9 Copywriting Best Practices

Copywriting is a crucial aspect in any form of marketing and advertising. The main purpose of copywriting services is to promote a brand, sell a product or service, gain audience engagement and get them to respond to your call to action.

The need for marketing and advertising content is growing, which means there is an increasing need for copywriting services. In this blog, I will cover copywriting best practices that every copywriter should keep in mind when they start writing copy.

1- Know the Audience

This is the first question a copywriter should ask before kicking off any project. Knowing the target audience helps you to speak their language, understand their level of knowledge, at what point of the sales cycle they are in and more. Based on this knowledge, you can write appealing and easy-to-read content based on your audiences’ needs.

2- Obtain Brand and Product/Service Knowledge

This is the first essential step in all copywriting projects. You can either communicate with the client and ask for as much reference material as possible about the brand, product or service that you’re going to promote or use your research skills to find the powerful selling points to build upon. Ideally, interviewing the client will be the most beneficial approach.

3- Start Big

Use lively, catchy titles and openings that will encourage the reader to continue. This is the point where you gain or lose your audience, so make the titles and openings engaging and interesting. Your choice of opening sentences will make your reader either want to go deeper into your copy or just skip it.

4- Avoid a Salesy Tone

Avoid the salesy and robot-like tone, and write as if you are talking to a friend or one of your family members. The more conversational and relatable your copy is, the better connection you will make with your audience.

5- Avoid Clichés and Jargons

Using copywriting cliché will make you lose your audience’s attention from the first line. The same result can happen if you opt to use jargon, which limits the accessibility of your copy to a specific audience. Don’t over polish your copy, as you can still create good content out of simple words – just be creative in the way you do so.

6- Be Specific and Concise

Online readers don’t have the time or desire to spend much time searching for what they’re looking for. So, don’t add too much information or description to your copy, and avoid long and uninteresting openings. Copywriting is the art of saying much with few but powerful and influential words.

7- Avoid Exaggeration and Misleading Headlines

Whether it’s online or offline copy, using catchy headlines is extremely useful. It prepares the audience for what they’re going to read next and also organizes your ideas in a way that helps the audience to scan the copy and better understand the content. So, don’t trick them with misleading headlines. This is really annoying, not enticing.

8- Avoid the Passive Voice

Active voice conveys your message better and faster, and it makes the copy smoother to read. Using the active voice is usually stronger and shorter than the passive voice, and it’s easier to understand and makes the content engaging.

9- Start with the Strongest Point

Don’t save your best-selling point for last – make it the leading point. Beginnings always attract more readers than the endings, so putting your best idea in the front will grab more attention.

Final Thoughts

Today, copywriting services are becoming increasingly in alignment with the marketing and advertising industry. Words sell your brand better than any salesperson can if you just know how to craft them.