5 Things to Think About When Writing Compelling Copy

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCASTAll copy is sales copy. This includes your social media, website, blog content and everything else. It is all used to connect with your audience and convince them to do something.You should create copy that your audience wants to read. It should compel them to want to learn more and engage with you. Listen to what your audience wants to hear and the words that they use. Use those words in your copy.Use emotion in your copy that makes it easier for customers to connect with you on a deeper level.Your copy should address your customer’s fear right off the bat. Address all the reasons they won’t engage or feel afraid to. Use your copy to let them know why they don’t have to feel this way.Give your audience the opportunity to respond to you. Have a conversation with your audience to gain actionable insight for new copy in the future.THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Your audience is comprised of real human beings and your copy should be written for them. Your customer shouldbe the focus. You will want to explain why you are the solution to their problem and convey that using their words and compelling emotion.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISSAll copy is sales copy. Here’s why. – 03:29#1: Researching your audience – 04:54#2: Focusing on features vs benefits – 07:05#3: Using emotion works in copy – 09:02#4: Addressing your customer’s fears – 10:45#5: Hearing and responding to customer feedback – 12:00Transcript below Hello, and a very warm welcome to episode number 10 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I am so glad to have you here for what is my 10th episode, which is great. 10 weeks of doing the podcast. And if you listened to last week's episode, you'll know that I said it's really hard work. So I'm really pleased I've managed to bring you these 10 episodes consistent.If you didn't get chance to listen to last week's episode, so number nine, then please go back and do so. It was a really good episode to record. I really enjoyed it. A little bit different to my standard format, where I'm normally giving you X amount of tips or certain things to do. I just talked generally around what makes successful entrepreneurs, and some of the things that I think makes a successful entrepreneur. And one of those things was talking about consistency, and maintaining something when you start doing it. So go back and take a listen, because like I said, I was really pleased with that one, and I thought we covered some really good things.The one thing that I should still mention at this point though, is I've still not got around to batching, much to the frustration of the team, who are eagerly waiting every time I record a podcast, to type up show notes, do transcripts, get it ready on the website, upload it to iTunes. So like I said, the idea was that I would batch content. Now, I'm going to do an episode in this, but basically it's where you sit down, and instead of recording one podcast like I'm doing now, that I'll record two or three, obviously not simultaneously.But the idea is basically you block out a whole section of time, and you do several of those things, either a podcast or a blog, creating social media content in a big block. Because there is a science behind how our brain works. Basically, if our brain is focusing on one type of task, it's easier to do that task two or three times over, than it is doing that task, coming away, and then going to do a different task. Your brain has to work at a different gear, if you like. So we definitely want to do batching, and I keep promising my team I'm going to do it, and I will soon, hopefully.The other thing I should mention about the podcast, is that I record it really early in the morning, because it obviously won't surprise you that you need quiet. You need there to be as little background noise as possible. I live in a house with me, my husband, a dog, my eight-year-old daughter, my two stepchildren who are teenagers, and this house is anything but quiet. So I tend to get up super early. It's currently 5:30 in the morning, and I am recording a podcast, which I think may make a difference to my voice, because I probably sound a little bit sleepy, so I apologise.I think that's enough of me wittering on. Let's get on with today's content. In today's podcast, we are going to be looking at the five things that you should be thinking about when you're trying to write compelling copy. Now, initially in this title, I had the word sales copy in there, but I decided to take the word sales out, because I think this is very misleading. All copy is sales copy. Here’s why. In my mind, all the copy that you write is sales copy, whether it's website copy, i.e. what's written on your website about you or your products or services, whether it's social media copy, whether it's even written down for me to speak in a podcast, or something like that. Every copy is sales copy.The reason I think this, is because you are trying to sell yourself or your service in some way. And I don't mean sell as in money, I mean sell as in you're trying to connect with someone. You're trying to either convince them to listen to another episode of the podcast, or convince them to sign up to something so they receive your newsletter, or convince them to come back to your website every week and read another blog. You're trying to, I suppose the word is convincing copy, rather than sales copy, because you're trying to get them to do something in everything you write, or otherwise what's the point in us writing it?And I guess the other thing you want to think about at this point, is you want to write copy that people want to read, that they're going to engage with. So these points are really helpful for that as well. I should also probably mention at this point that I am not the most natural of writers, hence why I started a podcast. I think I've said this before. I like to follow these points to help me maintain a structure or to help me write better copy. These points aren't about grammar or proofreading, these are more about writing compelling copy that people are going to want to engage with. #1: Researching your audience So let's jump in. Point number one, is actually not to do with writing at all, it's about listening to what your customers and prospective customers have to say. And in brackets I've put, "Do your research." Now, this is one of the most crucial points for me, that if you're going to write for a avatar, now your avatar is the person that you're trying to target. It's the profile of your prospective customer, or a customer you have already. If you're going to be writing for them, you've got to think of them in mind. One of the best and easiest ways to do this to know about them, is to go and listen to what they have to say.For instance, when I go and talk to my target audience, and I speak to them about social media and marketing and how they can use it for their business, I will listen to all the words that they say when they're talking about it, because this is so important. What they're going to do, is they're going to tell me their problems. They're going to tell me what they find difficult about social media marketing. Some of the words that they use, are words like overwhelm. Do you know what? I think in most parts of our business, we probably feel overwhelm. But it is something that you particularly feel in social media marketing. When I talk to these people, when I write copy, I would use the word overwhelm. I also listen to the kind of language they use, the words that they say, so that I'm not using my words, I'm using theirs.The first thing I do, is I go out and have a conversation with them. Think about two or three either prospective or current customers, and why not go and have a chat with them, and ask them, "What made you want this product in the first place? What made you come to me? What do you find difficult about doing XYZ?" and listen to what they have to say. As I mentioned before, the one thing you want people to do when they read your copy, is resonate with it, is to engage with it. If you're using words that they think about, or they can read something and think, "Gosh, that's me," or, "I feel like that," then obviously you're going to be able to engage them much easier. It shows that you care, that you've bothered to listen to what they have to say, and that you want to try and help them. #2: Focusing on features vs benefits Point number two, features versus benefit. Now, this is really funny, because it seems like a really old technique. Years ago, you may not know this, but I used to work in a bank. This was something that was in the training then, that we used to talk about features versus benefits. It's still prevalent now. It's still really important that we think this way when we're writing copy, because if someone wants to use our service or buy from us, they're not actually buying the features of the product or the service, they're buying the benefits. Let me explain. Basically, if you want to get better at social media, it's not the driver that you want to be a brilliant social media person, it's because you want your social media to bring you more sales. The actual being good at social media is just the byproduct of that. You could not care that whether you're going to at social media or not, you just want to get the sales, or you just want to connect with people through social media.So when people come to me, they don't say, "Teresa, I want to...