Copywriting equals money.
Copywriting can be a highly paid career. You’ve decided to pursue this field. But not sure how to proceed? These five copywriting tips for beginners will help you get started:
Desire is Greater Than College Degree
Do the clients care about your degree? No. Do they care about the results that your writing can produce? Yes.
First things first, the skills you learn from your degree don’t always apply in copywriting. Academic writing skills make you school-smart, not street-smart.
You often think that you need a professional degree or have a good command over English. These are misconceptions.
What you need is – a desire to convert a prospective client into a customer through your writing. While academic writing aims to educate, copywriting is designed to sell.
Short Form Before Long Form
Dive into copywriting step by step.
To begin, learn how to write emails, social media posts, and Google ads. Understand the responses of your prospective clients and readers. Hone and upgrade your skills accordingly. Modify your writing until you achieve the desired results. Repeat till you master short-form copy.
This will build your confidence. Then you’ll be ready to write long-form copy i.e., five and more pages of text. Long-form copy takes years of practice. Write till you get it right.
80-20 Rule in Copywriting
When you receive a writing assignment, you must spend hours writing. Correct? Wrong.
The secret to achieving better results at copywriting is to spend more time researching. Invest 80% of your time in researching and 20% of your time in writing.
Focus on your structure. Understand the pain points of your prospective clients. Know your goals. Only when you have a good understanding of your clients’ needs will you be able to communicate right.
Bonus tip – you’ll write faster if you do your research right.
Keep It Short and Simple
Write as you talk.
Write as if you are talking to a person. Write in the second person and address your readers as “you” throughout your content. The idea is to communicate and connect with your prospective client. Know them well!
Don’t over-complicate your writing by using fancy words. Use simple language to reach a wider audience.
Write easy. Don’t shy from writing one-sentence paragraphs. Short paragraphs might appear unconventional but always work as they are easy to understand.
Repository of Successful Projects
Swipe files are archive files of successful projects. Save a repository of your good work along with outcomes. Refer to it when you receive similar client requests in the future.
Work smart and fast with swipe files. You can build on successful projects from the past. Find out which campaigns worked for a similar client, and customize them to suit your client.
Get your ideas and inspirations from your swipe files. For instance, refer to the email subject that prompted the target audience to respond to your email.