Copywriting is the text, video, and voice that encourages us to take action, an action that ultimately results in profit for someone in a business. Advertising SMS, highway billboards, brochures and catalogs are all prepared by copywriters using professional copywriting. In this article from the series of content marketing training articles, we wrote the ins and outs of this profitable and influential profession.
Table of Contents
What is copywriting?
In very simple language, copywriting is the same as advertising. The purpose of advertising is to convince people to buy products or use services, or to inform and show the brand, both of which ultimately bring benefits to the business. So copywriting is writing for a brand or business with the aim of engaging the audience with the business and inviting them to interact.
We encounter thousands of copywriting texts daily; The text of billboard advertisements, brochures, SMS advertisements, scenarios of television advertisements and advertisements in the digital space, etc., all of which encourage us to take action. This action can be downloading an electronic book, sharing opinions, participating in a special course, etc.
Who is the copywriter?
A copywriter is a writer who knows advertising and marketing and is well acquainted with the audience and their needs, and is a professional in convincing them.
A copywriter can write in different styles and for different clients and in different projects. Therefore, the copywriter’s task is to write any advertising text that can be implemented in the form of video, photo and sound.
In general, a copywriter is responsible for the following tasks:
- Ideation
- Brand and product naming
- Writing the content of click ads
- Writing meta description content
- Writing promotional SMS content
- Writing promotional email content
- Writing advertising slogans for social networks
- Writing slogans for environmental advertising (such as billboards)
- Writing the title of the matching ads (Native ads)
- Writing TV and radio advertising scenarios
- Creating slogans for brands, organizations and holdings
- Writing sales-oriented landing page advertising content
- Writing a microcopy of the call button (Call to action)
- Writing push notification content
- Writing slogans for press advertisements (advertisements in newspapers, magazines, etc.)
- Writing promotional content for printed materials (posters, brochures, catalogs, etc.)
- Writing slogans for 360 degree campaigns (the advertising message is published on all platforms and in all media.)
- Writing advertising slogans in point-of-sale media (in short, it is called in-store advertising such as counters.)
The difference between copywriting and content marketing
Copywriting and content marketing, both are written under a specific title and topic, and both are effective in the growth of businesses. In fact, they are from the same family, but they also have differences that we will mention below.
Content producer
- It informs and educates the audience
- The main purpose is to inform
- It is usually long
- Writes articles, e-books, reports
- He has a complete understanding of SEO
- Its effectiveness is evaluated in the long term
Copywriter
- It invites the audience to interact for the benefit of the brand
- The main purpose is to persuade
- It is usually short
- Writes online and offline advertisements and landing pages
- Has a level of knowledge of SEO
- Its effectiveness is evaluated in a short period of time
Basics of copywriting
Writing a persuasive and attention-grabbing ad requires following a few basic elements and principles, which we will discuss below:
1. Know the product and benefits
What is the product? Why are people interested in it? What does it do? How do they help them? Answering these questions is the first step in writing a copywriting text. When selling a product, don’t tell the customer what the product does, tell them how it improves their quality of life. In fact, sell the advantage, not the product.
2. Know your audience
The next step is to know who our ad or text is going to influence. You should be able to answer these questions about your target audience. What age what gender with what interests, concerns, preferences, needs, goals? How to behave in the media? With what behavior in deciding to buy and… Once you know your audience well, the next step is targeting. What do you want the audience to think, feel, or do after reading your text and ad?
Now that you are aware of the product and its benefits, the audience and its characteristics, and the goals of your ad, you actually have the main elements of your text at your disposal.
Get to know the audience and also the product and get a deep and worthy knowledge from these two.
George Gribbin
3. Write in the language of your audience
Can you speak the language of your audience? Seeing and hearing familiar words and phrases draws your audience’s attention and shows them that you understand them, respect them, care about them, and want to communicate. It’s okay if your language is informal, as long as the language of your audience is informal and they understand your text.
If you are going to make people buy something or do something, you must know their language;
The language they use every day, the language they think with.
David Ogilvy
4. Write simply
Start writing and write simply. The simpler the copywriting text, the more effective it is. Your text should be as clear and digestible as possible, avoid long phrases and keep things simple. This does not mean destroying the passion of the text, it means transparency in expression and respect for the audience. The simplicity of the copy text ensures that all your target audience understands the purpose of your text.
5. Edit the text
You should review and revise the text of your ad many times to reach the desired text for you and the employer. Get feedback from others and read your copywriting text out loud. That’s when you feel the need to change.
Copywriting applications
Today, we are faced with different types of media, with the help of copywriting, you can attract customers from all these media and witness the growth of businesses.
1. Copywriting in branding
The audience’s mentality of a brand creates the brand’s identity, and language and copywriting play an essential role in shaping the audience’s mentality and ultimately the brand’s verbal identity. Every word that comes with your brand, from the name of your product to the tweet you publish, is part of your verbal identity. To shape the verbal identity of the brand and maintain its integrity, you must consider the brand as a person, a person who has his own unique language and tone and invites his audience to interact. In this way, the language and tone of the brand remains the same in all marketing projects and does not change, and this lack of change increases the credibility of the brand. To maintain this importance, organizations need to have a verbal identity document that is available to the authors.
The quality of the copy largely guarantees the quality of the brand. Each brand is based on a set of values, including the organization’s purpose, vision, mission, and strategies, defined by the copywriter.
2. Copywriting in advertising and direct marketing
Direct marketing is a targeted example of advertising and is done only to potential and actual customers and its success can be measured immediately. Email or telephone advertising is an example of direct marketing and environmental advertising is an example of mass marketing. In mass marketing, we seek to influence the general public, but in direct marketing, we send our message directly to the target audience and seek two-way communication. .
In direct marketing, we deal with customers who know our brand or have had the experience of buying from us, so a good copywriting can easily impress them and create a significant return on investment. Copywriting text in direct marketing is a combination of accurate knowledge of the target audience and writing skills to arouse the audience’s emotions, which ultimately leads to an action for the benefit of the brand. Understanding the customer’s main problem, highlighting the immediate needs and providing a specific solution is the key to success in copywriting. Finally, you are looking for action from the customer, so clearly state what you want and emphasize the action you want.
3. Copywriting in retail and products
By retail here, we mean chain stores, not local supermarkets; Of course, observing these points is not without grace for smaller retail stores.
Copywriting in retail is divided into 3 parts:
- External messages (giving customers a reason to visit the store)
- Welcome and guidance messages (helping them find the section they want)
- Promotional message (offering different options, more offers and discounts)
In writing for retail, your goal should be to create a sense of belonging, comfort, and familiarity in the store; to make the buyer a regular customer. The writing style here is not reduced to a few short words.
Now that the customer is drawn into the store and between the shelves, the copy or the same text on the product will be attractive. Product packaging includes general brand messages, product details, benefits, ingredient lists, and legal responsibilities. It should be kept in mind that there is a huge difference between the role of the text on the packaging and the text behind it. It is the text on the package that encourages people to buy in the store, and the text on the back of the package that encourages people to repeat purchases at home.
4. Copywriting in magazines, newsletters
Organizational magazines and newsletters are designed to build a brand, gain more market share, or to inform and train employees, and some others are designed to sell more to current customers.
Organizational magazines have several different topics, but they have a common theme and their task is to convey brand value. The magazine is a gathering place for stories, comments, and updates and more; while the newsletter has a main topic and that topic is the updated version of what is happening, then the accuracy of its content is very valuable and important.
A well-written and designed corporate magazine is considered a brand’s credibility and has a positive role in the mentality of customers and employees of other companies. The fundamental difference between writing for a magazine or newsletter and other forms of creative writing is the way of finding sources of information. Often this raw information is provided by the employer company.
Writers of magazines and newsletters should have both copywriting skills (creative, targeted, commercial writing) and journalism (balanced, informed and search-oriented writing). It is noteworthy that the principles of this type of writing also follow the principles of copywriting.
5. Copywriting in the catalog
Catalogs play the role of a store and are usually prepared for those who prefer to shop and make decisions at home rather than in a store. The bulk of the catalog text is product information presented in a unified manner. The catalog cover is like a shop window, so it will play a significant role in persuading the readers.
A catalog copywriter, like a salesperson, must have full information about the product, product features, benefits, how to use it correctly, product distinctions, and other related information and describe them in detail in the catalog.
The difference between writing a long and successful text and advertising text,
It is at the level of concentration and order.
Being long requires more durability.
Robert Sawyer
6. Copywriting on the web
Web copywriting includes writing for online content, product pages, landing pages, online ads, social media posts, email marketing campaigns, and other digital marketing components.
Copywriting in the online environment is different from copywriting in the offline environment because people view online content on different devices (desktop, tablet, mobile phone, etc.) and your copy must be optimized for each of them. On the other hand, copy readers in the digital environment can reject your copy with just one click, so you need to screen your copy and writing several times to present a very good, attractive and persuasive copy that ultimately invites people to interact.
Remember that users in the digital environment are powerless and purposeful, and if they can’t get what they want easily, they will leave the page. Another point that is important in the digital environment is the content that users produce in this environment; on social networks and websites, they criticize you and play an important role in attracting visitors and your credibility.
Copywriting is the text, video, and voice that encourages us to take action, an action that ultimately results in profit for someone in a business.
Introducing the book in the field of copywriting
- Copywriting book, Mark Shaw
- The slogan book of the Shipour Jang brand, Laura Reiss,
- The book Confessions of a Publicist, David Egilvy,
- Sultan of Madison Street book, Kenneth Roman,
- The Book of Tabligh Literature, Robert W. Blay,
- Book of advertising secrets, David Egilvy,
- The book “Interview with the greats of advertising”, Dennis Higgins,
- Persuasive advertising writing, Andy Maslen
Copywriting income and marketing
In general, it can be said that copywriters are present wherever there is talk of advertising. Copywriters can specialize in copywriting on a freelance basis or in advertising centers, but in general, this job title is growing recently in our country, and many organizations still do not know the necessity and benefits of copywriting. For this reason, few people follow copywriting as their main profession and it is mostly treated as a second job. Due to the emerging nature of this job title, a fixed rate has not been defined for copywriting.