What does it take to be a Copywriter?
António Sousa Rêgo (freelance copywriter)
Want to be a Copywriter but don't know where to start?
It's proven that 80% of people only read the headline of a piece of copy. What does that mean? It means that for every €100 invested, €80 sit in the headline. €80 for a headline? Exactly. If you want to be a copywriter and don't know where to start, the headline is a good place to begin.
It's important to know how to choose the RIGHT headline. How do we know we've chosen the right one?
There are rules, details, tools, and headlines that have been proven to work.
António Sousa Rêgo (freelance copywriter)
Want to be a Copywriter but don't know where to start?
It's proven that 80% of people only read the headline of a piece of copy. What does that mean? It means that for every €100 invested, €80 sit in the headline. €80 for a headline? Exactly. If you want to be a copywriter and don't know where to start, the headline is a good place to begin.
It's important to know how to choose the RIGHT headline. How do we know we've chosen the right one?
There are rules, details, tools, and headlines that have been proven to work.
3 Rules for writing headlines:
- Lists such as “3 Rules For” or “7 Secrets About…”
- A capital letter at the start of each word;
- No full stop.
Detail – the headline shouldn't be longer than 70 characters. This may not apply if it's a CONTENT article written for SEO. At the end of the article I've left the link to a free tool that rates how strong your chosen headline is.
5 Headlines Proven To Work:
- How To Lose 6 Kilos With No Work At The Gym
- Right and Wrong Ways To Write Online – Small Details That Will Transform Your Results
- The Extraordinary SECRETS Of Digital Marketing
- 7 Reasons To…
- Hired An Agency But Didn't Get The Results You Expected?
A copywriter should write with structure.
AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
The copywriter's end goal is an action. It could be a subscription, a like, an enquiry or a purchase, but there has to be an action.
The copywriter writes to sell. After the headline, 80% of your investment has already been spent, but if we're within the 20% who keep reading, we have to INTEREST them and move along the AIDA structure.
How do we get our customers interested?
BENEFITS VS FEATURES
The XPTO Smartphone has the i598 processor. What does that mean? It means the XPTO Smartphone lets you run every app on your phone at the same time. Perfect. People buy the smartphone that lets them run every app at the same time. People buy benefits, not features.
Digital marketing agency X is going to use the ABCD tools to promote your business. What does that mean? It means they're going to increase your sales by 140%. Great. Let's go with the proposal from the agency that's going to increase our sales by 140%.
You can always find the benefit by asking “what does that mean?” about the feature. A copywriter MUST include the benefits in their copy.
Copy can't be cold. It has to be personal and warm, and once we've moved past INTEREST, the reader has to feel DESIRE. Desire is the most important part. People rarely chase what they need, and often chase what they want. How many people get into debt to buy things they want, live beyond their means because they feel like it, and own things they don't need? Enough, I'd say.
There's only one way in the world to get people to do what we want. What is it? They have to want it too. The real question is: how do we make them want it?
Emotion
The phrase “Reason tells, emotion sells” is well known, and not by chance. If benefits spark interest in our target audience, emotion is what makes them want us. Which emotion? It depends — it could even be fear.
In the case of digital marketing agency X it could be something like: “Don't let yourself fall behind. Your success today is no guarantee of success tomorrow. Make sure you stay up to date and don't let your sales drop in 2020 and 2021. With agency X you'll always be one step ahead of your competition.”
Finally there's the Call To ACTION. The moment when the copywriter tries to close the sale with a final line that pushes the customer towards the basket. Let's look at Netflix's example.
“Join free for a month” is an excellent CTA. It's simple, it's free, and it looks like there's nothing to commit to.
As promised, here's the link to the tool that analyses headlines https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/
Start writing with the headlines, structure and emotion that captivate and win over crowds. Become the copywriter you've always wanted to be. JTNDZGl2JTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJmYi1jb21tZW50cyUyMiUyMGRhdGEtaHJlZiUzRCUyMmh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGd3d3LmplbGx5Y29kZS5wdCUyRmFydGlnb3Mtb3BpbmlhbyUyRm8tcXVlLWUtcHJlY2lzby1wYXJhLXNlci1jb3B5d3JpdGVyJTJGJTIyJTIwZGF0YS13aWR0aCUzRCUyMjEwMCUyNSUyMiUyMGRhdGEtbnVtcG9zdHMlM0QlMjIxMCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRmRpdiUzRQ==
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