5 Rules of Copywriting you should never ignore

Copywriting as we know today is just a form of writing that’s written with a specific goal in mind. The goal could be as simple as driving the traffic to your site or to persuade your reader to buy something.

Just like any other skill, it’s quite hard to master copywriting.

In this blog, I have highlighted the 5 rules of copywriting you should never ignore if you want to succeed as a copywriter in the long run.

So, let’s begin!

Rules to live by as a Copywriter:

Rule # 01:

PEOPLE DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU, THEY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES

Have you ever wondered how your interest spikes when you find something relatable online? If that’s the case, you are reading a good copy.

Make sure whatever you are writing about, your reader gets something out of it.

It could be a valuable piece of information about something they were looking for, freebies in the form of custom-made templates or anything that you could think of from your audience’s perspective.

Rule # 2

IF THEY DON’T TAKE ACTION, YOU NEED TO REVISE YOUR COPY

If your reader spends more than 10 seconds on the page, your page has what they are looking for. If they don’t action, your copy isn’t good. Make sure to revise it from the reader’s perspective and see what’s missing that could have driven the action.

You need to put yourself in the shoes of your reader and then go through the entire process.

Rule # 3

HONESTY SELLS, MAGIC PILLS DON’T

This one is the most important rule to live by as a Copywriter.

Do not make dramatic headlines and never guarantee results.

Avoid magic pill to gain trust.

You have to understand that most of your customers come from recommendations and once you start delivering quality work. After that your sales depend largely on “word of mouth”.

According to an article posted on Semrush:

On average, word-of-mouth drives $6 trillion in annual global spending and is responsible for 13% of all sales

Talk about real statistics if applicable but do not boast about it. Build logical arguments in your copy. Provide evidence and keep a modest tone.

Here are some more rules to drive sales through Copywriting:

Make your copy all about the customer by identify their pain points

Some common pain points are given below:

1. Is your reader suffering financially? Provide them with financial advice. You can also sell a finance book at this point.
2. Are they having trouble with their productivity? Here’s an opportunity to sell a planner or a productivity book.
3. Do they need emotional support? Time to talk about your therapy/counselling sessions.

Whatever it is, you need to understand your target audience by creating a user persona.

Central selling idea

Your “central selling idea” should never be vague. It should be precise and specific. No stuff words should be used.

If you have identified your target audience, then you can easily formulate this by understanding their common pain points and presenting a solution to it. Your customer takes action when they know they have found a solution.

Headlines

Headlines are important when it comes to grabbing your reader’s attention. Most of the readers decide after 3 seconds whether they want to read a particular article or not. They skim through the headline and other headings quickly, if they are interesting enough they continue reading.

This is why, copywriting is so important to drive traffic and reduce bounce rate.

Tested advertising methods

Over the years, copywriters have tried and tested various methods. The following 3 methods are the ones most of the copywriters swear by..

• Self Interest

If you briefly answer these 3 questions for the reader, your writing has a higher chance of success:

What’s the benefit for the reader?

How they can avail it by a few simple steps?

What’s holding them back?

• Something new

If you have something new to offer, make sure to highlight it in your copy. People are likely to click on the links that are new to them. Whether it’s the a product or a service, as long as it’s new your chances of success are high.

• Invoking curiosity

You can also invoke curiosity in your reader by using words like “shocking” or “unbelievable” but don’t go overboard with these tactics.

Clear is always better than clever

If your headline is clever, the reader might land on your page but if he doesn’t find what he needs, he will bounce back in less than 3 seconds.

This will have a negative impact on your Bounce rate which is crucial for SEO.

Let’s conclude Copywriting with AIDA

Astands for Attention. If you have successfully grabbed the attention of your reader with a catchy headlines and good structure, you have accomplished the first step.

Istands for Interest. If your body is not interesting enough, your reader will not stay on your website. The first 2 paragraphs are most important where you talk about what the article is all about.

Dstands for Desire. If your reader feels something relatable, they will have a strong desire to buy something from you. That’s why it’s so important to learn about your buyer’s persona.

Astands for Action. Now that the reader is ready to buy, you need to have a CTA (Call to Action) in the end. It could be something as simple as Contact Us Now or a Phone Number that’s available 24/7.

Some end notes:

• Text decoration

Don’t forget to bold, italicize, and, highlight important points. You should always make your important text stand out. Try to put relevant headings (h1, h2, h3 tags) so the text is not overcrowded.

Make sure it’s left-aligned and easy to navigate.

• Grammar

Your grammar needs to be impeccable when it comes to writing blogs. Active and passive voice, tenses, spellings, punctuation, and tone should always be checked.

• Revision

Revisions are necessary since there’s always a chance that you might have misspelled a word or something that was necessary.

• Review

Read out loud to see how it sounds.