Copywriting 101: Writing with Purpose

You start learning to write at around four or five.

It's easy.

School makes you better. By the time you are start working, you're an expert.

To impress, you add complexity, jargon, clichés, and a dash of creativity into your writing.

Oddly, being good doesn't mean you're an expert.

Playing Call of Duty doesn't make you a soldier.

Turning on a bulb doesn’t make you an electrician.

Writing without errors doesn't make you a copywriter.

Let's see what does.

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Writing Objectively

Everyone loves puppies. They wag their tails, bounding around with their ears flapping up and down, and darting everywhere, sniffing everything they could find.

And suddenly, they see a tennis ball, oh wait – a newspaper? “I’d love to play with newspapers for the rest of my life,”

And then, they see pair of slippers and – woah!

Copy that lacks direction is exactly like that.

What does a copy good has?

A clear, identified and agreed objective.

You stick to it, like an anorexic blonde to a footballer in a night club.

For example, “The aim of this copy is to persuade our audience to book a call with us.”

One thing is for sure, if you don’t know your objective, you’re not achieving it.

Always ask your clients this question, “what is the objective of the copy?”

Because early in my career, I have been in meetings where my clients told me “Yea, it looks awesome, but it is not what we are looking for.”

And after a 40 minute discussion, we have discovered that they wanted isn’t what we thought they wanted.

Why did this happen?

Because I didn’t ask my client what their objective was.

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The Big Five for Writing Purposefully

1. Define Clear Objectives: Action: Clearly define the purpose of the copy, whether it's to inform, persuade, entertain, or educate. Example: If the objective is persuasion, for a fitness product, the goal could be to convince the reader to purchase a gym membership.
2. Audience Analysis: Action: Research and understand the target audience's demographics, needs, and preferences. Example: For a parenting blog, knowing the audience consists of new parents, the copywriter tailors the content to address their specific challenges and questions.
3. Use Data and Evidence: Action: Support claims with data, statistics, case studies, or testimonials to add credibility. Example: In a financial services brochure, include statistics on investment returns to demonstrate the potential benefits of the service.
4. Avoid Biased Language: Action: Use neutral language and avoid making unsupported claims or overly subjective statements. Example: Instead of saying a skincare product "works miracles," state that it has been clinically tested and shown to improve skin hydration.
5. Edit and Proofread: Action: Review and revise the copy to remove any unintentional bias, emotional language, or ambiguous statements. Example: After writing a blog post about eco-friendly practices, review it to ensure it presents the facts objectively without exaggerated claims.

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