12 Copywriting techniques to improve the performance of your content
Copywriting is a term that refers to the production of content aimed at promoting and selling products/services: almost a pillar of internet marketing.
Through it, brands generate value and interest in what they produce and guide the customer through the purchasing journey, with relevant information about the problems they face and the solutions offered to solve them.
Copywriting, however, is much more than talking about the characteristics of a product. For it to be good, it must intrigue the reader, involve them and make them take action.
Therefore, the most used structure in texts of this nature always ends with the Call to Action (CTA), or call to action.
It is what guides those who visit a page to continue browsing it, discover the offers that the company offers or download free content, which will help them address a problem on their own.
Mastering copywriting techniques, therefore, is essential to create texts that engage, generate visits to your page and capture leads.
With this in mind, in this text we have separated 12 resources for you to create copywriting that brings results. Check out!
1. Know your target audience
Knowing the audience helps the copywriter (the professional person responsible for making the copies) to better understand the tone of voice and the way to speak to their audience.
Therefore, the first tip for good copywriting is to learn more about the audience you want to reach.
By knowing your reader better, it will be possible to solve two problems that every content producer faces when attracting visitors to a page: the need to offer materials relevant to the pain they face and the need to establish a language close to theirs.
2. Know the problems faced by your audience
Understanding an audience’s problem has a huge impact on the acceptance of your offer.
But understanding this problem does not just mean recognizing that it exists: it means offering solutions to solve it.
A good copy already identifies this problem and “announces” how the business can solve it. Therefore, it is ideal to know the differences of the product or service so that the public can understand your message and consider a purchase, for example.
Be empathetic in your approach and do not prolong the presentation of the solutions that the business has for the company.
3. Seek references in the sector
Your competitors are likely producing some form of content. Even if it just consists of social media posts, like photos shared on Instagram, they exist and can work to both attract and repel consumers.
Observing the results that other companies have with content production is essential to creating a good strategy for your brand.
Follow your competition on social media and carefully analyze how much they publish every day, what type of content they prioritize and how many engagements they get.
Likes, retweets and comments are public information that will help you estimate the reach of these profiles.
4. Create irresistible titles
What is the first interaction we have with a post on the internet? The titles of videos, free materials (such as e-books, whitepapers and infographics) and texts you publish on blogs are your chance to capture the reader’s attention.
When done correctly, a title delivers part of what will be found within the text (promise) and differentiates between that content and others available on the internet.
It must be inviting and irresistible, covering the subject that your potential reader is looking for.
A good way to create irresistible titles are mental triggers: small stimuli that the text gives so that the reader engages with your ad:
5. Create a connection with the reader
It’s not enough to speak the language of those who read your blog. Creating a connection, that is, a relationship, is just as important. To achieve this, we have specific techniques when writing for the Web, such as storytelling.
By telling a story, you can keep the interlocutor interested enough until the end of the narrative for them to reach the CTA.
In fact, you have the chance to make them identify with your brand from the first contact they have with it.
6. Argue based on data
Using data in copies is a way to show your reader that your argument is supported.
More than showing numbers, the idea is to bring proven arguments that your solution needs to be considered by the reader.
For example, a copy: “Issue notes automatically and save 25% of time, your sector” is better than “issue notes automatically and save time for your sector”.
“Save how much?” is a question that, if answered immediately, attracts more than just saying that it saves time.
I did not fail, of course, to address the ways in which it is possible to do this throughout the content.
7. Write concisely
Nobody likes nonsense and, to do copywriting correctly, you must understand this. Short sentences, which get straight to the point and deliver a clear message, are the best to post on the internet.
They are not only advantageous from the point of view of the readability of your content, but they can also help you to be found on the Web. One of the differences of a good post is its scannability.
This means how quickly a visitor can discern whether the text is relevant to the problem they face.
That habit of “skimming” a text and checking if it answers your question is universal, and it is scannability that ensures that this is possible.
As an additional benefit, it will help you rank better on Google, as it is one of the criteria used in SEO.
8. Divide content into subheadings
Speaking of scannability, the best way to ensure it is to divide the content into subheadings. Lists are a great way to do this, but topics that break down the information contained in a post also deliver the same results.
They can be put together in a question and answer style (“When do I need X?”; “How much does Y cost?”; “Why should I invest in Z?”, etc.), or they can summarize the theme of each group of paragraphs. The important thing is that they always follow a pattern.
When using an imperative verb to begin a topic, do so in all of them. The same applies if you structure the text as a Q&A or in any other format.
9. Be creative when engaging
Remember the Call to Action? It’s not enough to just place it at the end of the content. It is necessary to think about each one, to lead the reader to the next stage of the purchasing journey.
Different types of materials require different calls to action. For example: subscribing to a newsletter, taking a product test or leaving a comment. These are all relevant Calls to Action possibilities. They must be as attractive as the content itself.
Therefore, use creativity when choosing a title and, if you use storytelling, fit them into the narrative you created.
10. Bet on keywords
Search engines define whether content is relevant or not according to a number of criteria. Among them, one of the most important is the keyword .
It should be used in the title, throughout the text, and in subtitles, whenever possible.
A keyword is the main term in a text, which summarizes the subject it addresses and comes to the reader’s mind as soon as he thinks about the topic.
Use tools like Keywordtool.io, SEMRush, Ubersuggest or even Google Keyword Planner to define the right keywords for your content strategy.
11. Run A/B tests
A/B tests are ways of identifying, between two scenarios, which is the most attractive to an audience. Everything arises from a hypothesis and to prove it, you go into the field, so to speak.
A/B testing considers two variables in a copy to understand which one most engages the public.
This works a lot in email subjects and ads, for example. It is important that in the A/B test there is only one variation, to determine which one made the difference in the copy.
Creating more than one variation in the test will make it impractical, because it is not possible to identify which one made the difference in the experiment.
You can vary, for example, copies with data arguments and without, letters in caps or not, use of emoji or not in a subject…
Carry out this test for a period of time and identify the winner in your strategy.
12. Compare content performance
Publishing content does not mean that your work is over: in the same way you analyzed your competitors’ performance, you will need to repeat the work with your blog posts.
This is what will make your copywriting skills improve every day.
The good thing is that, with resources like Google Analytics, you have much more information at your fingertips than when accessing competitors’ pages.
By tracking in detail how long your visitors spend on the page, which posts attract the most attention and how many clicks they received, it will be easy to determine what types of materials you should produce most frequently and fine-tune your online marketing strategy.
When it comes to digital marketing, learning copywriting is the first step you should take to obtain good results.