Thursday, July 25th, 2024
The Internet is all about constructing engaging content for your reader, and you have a split-second to connect with them. This in a world of online information seekers, who has the attention span of a house fly.
Everyone is frantically searching, so it’s easy for them to become distracted by flashing banners and reading something better. Just one click of the mouse and they’re gone forever, you’ve lost them.
This can happen in an instant. You’ve done it yourself online when searching for information. The reason why you leave can be as simple as a typo, a grammatical error, or it offers no immediate benefits.
It can be a website that’s poorly designed, or it loads too slow. The Internet is “Give it to me right now.”
Then Give Them What They Want
What everyone in need craves for however, is content. Fresh, new and unique. So content does matter and is needed, just make it relevant. The copy you write on your blog posts, ads, sales pages, videos or your infographics needs to be captivating.
Your customers who are ready to buy, are on a fact finding mission. They’re constantly reading, viewing, hearing content.
So make it your content. What’s decided immediately, is whether they’ll read yours so make it juicy.
Make sure they can trust you with the information you provide, what type of business or authority you command. This is all based and judged by the words and the images you present.
What you need, is to inject the exact feeling they’re seeking, and do so immediately, by writing superior copy. What it all comes down to, are the words you use.
Write So Your Reader Understands
As a copywriter, you need to understand what’s ticking your audience. Format and outline it, and lead them down a path by writing precise laser targeted copy.
Excellent content, is content that makes your customers feel relief, feel smarter, their problem or hurt explained and then solved for them.
Go on social media and blogs, and find out what people are debating or arguing about. What irks or strokes their ego. That means they’re passionate. Focus on those topics and markets.
You then need to address these immediate concerns, the reason why they’re on your page, and do so in a manner that makes the most sense to them.
Write Like You’re Talking To Them
Don’t push your product or service down their throat, or use language that makes you come across as too slick or arrogant.
Never come across as a digital shyster know it all expert, thus making them feel inferior to you.
To write that precise content targeted directly at your audience, you need to understand what they want, know who they are.
Pinpoint the exact pressure points, the type of pain they’re going through, and then come up with a solution.
Craft content that precisely addresses their issues, that you’ve been there, and then appear as the saviour to provide them with the answers.
The reader needs to understand your words elementally, so don’t go above their head, or don’t write down to them. Never use industry jargon that’s beyond their understanding.
The Captivating Opening
Determine what the core issue of your content piece is. Describe the problem and then the solution in your headline. This is the lead sentence that will invite, captivate, and lock in your reader.
Provide a summary, an introduction to what they can expect to read in the remainder of your copy. Hopefully it’s captivating enough, to push them through the entire content piece. If you can’t, then they’re off the hook.
What an excellent lead sentence, a seductive introduction does is snags them immediately, quickly, with lockjaw precision. It can be structured as:
• Describe a personal experience
• Make a daring bold statement
• Provide a new ground breaking solution to their existing problem
• Offer a riddle or an opinion
• Make a big splashing announcement or a captivating quotation
Whatever form you choose, it needs to be awe inspiring engagement, making them twitch in disbelief, forcing them to take their finger off the mouse button. It needs to draw them into reading the rest of your article.
Write About The Benefits
If you’re writing a review about a product, what most will usually write about is how it works, what its features are, how to use it, and how much it costs.
Everything the reader most likely already knows. You tell them a story of what the product can do, but they don’t care.
Instead, tell them about the benefits of the product, what they’ll personally gain. What or how much they’ll miss out on, if they don’t buy it right now.
Tell them what’s at stake, why their life will be worse off, what they’re risking, losing, if they don’t act immediately.
Present The Entire Story
Don’t bother writing a long winded biography of who you are, what you’ve done, what’s in it for you, they don’t care. Instead, structure your story so your readers can relate, recognize, identify, then follow you.
Begin by presenting a protagonist, it could be you. Reveal your struggles, mirror the exact hurt your reader might be feeling, when they’re reading the content.
Introduce, and then explain the situation or problem. Write about what you’ve encountered, and then offer the fix. Identify the pain, the angst, and then the resolve once they take action.
Document to them the exact steps they should be taking, and then invite them to take that action.
Write First Then Edit
Writing copy is a difficult painful process when you’re staring at a blank canvas. Commit to your first draft, by spilling out every idea, every benefit, every example you can think of. Write everything out, try to do so without interruption.
Once it’s finished, then edit it. Never write and edit at the same time. What doing so does, is it breaks your focus, the process, it disrupts the flow, which stifles your creativity.
Once the rough draft is completed, then edit for redundancy, poor grammar, adjectives, and words that mean nothing.
Remove all the awkward phrasing, industry jargon, and substandard language. Edit, go out for a walk, and then re-edit again.
Use Common Language
Write to the reader by combining sentences that flow, as if they don’t have a clue. Don’t lose your reader because they don’t understand. As humans, we don’t like that.
Never write copy they don’t or can’t absorb, before going on to the next idea.
Understand what they want, who they are, why your product is the exact match for them. Write words as if you’re talking directly to them, face to face, peer-to-peer.
Your copy should be the ultimate work of art. The copy you write should connect with the reader to make them a loyal follower or a customer.
So break the ice, create an impression. Never waste the opportunity, once you have their attention.