Digital Copywriting: Sell & Engage

1. Introduction: Welcome to this class. We're going to look at digital copywriting. Sell and engage is the theme of this class. We're going to break down loads and loads of fun and interesting topics about copywriting. We're going to look at what it is. Why good copywriting is really important? What does a digital copywriter do day to day? The eight elements of great copywriting, how to get started, and then we're going to break it down with the brand voice, the tone, the headline, psychology, the different platforms, the mistakes, and some really useful tools to finish off the class. I'm very excited for you to be here and let's get started. 2. What is copywriting: What is copywriting? Copywriting is writing that inspires an action. Unlike content writing, which often is informative, copywriting always has a goal. For example, you might write a headline that makes someone want to read an article, a product description that convinces them to buy or even a social media caption, getting someone to click on that link to find out more. It's all about inspiring it's all about the words that you use. So there are different types of copywriting. Copyright isn't limited to ads, as a digital copywriter, there'll be things like blog post to right, product descriptions, social media captions, email sequences, onding pages, eBooks, and case studies. There is so much out there that you'll be involved in as a copywriter. You might already be doing this without even realizing. But for example, writing an Instagram caption for a skincare brand to promote a new serum or an email subject line, like glowing skin in seven day, here's how it's all copywriting. So the types of skills that you would need to be a good copywriter are defined here. You need strong writing and editing skills, obviously, but also need excellent grammar and spelling. So you might be able to write things, but your grammar might be a little bit off and that comes across as quite bad. You also need to be able to adapt to different brands and voices. For example, you might have a client that is a playful coffee shop versus a professional law firm. The tone is going to be very different between the two. And you also need to be able to research as well because that's a really important aspect of any copywriting. You need to learn about the product, you need to learn about something. You need to find as much information so that you can write it in a clear and positive way. If you don't know what you're writing about, you can actually come across as like, Oh, this person hasn't got a clue what they're talking about. Having research skills is really, really important. Management is also key client communication and managing multiple projects are all vital in talking to the client that you're working with and managing those various projects that you got on the go to make you a good copywriter. If you're a freelancer or you're doing this as a full time job, those three bottom skills are going to be vital in making you a very good copywriter and a useful person within the business or as a solo, freelancer. It's really important to be able to manage your time better. But there are loads of tools out there when it comes to time management, communication with clients. I always say, find out what works between you and your client. You might find that emails works or phone calls. You know, weekly Zoom calls works better, it's entirely up to you, but find what works best for you for the last three points and how to manage be copywriter. 3. Why is good copywriting important : Why is good copyrighting important? These are the five reasons, it builds a strong brand image. It creates a clear valuable content. It targets the right audience, it drives sales and conversions, and it saves business owners time. I'm going to break these all down a little bit more for you. You branding is essentially how you present your business to the world. It plays a crucial role in influencing the buying behaviors of your target audience, which is fantastic. Think about this. You want your brand to feel professional and high quality, right? Well, by hiring a skilled copywriter, you can sure that the content is not only error free, but projects a strong positive image. So if you are working as a copywriter or you want to get into copywriting, this is probably your selling point in businesses about the fact that there's no errors when you're doing things, you could actually sell the point of Europe there to help create a positive brand image. This is a very important thing about copywriting. Content that can be understood. Before beginning to create content, a good copywriter will ensure they have researched the subject well. This is really important. This is how they create high quality and informative content. Copywriters often have the right amount of knowledge to create high quality informative content that will drive sales for your business. When it comes to content, it's not all about looking good or all your research, it's about driving sales and basically creating the right tone of voice for your business as well. So the more knowledge a copywriter has, the better. It's key for them to create some impactable relevant content for your business. So when it comes to this aspect, when you're working with business or anything like that, research as much as you can, find all those sources, get multiple sources. Don't just stick to one. I will help you because you get a wider image of what's going on and it gives you better insight into what you're writing about. Valuable content links into content that's understood. Your website is often the first chance to impress. Now, why is it crucial to have a copyright on your team? Because they make sure your content is not only clear and concise, but engaging. They know exactly how to hook your audience, persuade them to choose you. That is what a very good copywriter does. They take something and they create a value out of it. So for example, on a website, you're on a homepage and it's really informative. It's telling you all about the company and what there is. But then when you start to click onto the product descriptions, you'll notice that there'll be a change of tone and there'll be a change of text, and you will see there's more of an encouragement, persuasion for customers to purchase a service. The tone, the language changes, and a good copywriter will understand the difference in the journey of a customer and changing it to make sure that it suits the goal. The first page homepage is, hey, this is what we do, find out more, get the people intrigued, interested, then the actual description is the selling part. The language is very different and a good copyrter will understand that. The next thing is targets, target the right audience is important for anyone. Anyone that's creating content, you need to know who the audience is. A key part of a copyrights job is to do in depth, research, creating content, they'll learn a lot about the company and exactly what you know, what the audience is going to be and what language they're going to be using for them. They will also research the competitors for other companies. They'll look at the commenting. They'll look at the following. They'll look at basically everything to do with anyone who's engaging with the company. And then they'll build a profile around that and go, this is your person, this is the profile of your ideal audience. Sometimes businesses will go to a copyright and be like, Hey, this is our audience. This is who we want to target, which is really helpful from a copyright point of view. Either way, the copyright will understand the audience and that's what will influence them to be a really good copyrter because they'll understand who they're writing the content for because that's what matters at the end of the day. And finally, we're talking about saving time. This is really important for business owners perspective. When they have a copyright at hand, it saves them so much time and energy. This is a good selling point if you're a freelance copywriter or anything like that. This is what you could say is, I'm just going to be saving you time because you can take over the blog content, the social captions, those types of things are a lot of time and energy, and it's one of those tasks that a lot of businesses don't have time for. Blogs are really important as well because a regular blog content will help the sites SEO. A content writer needs to write content with keywords in it and making sure that it's going to get found on Google basically. But a good copyright will learn over time on how to write blogs for basically SEO purposes. But it's a really big aspect of certain companies as well that blogging, they need someone to do regular blogging. Um, so all of these points are what makes a good copywriter. Have a think if there's things that you're like, actually, I don't really know how to do that, or I'm not really doing that or don't really know what I'm especially at the SEO in blogs and stuff, Google it. Have a look, figure out look at some sources of SEO blog writing, you know, have a look at some classes and things like that because it'll help your skill set grow, um let's move on to the next lesson from this. 4. What Does a Digital Copywriter Do All Day: What does a digital copywriter do all day? These are the six jobs that digital copywriter tends to do each day. They meet clients, research topics, write and edit, manage projects, interview experts, and source images. I'm actually just going to go through each of these individually. Meeting clients, is a first step in any copywriting project. You'll often have an initial meeting. This could be a person on Zoom to discuss what they want to achieve, who the target market is, and what their brand voice sounds like. For example, a personal trainer may want energetic, motivating copy while a legal advisor will want a professional clear language. You'll also set deadlines, outline the project scope, and agree on what success looks like. You'll have ongoing check ins to keep everyone aligned, especially for larger projects, whether there's edits and feedback and that type of thing. Then you'll probably go into a bit of a research mode. Research underpins every strong piece of copy you'll make. You'll research industry to understand current trends. For example, if you're writing about skincare, you'll check what ingredients are trending this year and that type of thing. Competitive research shows what others are doing. I always recommend this with APS, everything. It's really important to know who your competitors are and it'll help you understand how you can send out to the clients. You also research the target audiences pain points. What kind of problems do you solve? That's always really crucial, how can we solve that problem that you're really stuck on? Including relevant stats is really important. It adds a bit of credibility. For example, 80% of people say that this serum reduces redness in two weeks. Then finally, you'll review the brand's previous content to maintain consistency in tone and messaging. You always refer back to what there was originally. Then you've got managing projects. This is a crucial step, especially if you work with multiple clients, so you can plan out your week to make sure that you're making sure that you're delivering what you need on time. You could use tools like Troll or Asana to keep track of deadlines. Troll is a really good tool to use. I use it for everything. It's really important to always communicate clearly with your clients throughout everything about the progress, the next steps, edits needed. For example, you could send out a weekly update, email, summarizing what's done, what's coming up, and then you can organize briefs, drafts, and revisions. It'll just save you lots of time and make sure that nothing gets missed too. Another part is interviewing. Interviewing is a powerful tool for copyrs. You might interview a business owner to understand their vision, expert to add authority to your blog, or a customer to gather testimonials. For example, writing a case study about fitness coaches transformation program will require coach from clients on what they achieved and how they did it. These interviews make your copy more authentic and relatable and they build up trust as well and you can tell a bit of a story from it, which is amazing. Another part you'll be doing, it's editing. You'll be doing loads of this. Editing is where you get the copy to come to life. You start by refining your drafts for clarity, you cut out unnecessary words or repetitive freezes, you check your grammar, your spelling and punctuation thoroughly. Grammarly tool is an amazing tool for that as well. Then you'll look at strengthening the headlines to ensure they grab attention and review call to actions to confirm that they're clear and action driven. Finally, you'll make sure that the tone matches the brand, for example, changing buy our skin care set now to treat your skin today with a luxury skin care set to match the brand tone as well. The final thing that you'll be looking at is sourcing images. You'll source images from different places, you'll just have to check that you can actually use the images as well. Always check the license on a lot of them. You'll have to look at choosing images that align with the brand's style and messaging. For example, a minimalistic skincare brand will need clean neutral images rather than bright cluttered photos. You can look on websites like Unsplash or pixels or even request them from the actual client themselves. They must have photos, especially if they are a product based business, they will probably have thousands of photos of images. But make sure that you choose well chosen visuals to enhance your copy to make it really attractive and engaging for your readers. So as you can see, as a copyright, there are so many parts to it, but they are all really interesting points, but everything is working towards actually creating copy that's in the right Banton, with the right imagery, with the right quotes, with the right information to make it really engaging for the audience. 5. How to become a copywriter with no experience: How to become a copywriter with no experience? This is you, this is an ideal lesson for you. Join a freelance writing agency is probably one of the best ways to basically get started. There's websites like Upwork, fiber, People per hour. These platforms have thousands of small projects that you can apply for to build some experience. You may find though that your rates will be lower to gain some reviews, but then you can grow your prices as you grow as well. Then you've got the option of reaching out to potential clients directly. If you're nice and brave and you're confident, reach out to local businesses or online brands you admire. You can pop them an email, give them a call, introduce yourself, explain how your copywriting can help them achieve their goals and offer a small piece like a little blog or a caption or two for social media to showcase what you can do. Another thing you could do is network. There are so many Facebook groups, Linked in communities, business networking groups in your area. There's tons of them out there. You can go along to these Chatway and before you know it, you'll create a good network of people that they can refer you to projects if they get fully booked. It's all about creating those connections with people. So some writers will get a lot of work coming through and they just don't know what to do with it. But if they know you're available and stuff and you are in the same niche or anything like that, they probably will send it your way, which is quite nice. It's a really good way to also build up your reputation, you know, and get a better understanding of what's changing in copywriting and things like that. But it's really valuable place to go. Then another part of becoming copywriter is establishing your niche. Some people do, some people don't, it's entirely up to you. When starting out, specializing can actually help make you stand out faster. Think about the industries you already understand, what you're passionate about. For example, if you love fitness, maybe target gyms, pesto trainers, nutrition coach, that type of thing, it might make targeting and reaching the right people a little bit easier if you do niche down. Have a think about the types of intues you quite like at the minute. Another thing that you should be doing every single day with every single thing that you ever learn is to practice daily. Copywriting is a skill built through repetition. Write daily headlines, product descriptions, captions, email subject lines, practice rewriting ads or landing pages from brands you love and try and look at improving them. The more you try and do this, the better it will be for you as well. This will link into my next point. When it comes to building a portfolio, potential clients want to see examples of your work. Even if you haven't been paid by clients yet, you can create mock up projects to showcase your skills. Those daily practices, why not use them as examples for your portfolio. You can also post them on medium, LinkedIn on your own website to gain real client work. You can update it. The more you build on this aspect, the more likely a client will sign up with you as well. Make some time. A website is nice and easy to create. You can create them for free most of the time or even do it on medium as well, where you can post all sorts of things on there as well and even LinkedIn as well. Just somewhere that you can sign post people potential clients to so that they can see what you're doing. Get practicing. Get putting a portfolio together, do some research on some of those websites and some of those networking groups and go from there. 6. 8 Elements of Great Copywriting: So the eight elements of great copywriting. Let's define them. So there are eight foundations of great copywriting. So you've got persuasion, good spelling, keeping it simple, strong calls to actions, SEO friendly, be direct, channel specific, and audience aware. Let's go through them now. Persuasion is about showing your reader what's in it for them. Instead of listing features, highlighting benefits, for example, rather than saying, our app has budgeting features, so take control of your finances and save more each month with our easy to use budgeting app. So focus on the transformation your product or service provides. Great copy will include a triggering emotion, highlighting the benefits, telling the story, ending with a call to action. Good spelling is really important. Spelling and grammar errors can instantly damage your credibility as a copywriter. Always proofread your work cavily. Use tools like Grammarly, but don't rely on them alone, by the way. Make sure you always read your writing out loud because you can catch awkward phrasing or miss words when you're doing it. For example, incorrect is, you're going to love this and then the correct way, the spelling is different as well, and it has a different meaning. Always check your spelling and your grammar. Keeping it simple is important. Good copy is easy to understand. Avoid using jargon or complex language that can confuse your readers, there is nothing worse than that. For example, instead of saying utilize, just say use. It's nice and simple. Clarity will build your trust and make your copy more effective. Don't use slang as well for your audiences and make sure your ideas are nice and clear. There's an example here, a very complex one is utilize our Reveion dermal formulation. What does that mean to you? But if you keep it simple, saying, use our new skincare cream for healthier skin, the messaging is clear. You know what it's for and you know what the purposes. Next is strong calls to actions. This tells your reader exactly what to do next. Without one, your copy lacks direction. Always align your call to actions with your goal, for example, download your free guide now or if you want them to join your email list or book your consultation. Today, make sure they know what they're doing next and make them nice and clear and focused. SEO friendly is another massive part, especially with blogging as well. Make sure it's SEO friendly copy that you create using keywords in a natural way. Don't just shove loads of keywords in to make it stand out, it won't need to make sure it's in a natural tone those keywords when you're fitting them in. This will help your content rack higher on Google, so it'll start bringing the traffic that you want naturally. For example, instead of forcing the keyword awkwardly, weave it into a sentence that sounds natural to your reader like talking about how someone might awkwardly be dealing with the situation and then you can talk about the solution to that awkward problem. You could weave it in a very natural tone. You could actually weave it into a story if you want as well. I've got an example here, best copywriting tips, keyword, whereas you could try using things like to integrate that into sensors but here are the best copywriting tips to improve your website today. It's very natural. It's a very short sentence, but it gets your keywords into the actual sentence in a nice way. Google will appreciate that as well. Six is being direct. Direct is really important. Being direct keeps your readers engaged. Cut out the filler words that don't add any meaning. For example, instead of saying, due to the fact that just say because. Short punchy sentences will hold the attention better, especially online because people are skim readers. They don't want to read loads and loads of long sentences. Keep it short and sweet. Here's another example. You got a bit of a fluffy piece saying, due to the fact that we offer just be direct. We offer this. That's what we do. We offer this, be direct. Use short sences, get to the point quickly. No one wants to read all of the jargon before everything. Just make it nice and clear. That brings me on to the next point, Channel specific. All these points relate to different parts, so you will adapt to the various channels. Every platform requires a different approach. An email might be direct and urgent while an Instagram cateon might be more conversational and engaging and that type of tone. So always write with the platform in mind and your audience in mind as well. So I've got some examples here, an email subject will be boost your website, SEO today versus you've got the Instagram caption and go, want more website traffic, swipe for my top SEO tips. The language and the tone is very different, but they have the same meaning. So you need to be thinking how to adapt. And the last part of this lesson, always write with your audience in mind. You should know who this is at this point when you're writing anything. You need to understand their problems, their desires, and the language to use. For example, if you have busy mums that want solutions that save time and keep the family happy, tailor the message to resonate deeply with them. So for example, you could do quick, healthy dinners your kids will love. Simple, sweet. You know, it's probably aimed at mums. You know the purpose of it's all about healthy dinners. It's targeting the right people, nice and short without even having to use the word mum in it as well. You know that's a link to mums kids anyway or dads. Make sure that you think about all of the points that I've shared, but these are the eight that will build your foundation of being a really good copywriter. 7. Writing Headlines That Hook: Writing headlines that hook. Why do headlines matter? Well, they create the first impression of your copy. Research shows that while 80% of people read the headline, only 20% read the rest. If your headline doesn't grab your attention, your amazing copy goes unread. A strong headline will spark curiosity, promises value or highlights a benefit immediately will entice them into reading more. So I'm going to talk about headline formulas. Let's look at the first point. So how to achieve result without pain point formula. This is a common one. It's a compelling way to offer solution while addressing a common concern. For instance, how to grow your Iscram without spending on ads directly speaks to those who want growth but are wary of cost. The next one is number ways to achieve something formula. So it provides a clear and concise promise of actable content. Here's an example. Five ways to increase your website traffic fast. This not only sets the readers expectation, but also suggests multiple options for achieving the goal. The last point, the secret to desired outcome. This taps into your natural curiosity and desire for inside knowledge like the secret to writing, copy that sells. It invites readers to learn something exclusively that can transform their approach. Remember, these formulas are starting points. So use them to craft your headlines that resonate with your audience and drive engagement. So what makes a great headline? Here we're just going to go through some points now. You've got to be clear. Readers instantly understand what it's about, it's got to be clear. It's got to be specific mentioning exact benefit result. It needs to be compelling. I sparks curiosity or emotion and they're always benefit focused showing what's in it for them kind of thing. For example, let's try this one. A week headline is course new courses here. Doesn't sound very inviting, does it? However, if you change it to master Intagram marketing, enroll today to grow your business. That's a little bit more catchy, doesn't it? But it uses the four points above. It's clear, it's specific, it's compelling, and there's a benefit focus. Have a think about that when you're creating some headlines. Have a go at doing some example headlines for a blog, have a look and find various blogs and try and rewrite those headlines. If you think they're not, they don't stand out enough using these four key points. 8. Understanding Brand Voice and Tone: Understanding, brand voice and tone. What are they? Brand voice is the brand's consistent personality, style, and language. It never changes, and is how your brand would sound if it was a person. Your tone however is how you adapt that voice for different situations or emotions. For example, your tone might be playful in a social media post, but in an apology email, very different. So it will be very serious. The voice stays the same, but the tone changes depending on the context. They're very different basically. Let's just look at some examples. Innocent drinks, you've probably seen them. Comes across as being really playful, cheeky, conversational voice. Their copy often includes jokes or informal phrases like fancy drink. Then you look at HSBC, on the other hand, they use formal and trustworthy sort of voice, speaking with authority, confidence to build credibility. Jim Shark is different as well, so it has a more direct approach, motivational and has an energetic voice using short punchy phrases to inspire action. So knowing the brand voice will actually help you write in a way that connects deeply with your audience. It's really, really important to understand that voice part of things. Why does brand voice matter, basically? There are a few reasons. Well, first of all, it builds brand recognition and trust. I then creates consistency across your platforms, making your brand memorable. That's what you want. Most importantly, it helps you connect emotionally with your audience, whether that makes them laugh, feel inspired or trust your expertise. That is the whole point of your voice. It's really important aspect to kneel down and make sure that you're coming across really well with your brand voice and it is consistent across every single thing that you do as well. There's no changing up for different platforms or anything like that. It's the same voice. 9. Psychology Principles in Copywriting: Let's look at psychology principles in copywriting. To make your copy more persuasive, use these four psychology principles. You've got scarcity when something is limited, people want it more. People always do. Urgency, so it's time limited offers that push readers to act really quickly. Then you've got social proof, which is showing that others have used it. Trust your product that builds confidence in what you're doing. The more people see that others are using it, the more likely they will buy it and reciprocity, giving something valuable first, like a free guide, encouraging people to take action in return for something, basically. These are the four principles to go by. I'm going to share some examples now. For example, you've probably seen these on social media or in an email or anything like that. You may have seen only three left in stock order now. And that you start panicking going, oh, oh, there's only three left. That's creating a sense of urgency, making you want to buy it. Then we're jumping on to urgency, offer ends midnight tonight, don't miss out. That's a very common one. Giving a time frame with don't miss out. This ends at this specific time. That's quite a common one, which is really useful wording. Then you've got social proof trusted by over 20,000 happy customers Wilbide. That firms up that belief of, you know what? 20,000 people really like this product. Why don't I? And the last one is to download a free eBook and it can transform your morning. That's also a really good one because basically a really good way of creating an email list as well is by doing that as well. A lot of clients will probably ask you to create something that will lead to them downloading something so that they can build up their email list. Free downloads is one of the best ways to do it. So how do you combine them? You don't need to use the principles one by one. You can actually combine them and they work really, really well. I've got some examples here. For example, join 5,000 students already enrolled, register close tonight. That's creating a sense of social proof to 5,000 students, and then you've got the C pact of it closes tonight. Then you've got the other one where only ten panels left, grab your stay and receive a free productive guide. That's saying about the scarcity of things, there's only ten left and then you're asking them for, here's something free for you. You get something extra out of it. People love that little bit of extra. But you can combine each of these principles together, by the way. You don't just need to stick to one, but it's all about mixing those persuasive techniques to increase the conversion by appealing to different multiple emotional triggers simultaneously. You can play around with these have a little go at this. Think about those four principles, think of some examples and then start trying to put them together. Try and put two of those together. The social proof one is always a really good one with urgency. Try and think of some examples because the more you do this, the more you realize this, this will be part of your copywriting of skills, and you will be doing this in a lot of your copy. Have a play and see what you come up with. 10. Copywriting for Different Platforms (1): So we're going to look at copywriting for different platforms, different platforms require different copy styles. So on websites, the copy tends to be clear, benefit led, and optimized for SEO. Social media, on the other hand, those captions are usually short, conversational, engaging, and usually have a call to action. They're very different so far, the same goes for email subject lines. These need to be direct, really curious driven, short enough to read on a phone screen, but each of these need to be tailored to each of the platforms. You've noticed the copy will be slightly different because the goal for each kind of platform is different too. Let me share some examples for you. So here's a website headline. Affordable marketing services for small business, that's a website, headline, it's short, it's sweet. It tells you exactly what it is. An Insta and caption is going to be very different. It's going to say struggling to market your business. Let's fix that DMS today. It's got a question. It's saying that we're the solution and it's giving a call to action. The ton of everything will stay the same, but the messaging will adapt to each platform. And finally, the email subject line, how to attract more clients this week, it's sweet, yes again, but it's got a point. It's a hook. It wants you to continue reading about how to attract more clients. What you're trying to do is you're trying to adapt to suit the reader's mindset and the platform style. The tone and everything else remains the same. You're just adapting to what platform it's on. A few more tips, I'm just going to share with you when it comes to this is always keep the core message the same, but change the wording to match the platform style. Always consider your audience mindset on each platform. So for example, people casually scrolling on Iscam versus someone intentionally Googling something. When you're writing something for a website, there is a purpose, it's sharing something, it's showing someone how to do something. There's a different focus compared to Iscam when people are scrolling. You're looking for something that stands out and go, Wow. Here you go. I captivates people. You are just thinking about that type of thing. And finally, you have to think about adjusting your length and your formatting. So shorter phrases for socials, fuller sentences for websites because you've got more space to talk on websites than you do on social media platform. Usually on socials, it's a bit snippy. It's got a call to action that probably will link to your website. You don't need to give everyone loads of information on socials. You just need to captivate them to get them on the website where the full version is. I've got two examples in this lesson, same meaning, but they're adapted. So for example, social feeling stressed, breathe deeply, save this for later. Versus website, discover simple breathing techniques to reduce your stress and improve your focus. So the meaning is exactly the same, but it's been adapted to suit the platform. For example, on social, you're trying to create a solution to a problem or tell somebody about how to do something that will lead them somewhere. Website is the platform where everyone tends to go. So this is where you could say, this is how you do something, discover this. This is how it improve your life, that type of thing. Was social is the hook that leads them to the website or wherever it needs to go. Have a think spend some time, go on a website, find a headline, a topic, a blog or anything, and think about how you would adapt it to three platforms. You're thinking about your email subject line. You're thinking, think about a website, headline or a tagline or anything that could go on a website or even a couple of paragraphs and think about a social caption. How would you basically promote that exact same thing across the three platforms? 11. Common Copywriting Mistakes to Avoid: Let's look at a few common copywriting mistakes and how to avoid them. Here are the four main ones that most people forget or end up doing. We're just going to go through them briefly. The first one is using jargon, your audience doesn't understand. There is nothing worse than reading something and it's full of jargon and your audience just doesn't have a clue. They don't understand it. I'll put them off because they want to understand what you're writing. If you're putting jargon in words and phrases and things that someone very experienced might understand versus somebody who's just understanding a new thing. They'll come off it. The next one is no clear to action guiding the reader to the next step. This is a step that most people tend to forget starting out is to include a call to action. This is telling someone, for example, you're writing a blog about a product. No providing a link to the product at the end is the key to finishing off and allowing the journey of the reader to go, what's next? Oh, I love reading about this product. Where can I get it? Then if there's no call to action, they're left a little bit stumped. Always have a call to action with everything. Next is only listing features instead of showing benefits. A lot of the time, people say talking about something specific, like a product or something and then listing all the key features, but not everyone needs to know that it's this size and it's in this color. They want to know what the benefits of the product are. So always try and lean towards benefits first and then features. Not saying don't include features, just make sure that you always have the benefits first, showing them why they should buy it. Then if they want to know about sizing or anything, they can find out a little bit later on. The final one, this is a big one is grammar and spelling and formatting errors. This will reduce credibility. You know, if somebody reads something, you've probably done it many times. You've been on a website and gone, there's a spelling error there, the formatting, it's all left, but then right and center, what's going on with this page, it makes you think that the company hasn't invested time and energy into making sure that it's correct, it doesn't give you a sense of, yes, I would buy from this company when you start see the spelling errors because it just reduces that credibility and you just like no, and you'll come off. Let's share an example. So here's a really good one all about the jargon side of things and over complexing things. Here's a phrase. Utilize our revolutionary dermal formulation for optimal hydration. What does that mean to you? Well, not a great deal. My brain's gone to most all these bigger words. What the hell does it mean? However, exact same meaning, but it's simplified is keep your skin deeply hydrated all day with our new lightweight cream. Simple language focuses on the benefits and easy to understand and that's what the audience wants. Here is another few mistakes that people tend to forget about, but I have shared the four key ones that you need to be aware of, but these are a few additional ones. For example, overusing objectives, making copy feel fluffy when it doesn't need sticking more additional words just to make it bigger and longer sentences, it doesn't need it. Writing for yourself instead of your audience. In every lesson, I think I have talked about audience in some aspect and audience is always at the front of everything you write. You need to be thinking about their needs, their desires, what they want to read. It's all about your audience's perspective, not your own. You might think something looks fantastic, but that's your perspective, but you're not the ideal audience. Finally, ignoring formatting, a long unbroken paragraphs, it reduces readability. Make sure that when it comes to paragraphs is short, snappy, break up those big chunks of text, however you want to do it. You can include bullet points, you can break it into small little parts, add more commas, full stops, however you want to do it, just make sure your paragraphs aren't very long. I usually stick to probably two or three sentences just because people start to lose focus. When they see a big chunk of text, they skim read and they read the first bit and they're like, I don't want to read the rest. Need it broken down, it makes it readable for them. I'm going to share one more example for you. This one is quite around the copy fluffing side of things. We are passionate, dedicated and amazing experts. Okay. You're like, okay. Whereas, however, we help you get results quickly and confidently. What that saying is basically, we fix the problem. We're here as experts without saying we're experts and we know what we're doing basically. Instead of me saying passionate, dedicated, and amazing, you're basically summing up why you are, are the results are quicker and we're confident about we're doing them. So think about doing that. You don't need to be to around in listing every single thing like this passionate dedicating stuff. You need to think of a clever way of including into a sentence that's very casual, but it still has the same meaning, basically. Have a think about these mistakes, write them down. If you're not really sure of them, you haven't come across them, or you've just forgetting about them. When it comes to writing anything, I would create a checklist. Always have a checklist. That means that you don't miss out on anything. It includes your quarter actions, your headlines, your smaller headlines, your imagery, making sure you've got your keywords in it, and then list these mistakes. Making sure there's no jargon, making sure that you're talking about your benefits over features, and then always is making sure you check your spelling and grammar once you've finished so once you finish that first draft, make sure that you always check the spelling before you send it on to anyone just to make sure that there is no any issues. So yeah, move on to the final lesson all about tools next. 12. Tools Every Copywriter Should Know: Final lesson, we're going to look at tools every copywriter should know. These two essential tools are really great for your writing and editing needs. Grammarly, I can't recommend highly enough. It is great for grammar, spelling and clarity checks and it's great for proof reading your final drafts. You can upgrade it to Pro, which is fantastic. It basically allows you to out readability, gives you suggestions, it shortens those sentences. It gives you insight into some of the sentences. If they're not worded quite right for readability, it's just a great tool. The free version is great as well for your grammar and spelling. But if you need to check anything, I would use Grammarly. Hemming away is a really useful tool as well. It helps you to improve your readability and simplify complex senses. If you're struggling with that aspect, use Hemingway. For grammar and spelling, choose grammarly. But these are two great tools just to make sure that your copy is the right readability. When it comes to readability, grade six d eight is usually the sweet spot. It's not too complex, but it's not too begin a level, basically. For research and collaboration, these two are fantastic. Google Docs. I use this for everything. It's perfect for sharing drafts, getting live feedback, client edit, and you can put them in one folder or one place, and it's there. You can always go back to things. But it's great for getting live feedback personally. It's so much easier. You can make edits, you don't have to have emails back and forth. It's in one place. Answer the public is another useful place to look. It generates keyword ideas, real audience questions for content inspiration, which is really helpful, especially if you're trying to figure out how to write a particular blog and you need to know what the problems are that people are having. That's a good place to look. And finally, these four are really, really useful. I use the top two pretty much every day. Trelo and Asan are great for organizing your client projects and deadlines. Trello particular, I use all the time. You can create different boards. You can assign deadlines, you can link to different people as well. You can send notifications and reminders. It just makes sure that you stay on top of everything. Canva is really good for creating social media graphics to pair with your copy. That's pretty much the only aspect I think you'd be using it for. There are other websites if you're looking for images, for example, for your blogs like free PIC, I would say is a really good website. You get ten free images per day, have a look on there as well. But Canva, you can use some of the stock images as well. Yost SEO WordPress plugin, it optimizes your website copy for our search engine, so it makes it really, really useful. However, if you don't use WordPress, like many of us don't I don't just go on and type in SEO website and I use tools that are free on there. HubSpot has a really good one and there are some other additional ones that if you're looking for something specific related to SEO, you're looking for keywords, you're looking for anything like that. Have a look on that. I will give you a quick tip here as well. If you are using Chat EBT or any of those AI tools, you can ask it to optimize your copy for website. It will help you in that aspect. It does tend to pull in loads of those keywords and information and it does know what it's looking for if you give it the right prompt. If you are struggling, have a little guy with AI and see if it helps you. And finally, copy scape. This checks for plagiarism to ensure its original work as well. It's always important. Some of your clients you might find will want to double check that it's not plagiarized, it is your original work. You haven't just copied and pasted it from somewhere else. So clients will ask, and this is a great tool. You can say, I've checked it through here. Here's what it's shown. Here's a screenshot of it. There you go. So all of these tools I've shared with you are great at helping you manage your workflow, delivering high quality work, and providing additional service to your clients. But it's all there to help ease you when it comes to your copywriting. But when it comes to copywriting, it's down to you to do all the research, put it all together, put it in the right tone, and all of that. Were these tools are there just to help finish it off and get it over the finishing line. I really hope you've learned a lot from this course and I would like you to go jump onto the project, have a crack at it, upload it, and I'd love to see what you put together. M