Your SEO Cape Town Guide To Copywriting
SEO Cape Town Guide To Copywriting: Copywriting is one of the most in-demand skills. Good copy needs to walk a fine line between inspiring users to take action without sounding persuasive or pushy. Regardless of where your content is, it needs to be pithy and attract the attention required.
Copywriting is vital to any business hoping to succeed online and, it can persuade customers to interact with your company. Additionally, it is an effective way to compel customers to buy products and services, contact you or fulfil the objective of your website.
What do you need to become a great copywriter? Whether you are looking to begin a career in copywriting as a freelance or just want to improve SEO (search engine optimisation) for your business, continue reading this SEO Cape Town Guide to Copywriting to help you get started.
What is Copywriting?
Copywriting is the art of writing copy meant for marketing purposes. The main objective of copywriting is to compel customers to take a specific action, like signing up for something, buying products or services, downloading great content, scheduling a call or any other form of communication. Copywriting is also foundational to SEO.
Either way, excellent copy will keep your readers interested and bring leads to your business. While it can take some time to acquire copywriting skills, it just takes practice.
SEO Cape Town Guide: What is the Importance of Copywriting?
Copywriting exists almost everywhere in our daily lives. In videos you watch, on adverts and products, and in documents, whitepapers, e-books, and all types of content. However, in this era of podcasts and videos, copywriting is taken for granted and is underrated.
However, words still have immense power in the current digital world. Keep in mind that potential customers have little time, meaning that their attention span is limited and valuable. So, by harnessing the power of copywriting, you can increase the Return on Investment (ROI) and achieve your goals by attracting and keeping more customers.
The following are some benefits of becoming an excellent copywriter:
● Get a good understanding of the niche for improved copy quality
● Build brand image through compelling copy
● Get a unique insight into the audience’s wants and needs
● Improve the structure and flow of articles
● Increase your rate of conversion on crucial pages
In simple words, copywriting can move mountains and is vital in almost every element of your marketing campaign. You can use your copywriting skills to improve some aspects of marketing paraphernalia such as:
● Outreach emails
● Video scripts
● Podcast descriptions
● Facebook posts
● Interview queries
● YouTube video descriptions
● Blog post headlines
What a Copywriter Does
As a copywriter, you will be spending most of your time writing; however, there is more than writing when it comes to copywriting. In fact, copywriters spend most of their time brainstorming and learning about their customers. They also take their time to understand how a particular product will help solve their customers’ problems.
If you intend to write copy for your products or services, you should first understand your prospects and learn about their pain points, desires, as well as fears.
Pro Copywriting Tactics
You can use the following strategies to write an excellent copy or improve your existing copy.
Slippery slide
The term ‘Slippery Side’ means that your copy must be convincing enough for your prospect reader to constantly move through your sales message. This part of a copy consists of the lead and pre-headline, which lets the reader know if there is an action they would need to take.
The “AIDA” formula
The AIDA formula is a strong copywriting method that works impeccably fine for blog post introductions, video scripts, squeeze pages, sales pages and email newsletters. AIDA formula is an abbreviation for:
A-ttention
I-nterest
D-esire
A-ction
This formula is widely used in both marketing and advertising circles. The model tends to describe the various steps that happen when an individual enters the awareness phase of your marketing funnel to when they make a Decision.
To use AIDA in copywriting, you first need to grab the reader’s attention with a captivating lead, drive-in interest with a bold promise, understand and express their desire and finish with a call to action.
Writing Customer-Centric Copy
Customer-focused copywriting is an approach in business that puts more focus on customers. For a copy to be customer-centric, it needs to follow one specific rule; it should sound like your customers talking. This means that they must hear themselves when reading your copy.
To understand how your target customers talk, you can go to some places where they usually hang out. This can be on Reddit threads, online reviews, customer surveys, customer interviews, product hunt discussions, and social media platforms.
The SEO Cape Town Guide to Writing Copy Like a Pro
Regardless of where your copy will be published, this SEO Cape Town Guide to Copywriting will help you write content that appeals to your target audience.
Know your audience
Who is your target audience? This is a question that you must answer even before you start writing. The internet is a bustling place with millions of posts being published every month, so you can only imagine the number of global posts published every month.
Your copy, therefore, needs to be unique to reach your target audience. It also needs to be gratified, loud, and make a tremendous impact on your readers in a way that they will return for more. The message in your copy must directly speak to your target clients and address their needs.
Lack of a specific demographic for your copy means your writing will not be precise. Therefore, put your focus on a particular group of clients to make you an authority in your niche. The following are some questions you should ask yourself to help you determine the type of customers to target:
1. What do you do?
2. What problem do you want to solve with your products or services? 3. Who are your past clients?
4. Are there any special skills or knowledge required? 5. What subject are you an expert in?
Answering these questions will help you picture an audience for your copywriting and start thinking about the various ways to reach them. The next thing to do is create a buying persona for your ideal clients. This step will help you sketch who your audience is, including their location, age, demographic, job title, gender, ethnicity, interests, and other information.
Write catchy headlines
You will learn from this SEO Cape Town Guide that most online visitors only read the headlines, while just a handful read the rest of the content. This means that headlines to your copy matter. An excellent headline convinces more people to read your copy, while a poor headline pushes people away.
Headlines have great significance, so even a single word in the headline can impact your marketing campaign drastically. Luckily, writing a good headline isn’t as challenging as you think. This SEO Cape Town Guide to Copywriting offers some key elements to follow when writing an attractive headline.
Be very specific:
The headline must tell your customers precisely what they are going to get.
Use a number:
Numbers will help you write specific headlines
Make it emotional: Headlines that trigger emotions are usually the best. You can achieve this by adding some emotionally charged words such as “amazing”, “fast”, “crazy”, “breakthrough”, and “new”. But don’t exaggerate with these words.
Utilise FOMO: This formula can really help make your headline ten times stronger. The Fear of Missing Out, however, does not work everywhere. Using FOMO can help you trigger strong emotions in your prospects and make them eager to read what you have to say.
Answer WIIFM: Always put your customers first and avoid talking too much about yourself. In simple words, the headline should answer the question in your customers’ minds: “what is in it for me?”
Remember your focus
Your primary goal as a copywriter is to convince people to take a particular action, like buying products or services or downloading content. It is fun to create marketing strategies, ad copy, and viral campaigns. However, even the most perfect copy can be worthless if it fails to generate leads.
That said, when copywriting, consider adding some originality, education, and inspiration. But also remember that the copy will only matter if it achieves its goal.
Master the lead
Most copywriters often underrate the lead, but keep in mind that it is essential to the copy, just like the headline. In copywriting, the lead can be the first sentence or the first paragraph. Regardless of where you choose to use your lead, ensure that it is catchy to keep your readers engaged.
The following are some strategies from the SEO Cape Town Guide you can use to write captivating leads.
● Start with a catch: The firsts section of your lead is everything, so it should grab the reader’s attention.
● Use short stories: Stories are an excellent way to grab people’s attention. But since the lead should be short, the story too must be short and catchy. Use mini-stories made up of four to five sentences.
● Complement your headline: Your lead can sometimes just complement your headline.
● Create curiosity: You can use your lead to create interest and build promise in the
headline.
● Make it short: Regardless of where your copy will be presented, the lead must be super short with a maximum of eight lines.
Write conversationally
Have you ever come across copy that sounded like they weren’t written by human beings? Such copy usually lacks personality and is less engaging.
However, writing in a conversation style doesn’t necessarily mean you write similarly to how you talk because people usually make grammatical mistakes while speaking. Instead, it should be a lot lighter than spoken language.
Use short sentences
Short sentences are easy to read and comprehend. So, consider chopping up those long sentences to make your copies readable and catchy.
Don’t write to everybody
Imagine writing an email to almost a thousand subscribers. You will obviously sound like you are talking to a crowd, and the tone will feel impersonal. So, choose your readers and write to them accordingly.
Use active voice and avoid jargon
The SEO Cape Town Guide recommends that you use active words when writing copy. This will help your readers visualise themselves taking the intended action. On the other hand, jargon will make your copy hard to read.
Social proof
Social proofing is the premise that people will follow the actions of the multitudes. You can use social proof in copywriting for all your marketing efforts. For instance, you may want to social proof your copies by making your audience believe that many people already like your products or services, and so the potential customers will enjoy using them as well.
You can social proof your copies through positive reviews, customer testimonials, awards and recognition, and celebrity endorsements. Keep in mind that consumers tend to believe information that comes from other product users than from the brand itself.
Have a strong Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) can either break or make your marketing campaign. A CTA is one of the many elements that can have a direct effect on your conversion rates. When writing a CTA, it is crucial to determine your end goal.
Are you writing to boost your sales or to increase subscriptions? The best CTA should be brief and utilise strong verbs. Some good examples of Call-to-Actions include: call now to speak to a customer care representative. A good call to action is crucial to conversion optimisation.
Proofread
Nothing can be more frustrating to a reader than finding unfamiliar language and grammatical errors in social media posts, websites, or even printed materials. This is why it is vital to proofread your copies. One of the best ways to proofread your work is by printing it out, reading it aloud, and marking it up.
Final Thoughts
Becoming a professional copywriter might take some time, but you can do it if you employ the tips from this SEO Cape Town Guide. Keep in mind that the first and most crucial step to becoming a successful copywriter is to learn how to write powerful copies. While you might have an excellent product, it won’t sell by itself.
Use this SEO Cape Town Guide to Copywriting to help you understand your target audience and improve your copywriting skills. This way, you will be able to write copies that can convert your readers into customers.