What Is Copywriting?
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Copywriting is advertising in full-sentence form. Its purpose is to inform, persuade, and convert a targeted audience. There is no single right way to write copy, but all high-quality copy is concise and informative, and never seeks to exploit or condescend to an audience.?
You know what advertising is. You might even understand the difference between advertising and marketing. But then, what is copywriting???
Copywriting is basically advertising in sentence form. “Copy” is what professionals call what you’re reading right now: Informative prose written in the service of getting an audience to pursue an action.?
Copy can attempt to persuade a targeted, sympathetic audience to buy one product rather than another. It can advertise complex ideas. It can also exist to spread awareness of different issues or be a general explainer of a topic.?
The Main Goal of Copywriting
The main goal of copywriting is to support a product, brand, or general idea with attractive, explanatory prose.?
Advertising hits quickly, ideally subconsciously, and is disseminated across a variety of sometimes irrelevant demographics. Copywriting, on the other hand, markets to a targeted audience.?
For example, a lot of commercials these days are weird. It’s hard to know what a company is selling or trying to get you to do. You see people dancing, crying, or browsing the internet. But in some cases, visual advertising is just a hook: It captures attention. It calls its audience to visit websites that provide details about the product.?
Copywriting, however, would directly target an audience such as job seekers, and focus on providing the information they need to improve their job search such as resume templates.?
Who Needs Copywriting??
Copywriting is everywhere. It always has been — it’s a keystone of marketing. That said, the digital age has provided more and more places for marketing to thrive.
Copywriting is essential for businesses marketing complex products or services. Fields that rely on copywriting more than others include:?
Copywriting in Marketing?
Copywriting is key to direct-response marketing. Direct-response marketing targets a specific audience, one that has some familiarity with what the copy is discussing. That copy goes on to solve problems the audience has based on search engine queries or focus group interviews.
According to Payscale , marketing copywriters earn an average of $50,833 a year. The job outlook for all writers, in general, is expected to increase by 9% between 2020 and 2030 per the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. That’s on par with other occupations.?
SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is growing particularly robustly.?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how businesses get their pages to show up in the first few positions on a search engine. SEO copywriters do this by researching common keywords, studying the most popular pages in the field, and tapping a certain amount of writer’s intuition.?
There are two different kinds of SEO copywriting , black hat and white hat.?
The difference comes down to both vocational competence and ethics: Some copywriters work hard to add value to the industry they’re writing for, and in doing so are enacting a long-term business plan that will pay off repeatedly and indefinitely — and builds trust and loyalty. This is also known as white hat. Unethical copywriters, or black hat writers, on the other hand, offer work that is duplicative or doesn’t provide any real value.
There are several ways to learn SEO copywriting. However, SEO expert, Neil Patel , suggests a hands-on approach. After finding your niche and setting up a website, he says the best way to learn SEO is to practice on your own content for six months to a year. After focusing on your site you’ll become better at optimizing copy.
Elements of Great Marketing Copy
So what, exactly, does great marketing copy look like? There isn’t a single template. But all great copy has a few things in common.?
Written With a Target Market in Mind?
Great copywriters don’t guess when it comes to marketing. They know who their audience is, what they like, what they want and what they’ll respond to.?
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Targeted copy solves a problem or answers a question for a particular audience that the copywriter has studied and listened to. It’s personal, helpful and even collaborative in a way that mass-scale advertising — or bad copywriting— just isn’t.?
Proper Tone?
Copywriting has an art to it, as well as an ethical dimension. Copywriters need to market products and ideas honestly, and part of doing so — especially when it comes to directed advertising — is writing in a tone and voice that will connect with a targeted audience clearly and unambiguously.
All great copywriting is direct, concise and informative, but it doesn’t all sound the same. Copywriting varies tonally based on its target audience. It can be:
None of these is inherently better than any other. So long as concision and clarity are kept in mind, the “best” tone for copy is the one that best connects the target audience to the product, service or information.
Working Headlines
Proper headings are also about getting across information clearly. In copywriting, you’ll often see headlines abbreviated as H1, H2, H3 and so forth.
Quality copy usually arranges headings like this:?
For instance: If H2 reads “Types of pianos,” each H3 will deal with those various types one by one to organize everything.?
Credible Claims and Data
Anyone can claim anything on the internet, often without consequences.?
Great copywriters perform diligent research to back up their claims. Numbers, statistics and expert opinions are not just quoted but cited and linked to so readers can check the veracity of a piece of copy for themselves.?
Optimizations
Copywriting is, above all, a service. Copywriters write for specific audiences they want to influence positively.?
Properly optimized copy has a better chance of reaching that audience.?
Copy addresses questions people ask. Whether that’s about the nature of college loans, medical treatment for uncommon diseases or discussions of the ever-changing world of work, copy answers questions or provides information to searchers.?
Properly optimized copy isn’t an end in itself. Quality copywriters include both internal and external links in their copy to help readers expand their knowledge, or even to offer and discuss opposing viewpoints.?
Finally, ending copy with a strong call to action (CTA) helps readers take steps to improve their own lives.?
Copywriting Summed Up
Advertising has a dubious reputation among some. But there are ethical ways of advertising. Crafting good copy helps keep companies honest: Copywriters have space to explain, persuade, debate, answer questions and offer advice.?
Top Takeaways
What Is Copywriting?
(Reporting by NPD and Mariah Flores )
Finding Impactful Solutions With Content
1 年Know these 4 things to be a ad copy writer within just 2 days. It should tell what your customers will expect from a business. This is the most important thing to remember when writing video ad copy. Your copy should clearly and concisely communicate what your business does and how it can benefit your customers. You are 50% done. Once you have a clear understanding of what you want to say in your ad copy, you are halfway there. The other 50% is about creating a compelling and persuasive message that will capture your target audience's attention. The writer should never be the editor. This is a mistake that many businesses make. The writer should focus on creating the best possible copy, while the editor should focus on ensuring that the copy is clear, concise, and error-free. The product owner should edit the copy with the copy writer. The product owner is the best person to understand the nuances of your business and your target audience. They can help the copy writer to create a message that is both relevant and persuasive. Activate to view larger image, https://www.fiverr.com/s/yB36l6
Growing eCommerce Brands Through Search | Director at Evolve SEO Agency
1 年A bit incorrect to say there are 2 types of copywriting being black hat and white hat!
University of North Texas Alum | Regional Marketing Project Manager
1 年I have noticed over the past ten or so years that the formality of copywriting in the advertising space has become obsolete. With informal texting changing the way we communicate, short or abbreviated communication has become a great way to communicate your brand messaging. At HF Custom Solutions our brand voice is casual. We communicate to our audience the same way we could speak to them in person. We like to remind them that there are fun human beings behind our advertising and social media posts.
Administrative Assistant with experience in Insurance & HR| Business Process Operations| Tech Risk MISC E&O, CYBER | HR Operations Coordinator| Studying data Analytics via Googles certificate program
2 年How does one become a successful copy writer?