Image by: Adikos
By Giovanni Fields
Copywriting, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is writing a copy for the purpose of advertising or marketing–which means the copy itself is meant to persuade someone to buy a product, or influence their beliefs. To avoid hindering your company’s marketing campaign, the copywriter should be professional enough to create meaningful, compelling and actionable copies that are capable of drawing in your targeted audience for more sales. And to build a copy that is more than worthy of being heeded by the masses, there are a few rules and regulations that need to come into effect in order to structure the ideal copy.
Here are five of them that you may unknowingly need to incorporate in order to improve your copy.
#1) 80-20 Rule
The majority of your copy (i.e. 80%) should be written in the second person with the remainder (20%) written in the first person. It may come off as second nature to include the I’s and we’s in your copy, but the truth is the customers could care less about you or your company, what they want to know about is the product and what benefits they will receive when dealing with it. “What’s in it for me?” is a question every single customer, no matter what niche the market is, is resigned to ask themselves before purchasing your product. And if you take the steps necessary to clearly explain to them the benefits they will receive, they will be more likely to buy the product. Spending undue time telling customer things they don’t care about will be more likely to be steer them away from a purchase.
#2) K.I.S.S Rule
Kiss, an acronym for “Keep it simple stupid” refers particularly to the choice of words you use. Big, complicated words that are difficult to understand or pronounce will likely fly way over your audiences’ head and could distract them from absorbing crucial information in your copy. If your target audience is a bunch of teenagers and you’re using jargon that is comprehensible only to doctors and physicians, you will be actively destroying the delivery of your key messages by needlessly distracting your audience.
Despite what people may think, customers aren’t necessarily impressed by a company’s usage of ‘big words’, and using them too much in your copy can actually have a reverse effect of what you’re trying to achieve.
#3) Red Pen Rule
One may think it might be more beneficial too include every little detail about a specific product. Yes, making the customer aware of what they’re getting into is extremely important, but they key to advertising is sparking their attention for a spontaneous sale, not boring them to death with an influx of information that they likely will not even bother absorbing.
When reviewing the result of your copy, edit somewhere around of the third of the content to ensure that everything in the final piece is compact, enjoyable and able to stick with the customer long enough for them to make the sale.
#4) Slap Rule
If somebody slaps you in the face it is likely that rather than standing there like a complete moron, scrutinizing the had which fell upon your face, you will either return your own lighthearted slap or initiate a more extreme violant action. Slap, otherwise known as stop, look and purchase, is exactly what copywriters are here to do to the customers of a specific business.
Of course not in a literal since, as that will probably result in unnecessary legal disputes, but rather in a figurative sense. Slapping them (i.e. grabbing their attention so heavily that they become temporarily stupefied) will lead to more spontaneous sales and therefore more money for your company.
#5) Be Objective
Copywriting is about highlighting the customer’s needs and wants and showing them how your product or service executes. But how would you be able to do this if your product is already glorified by it’s owner? No matter how much time you spent cultivating your amazing product, money you spent developing it, or often you use it yourself, a product will never reach perfection.
Always striving to meet and excel at the customers wants and needs is essential to any form of entrepreneurship, and it is an integral part of any marketing campaign to demonstrate these values. You can believe your product is the best thing ever known to man, but if the customer fails to feed into that idea then you will likely see a decline in sales, which would lead to the slow, painful deconstruction of your business. And I think we can all agree you wouldn’t want that, would you?
Have you successfully produced a lucrative copy that has been the saving grace of your business or company? Share with us in the comments section below the rules and regulations you followed to make that a reality. We appreciate it!