Welcome to copywriting tips for beginners – the perfect guide to selling quickly with your website.
Copywriting is the art and science of persuading readers to carry out a desirable action. This action can be to buy a product, sign up for a form or schedule or click on a link.
Your words (text) in the material is called copy while putting words down is known as writing. Hence, the name copywriting.
A copywriter is a person responsible for writing the copy used in marketing and promotional materials.
Copywriting comes in either of these two formats. The first as a sales copy and the second in spoken words is used as scripts in video promotions.
It is possible you don’t know, but copywriting is everywhere. It is in the emails you opened, the ads you clicked, the free reports you signed up for and more.
As a business owner, you need copywriting. A minor change of words in your products’ copywriting description can make all the difference in your sales.
Don’t hold it back. Don’t fight it. You need copywriting. It is at the core of your business.
This makes copywriting one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies there is today.
In this article, you will learn:
- How to create a sales copy that brings in healthy figures every year.
- What motivates people to buy certain products even at first sight.
Let’s begin
Copywriting Tips For Beginners With New Websites
1. Know Your Customers
We, business owners, are guilty of writing whatever we feel is best from our own end. How about our customers?
Understand that your business is not about you, but about your customers. They are the reason for your sales. So, craft them out from the crowd.
It is important that you know you can’t sell to everyone because not all should be your customers.
Else, you will burn out, compromise your standard, and lose in sales.
A product for everyone is a product for no one. And trying to market to everyone is expensive and, in most cases, leads to failure.
So, your best option is to create your ideal customer or buyer persona.
But how do you create the perfect customer profile? Look out for these three traits in them:
Copywriting Tips For Beginners To Craft Customers Profile
- An Ideal Customer Wants Your Product
Imagine you trying to sell digital marketing services to a local farmer in Nigeria. That would be hard to achieve.
But what if you niche down to web design services for coaches. Or even niche further to website design services for construction companies in Abuja.
That way, you can craft your sales copy perfect for the right clients.
- He/She Can Pay Your Price Or Fee
It is a waste of time and energy trying to sell your products to people who can’t afford them.
If you think people will do anything (discomfort) themselves to get your products, it is a lie. What man cannot afford, he cannot afford.
You can’t expect to sell to retirees or college students and expect to go far. You need customers who can pay.
- An Ideal Customer Has The Authourity To Pay
One thing is for customers to have the ability to pay; another is to have the authority to pay.
The manager may like your offers but until the owner approves, you are not getting any money.
So, don’t waste your time with middlemen–head straight for the top with your sales copy.
2. Understand Your Product
One of the best hidden copywriting tips for beginners to sell than usual is to know the products too much.
Because the more you know about your products, the better you can write copy that sells.
This makes research an important copywriters techniques.
There is a story of one of the famous master copywriters, David Ogilvy, who took three weeks to come up with the title of Rolls-Royce.
The headline read, ”At 60 miles per hour the loudest noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”
If it took Mr David, the father of advertising, as much as three weeks to unveil an important selling quality of the products, then it’s worth knowing your products.
You need to take your time to learn which features stand out from the competitors.
- What benefits will make your products appealing to your targeted customers?
- What credibility (awards, endorsement) do you have to give you an edge?
- Are there facts and figures to back your claims about your products?
The good news is, as an eCommerce business owner you already know your products in and out.
You have a complete understands of its feature, how it works and the benefits they provide to your customers.
I want you to write about what you know about your products. Write the list of its features and benefits and save it all in one place for later reuse.
Knowing who your customers are and what they want is helpful in copywriting a perfect sales copy.
3. Identify Your Unfair Advantages
Why should customers buy from you? Why should they trust you with their money?
The earlier you identify your unfair advantages, the better you can use them to stand out in your copy.
And in most cases, it has to do with more of services than products.
Claiming you have the best products is never an unfair advantage because all your competitors will claim the same.
I mean, nobody will admit that his products or services are bad.
What makes your products unique from your competitors.
Was it made from materials different from your competitors? Is it easy to wear? Is the delivery the same day?
Some of the best unfair advantages centers around:
- Delivery Speed,
- Money-Back Guarantee, and
- Custom – Made.
The unfair advantage I have with my eCommerce website design is the delivery and maintenance.
As you can see in my tagline.
I Will Design Your Online Store in 1 Week With FREE Maintenance For 1 Year.
But in cases you can’t identify what makes your products or service unique, then do this.
Edit and send the template below to 5-10 of your customers/clients.
Hi, [First Name]
It’s been a while. And I trust you are doing well.
In a bid to serve you more, I will appreciate it if you can tell me why you prefer to do business with me rather than someone else?
Please, I will be much grateful if you list in order of importance.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks.
4. List Out Your Product’s Features
Now is the best time to create a comprehensive list of what makes your products the best.
It does not matter how little or irrelevant you think the features are, list them out.
And remember feature are those things (attributes) that make a product. For example:
- How fast is it?
- Simple or variable colour
- Is it cheap or expensive?
- How long does it last?
- Fixed or customizable? And more,
For example, Let’s use iPhone 13 as a case study. The features include:
- 128GB storage
- 6GB Ram
- 12MP + 12MP + 12MP Camera
- 6K Optical Zoom
- 4K HD Optical Display
- Cinematic Mode
Those features listed above make iPhone 13 what it is.
Let’s proceed to the benefits.
5. Amplify Product’s Benefits
It is not enough to describe the features, go the extra miles to explain the benefits they provide.
It’s not enough to tell what makes your products unique. You also have to let us know how it will make us feel better.
A product’s benefits make it interesting to buyers. It is what gives life and relevance to the product.
I discovered that customers buy for one or more of these three reasons:
- Profit,
- Pleasure and
- Pain.
So, you should explain how your product or service can help buyers to make more profit, increase pleasure or reduce pain.
Using the features of iPhone 13 to write its benefits:
- Instead of 128GB storage, I will say,
No more limitation as you can store as many files as you want with the 128GB onboard storage and 6GB RAM.
- Instead of 6GB Ram, I will say,
Operate your phone at the speed of light with less than five seconds booting time.
Instead of 36MP camera, it is best to write, “
Show your flawless beauty to the world with 36MP walking photography.
And more
Now reading these benefits have made the iPhone more attractive to customers.
Also, one of the best copywriting tips for beginners is to focus more on reducing pain.
Because the pain of loss is greater than the pleasure of gain.
Start extending your copy to show more benefits and not just describing it.
6. Write A Killer Product Headline
A products title can determine how many sales you will have. Read that again.
No matter what you sell, the title of your product convinces buyers to click and read more about the description.
So how do you write an attention-grabbing product’s title?
- Be Unique: The worst thing to happen to you is to copy another product’s title and use it as yours. This is common in online marketplaces.
Your customers will know. Also, it is a stain on your brand image.
Sit down and craft out something unique as your headline.
- Be Specific: In one sentence, your customers should know what you are selling right from the product’s title.
Avoid generic statements. Describe in specific what they would get.
- Act on Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): Let them know they will lose it forever if they don’t get it now. Also, telling them limited stock available makes it work.
Whatever you do, make sure your headline is appealing enough that people want to click.
7. Maximize The Power Of “You”
One of the best copywriting tips for beginners with new websites is to talk to their customers.
Because, what I see today in most copies is the copywriter talking at the reader rather than to them.
And the only way to let your customers know you talking to them is to use the word, “You”.
Sally Ormond describe it as the simple word that doesn’t get used enough in her opinion.
She went further giving examples of you needing someone to design promotional materials. Then, you searched on Google and come across two website – which will you do business with.
Website 1:
“We are unique in our approach to promotional material design. We have our own factory based in the UK in which we design and create all our materials…”
Website 2:
“Your business deserves to stand out from the crowd. We’ll find you the perfect product that is not only of exceptional quality, but is also ethically sourced to help you with your own sustainability targets…”
Which of the two examples above do you feel closer to? I know it is the second one.
Let me give you my own case study.
I wrote an article titled, “Online Business That Pays Daily In Nigeria”. After 3 weeks, I added “You” to the title.
So, it became, “Online Business That Pays You Daily In Nigeria”.
The new title recorded 45X more clicks in the next week and still counting till today.
That informs you of the necessity of “You” in attracting and selling to customers.
But what makes this work?
Because the customers see it, you care about their needs, desires, fears and more.
So, include this as one of your copywriting tips for beginners with new websites.
Another great tip is the use of “Your”–It works.
8. Include A Strong Call-to-Action
Copywriting is incomplete without a call to action. If you are not telling buyers to buy, then you are not copywriting.
At this stage, your potential customer already understands what your products is, the features it has and the benefits it provides.
Your final copywriting work is to tell them what to do. Now is the time to help them buy.
Include a strong call to action button at the end where buyers can make payment.
The popular call to actions are:
- Read More
- Follow Us
- Get Started
- Ask Me Anything
- Buy Now
Just so you know, there is no point complicating your CTA button. It is far way better to Keep It Simple and Short (KISS).
Also, the button text, colour and padding all matters
Sometimes, to enhance effectiveness, I encourage A/B testing on CTA buttons. This takes away guesswork.
9. Rest And Do Nothing
Yes, do nothing.
Have you ever struggled to gain clarity on something? Then you go to bed and wake at midnight to have the best form of the same idea.
This is one of the copywriting tips that most beginners ignore.
After you have completed your first draft of the sales copy, take a rest and do nothing.
The reason is simple.
You have clogged your brain with facts, research, and figures. You have too much information going on in there.
So, to enjoy an actual view of how the content is, it is best you take a rest.
It is time you stopped being logical and factual. And the best way to do this is to stop and do nothing.
Go watch a movie, play a game, hang out with friends and go to bed. You will rise with better copywriters techniques.
FAQs On Copywriting Tips For Beginners
What are the best copywriting tips for beginners
In my experience, I would say that the best copywriting tips for beginners to become pro are:
- Learn and keep learning
- Take action on the little you know
- Measure your performance and adjust
What’s the Difference Between Content Marketing and Copywriting?
Content marketing is the creation and sharing of free content to attract, educate, and inform readers of a subject.
Copywriting is the art of creating persuasive copy to inspire readers to take an action. The action can be to subscribe to your email list or buy your products.
What is the difference between copywriting and copyright?
Copywriting and copyright are two different things with no similarity of any such.
Copyright refers to the exclusive legal permission to reproduce or sell someone’s work or use a brand’s name.
The purpose of copyright is to prevent the abuse and illegal use of original material.
Conclusion On Beginners Copywriting Tips
If you are used to writing general emails, ads and sales letter, expect to struggle to make sales for the rest of your entrepreneurial journey.
You need to start implement techniques from top copywriters to help customers see the need to buy your products.
Unless you focused your entire ecommerce business on copywriting, you don’t need to spend years learning tips for beginners.