Transcripts
1. Introduction: At the end of this
compact class, you will have practical
techniques you can start using straight away to write engaging, persuasive
marketing copy. Whether you write for
your own business or for your personal brand, for social media, or a blog for advertisements or websites, this class is for you. [MUSIC] Hello, I'm Ruth. I'm a professional copywriter
and copywriting trainer. In this quick-fire class, I've condensed decades of copywriting experience to
share with you bite-sized, but incredibly powerful
copywriting tactics. You don't need any prior
knowledge or experience, just an appetite to improve
your copywriting fast. For your class project,
you'll put what you've learned into
action by writing your own copy using the tips you've
learned in this class. As a full-time
professional copywriter, I'm paid to write
promotional copy for businesses so they can increase sales, build
customer engagement, and achieve their marketing
goals. So I know what works, and what I'm about
to teach you will take your copywriting
to the next level. Let's get started. [MUSIC]
2. Assume Ownership: Assuming ownership is when
you talk to your reader as though they've already bought
your product or service. Assuming ownership is a long
established sales technique. It's very persuasive because it draws on the psychology
that people value holding onto what they
already have more than they value acquiring new things. An easy way to
assume ownership in your marketing copy is to
use "your" in place of "our", "the" or "this" when you're writing about your
product or service. Can you feel the difference
in these examples? Don't underestimate the
impact simply tweaking your existing copy in this
way can make to conversions. Another more subtle method
is to invite your reader to visualize interacting with
the product or service. For example, we might say, "imagine sipping tea from
this hand-crafted cup", or "you'll love sipping tea
from this hand-crafted cup". Notice in the third
example how we've combined the techniques by both using visualisation and
referring to "your cup". Assume ownership in
your own marketing copy by using the word "your" and inviting your
reader to imagine using your product or service.
3. Get Emotional: Getting emotional in your marketing copy
means tapping into your reader's feelings by
using emotive language. This tactic is so
important because people buy with their
hearts, not their heads. That means that logic
will only get you so far. You need to appeal
to your readers deeper feelings to encourage them to respond to your copy. An easy and effective way to
get emotional in your copy is to subtly tweak your message to include
emotional words. For example, here's a
simple statement that promotes the aesthetic
benefits of our teacup. By changing just one word, we're tapping into the
emotion of enjoyment and already the statement feels
warmer and more engaging. Provoking the emotion
of envy in others is a driving factor
behind many purchases, which makes the second
statement extremely effective. Showing your reader how your product or service
helps them avoid a negative emotional
state rather than achieve a positive one
is another tactic. Get emotional in your
own marketing copy by introducing emotive language. Start by adapting simple
benefit statements and explore which emotions
work best for your brand.
4. Shift Your Focus: Shifting your focus
means putting your reader at the heart of
your copy, not your brand. Shifting your focus makes your marketing copy easier to read and more persuasive, because your reader
can immediately digest how your product or
service benefits them. An easy way to
shift the focus of your writing is to look
out for words like "we", "our", or the name of your brand. Here are some examples. This brand is talking
about itself. As a reader, we feel a
bit removed from things. We might find ourselves
asking, so what? Look at what happens
when the focus shifts from the
brand to the reader. As the reader, we
immediately feel more engaged and
it's clearer what these facts about
the company mean to us as a potential customer. You can also see how easy it can be to shift the
focus of your copy, but the impact can be dramatic. The company Feast, saw
a tenfold increase in sales when it rewrote its homepage copy
with a reader focus. Shift the focus of your
own marketing copy now.
5. Be Specific: Being specific in
your marketing copy means zooming in on details, particularly when talking about your brand's selling
points or benefits. It's a useful tactic because it adds credibility and brings your product or service to
life for potential customers. An effective way to add specificity to your
marketing copy is to write a first draft that catches the gist
of your message, then replace the vague
facts with juicier details. Here's an example. There's
nothing wrong with this copy, but look what happens when we
add more specific details. The information
that the brand is family-owned and was
established two centuries ago, adds credibility and makes
it appear trustworthy. Giving a more exact location
makes the brand appear approachable and like
a local business rather than a
faceless corporation. A note of caution
with this technique. Make sure the specifics really add value
to the reader and avoid adding unnecessary
details that bloat your copy. Use this technique in
your own marketing copy write a first draft and
then look at how you can replace vague statement
with details to increase credibility and
bring your brand to life.
6. Use Sensory Words: Using sensory words means including language
related to sight, sound, smell, touch,
and taste in your copy. Using sensory
language is powerful because senses are a shortcut to emotions and encouraging
an emotional response to copy gets more sales. The first technique
is the easiest. Simply describe your
product in sensory terms: What it looks, sounds, smells, feels or tastes like. The second tactic also
involves sensory language, but in a more indirect way. Some common examples are phrases like "look at this"
or "have you heard?" You can incorporate idioms
into your copy like I have here with "wake
up and smell the tea". This is a useful way of
incorporating sensory language if you're marketing a service rather than a physical product. A third tactic is to use
sensory language to communicate a concept to your reader by painting an
aspirational picture. An easy way to do this is by
using the word, ''Imagine''. Use sensory words in your own marketing copy by
describing your product, being more indirect or painting a picture
for your readers.
7. Answer Objections: Answering objections
means getting into your reader's
head and working out what might be
preventing them buying your product or service. Answering objections
in your marketing copy is persuasive because
it systematically breaks down the
barriers towards making a sale by directly
addressing them. Market research
is a great way to identify potential
customers' objections, but even without it, you can put yourself in
your reader's shoes and work out what might
be holding them back, then overcome those objections
directly in your copy. For example, someone
buying this cup for home delivery
might worry that it will get broken in
the post and that might be enough to
put them off buying. We can answer that objection by referencing the
robustness of the cup, the fact that it will be well packaged and that
there are measures in place in case it doesn't
arrive in perfect condition. Try this tactic for
yourself: First, identify likely objections to your product or service,
then answer them. Finally, weave the most
persuasive arguments into your marketing copy to
make it more convincing.
8. Give Instructions: Giving instructions
means being very direct and telling your reader exactly what you
want them to do, rather than giving them
abstract information and hoping they work
it out for themselves. Giving instructions in
your marketing copy makes it more effective, both by making it clearer
and more concise, and by building logical onward
journey for your customer. A great way to get started with this technique is to think carefully about what you
want your reader to do next, then simply tell
them to do a it. That may sound obvious, but look at these statements
and ask yourself how often you've seen marketing
copy similar to this. It coyly hints at
what it wants us to do, but it doesn't come
right out and tell us. Here are the alternatives. Simple direct instructions that tell the reader
exactly what to do. An easy way to get started
with this technique is to remember that your
instructions should start with a verb, a doing word. In this case, we've got
"view", "watch", and "give". Try it for yourself.
Give instructions in your own marketing copy.
9. Highlight Benefits: Highlighting benefits
means showing your reader how your product
or service will help them, not just telling
them facts about it. It's a powerful tactic
because it allows you to connect directly with your
reader's needs and desires, which makes them
more likely to buy. The quickest way to
identify the benefits of your product or service is
to list the facts about it. Then for each one ask
the question, "so what?" Keep asking the question, "so what", until you
unearth the benefit. For example, a fact about
this teacup is that it's made from stoneware
clay. So what? How does that fact
benefit the user? Stoneware clay is strong
and durable. So what? It's unlikely to break. So what? It will last
for a long time. So what? In this case, the cup's durability
means it's less likely to get broken so
it will last longer, which makes it good
value for money. Identify the benefits of
your product or service by listing the facts and asking
"so what" for each one, then include those
user benefits in your marketing copy to
make it more persuasive.
10. Ask Questions: Asking your reader questions in your marketing copy is a
powerful tactic because it engages your reader
by inviting them to stop and think about how your
message relates to them. An engaged reader is more likely to become a
paying customer. 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, but if you're new
to this technique, closed questions are the
easiest place to start. That's because many
statements can be easily reworked to turn them into closed questions just by tweaking a few words - like this. These are just small changes, but they've turned dry
statements into invitations that encourage the reader to
engage a little more deeply. These questions also set
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. Use the technique of asking questions in your own
marketing copy by converting statements
into questions that prompt the answer "yes".
11. Include Metaphors: Metaphors and their
close cousins, similes and analogies, draw comparisons between
different things. In marketing copy, it's most common to compare an abstract concept to
something more concrete. That's because using
metaphors in this way helps you get your message
across more vividly. It's also an excellent way
to get more personality into your copy and develop your
brand's tone of voice. An easy way to incorporate
metaphors into your copy is to first identify an
abstract benefit of your product or service, then swap it for a metaphor that makes that concept concrete. For example, easiness
is an abstract concept. You can't experience
easiness with your senses. But here are a number of ways
we can make that concept concrete and make our copy
more vibrant in the process. Notice how in this
final example, we picked a metaphor that
relates to our product. This helps build a
cohesive tone of voice and adds
personality to our copy. Try it for yourself. Make abstract concepts in
your copy more tangible using metaphors and strengthen
your brand's tone of voice in the process.
12. Write to You: Writing to "you" means
just that - using the pronoun "you" in your copy when you
address your reader. It may seem like
a simple tactic, but writing to "you" in your marketing copy is surprisingly powerful
because it helps you engage with your
reader more personally and build a more authentic
relationship with them, which in turn will improve
both sales and brand loyalty. An easy way to
write to "you" is to replace impersonal
words like "customers" or "people", which
dump your reader into a wider group,
with the word "you". Notice in this example, how doing so has
immediately made this statement more
personal and engaging. In the next example, I've kept the descriptor
of "tea lover", but started a new sentence
to get the word "you" in. This last example shows how
writing to "you" can make your copy clearer and more concise as well
as more personal. Try out the writing to "you" tactic in your own
marketing copy. Imagine you're
talking face-to-face with a potential
customer and use that more personal
approach to build a closer relationship
through your copy.
13. Stay Positive: Staying positive means
framing information in a positive rather than
a negative way. Writing positively in
your marketing copy is important because it's been proven to increase
conversions by as much as 50%. An effective way to keep
your copy positive is to identify negatively
framed sentences and convert them
into positive ones. It's really quick
and easy to do. To spot negative framing in your copy look out for
negative words like "no", "not", "won't", "doesn't", and "never", and negative
qualities or consequences, in this case, we've
got "disappoint", "difficult", and "tarnish". Once you're looking out
for negative framing, it's pretty easy to spot. Then it's just a
case of turning it around so that
you're focusing on the opposite positive
quality or consequence. Notice how the
information we're giving the customer is
virtually the same, but it's been re-framed
in a positive way. They're hearing about the
positive things they'll get, not the negative
things they'll avoid. Apply this tactic to
your own marketing copy, identify where you
framed information in a negative way and
re-frame it positively, your conversion rates
will thank you.
14. Next Steps: [MUSIC] Thank you for choosing this class and congratulations, you've just learned
practical techniques you can start using straight away to write engaging, persuasive
marketing copy. Now it's time to put what
you've learned into action. Write some copy using
the tactics from the class and upload
it as a project. I love reading your
projects and I can't wait to see how you
use your new skills. When you're ready to learn more advanced techniques or take a deeper dive into a particular
area of copywriting, check out my other Skillshare
copywriting classes. For a more thorough insight into the basics of copywriting, join my Copywriting Essentials
class or learn to write better social content with my Social Media
Copywriting Masterclass. Both classes are packed with
detailed walk-throughs, real-life examples and
professional templates that will help you write better copy
more quickly and easily. Visit my profile page to see my full collection of
Skillshare copywriting classes. Thank you again for
joining me today. Enjoy the rest of
your day. [MUSIC]
Ruth Clowes, Professional Copywriter
