, and how to focus on those benefits to
maximize conversions. Take a look at your own copy. Are you focusing on your
product's benefits to the customer or are you leaving them to work it out
for themselves? Try being more
explicit about how your potential customer could benefit from using
your products. Don't just list the
features of it, and hope your reader figures
it out for themselves. In the next lesson
we'll recap what we've learned and talk a bit more
about the class project.
8. Next Steps: [MUSIC] Thank you for joining my class on
copywriting basics for marketing professionals
and congratulations on finishing the class. You've learned how to
connect with your reader and tactics for getting
creative to generate ideas. You now know how to choose the best copywriting
template for your needs, as well as techniques
for keeping your writing clear and concise. You've explored how to
harness the power of sensory copywriting and ways to sell the benefits of
your product or service. Now it's time to put the skills you've learned into action. For your class project, choose a piece of
marketing copy that you've written and that
you'd like to improve. Something between 50
and 200 words is ideal. Put the tactics from each lesson into action on your own copy. Use the worksheet
to help you get creative then upload your
improved copies of projects. Get in touch with me via the discussion section if
you have any questions. I'd love to hear your
feedback about this class, and I'd love to hear about
the positive feedback you get about your improved
marketing copy. Remember to keep practicing
using your new skills. You'll be surprised how quickly they become second nature. Thank you again for
joining this class. Enjoy the rest of your day. [MUSIC]
Ruth Clowes, Professional Copywriter
