Copywriting: tips and tricks for enhancing and boosting your copy
Writing copy for social media or web and content marketing projects is always an intense challenge. Here are a series of small tips and tricks to apply before, during, and after writing a text
You are in front of the creative brief, you have already sketched a couple of texts, you get through the famous “writer’s block”, so the page isn’t white, and ideas are flying. Very good! Having already in mind content that will end up in your body copy is extremely important, but feel that there is something that is still missing. There are contents, the words come out of your head and are fixed on the PC screen, the connections between the different elements and between the phrases come back, you have a captivating visual and the only thing you need to do is write a nice caption, but you feel a feeling; a few little tricks is missing that might make your writing even more incisive, natural, promotional, persuasive, inviting, and so on.
It’s a feeling that grips any copywriter, don’t worry, but maybe you’ve come to the right place!
Here are some small tricks and tips that I collected during my experience to make your copy more incisive, captivating, natural, promotional, persuasive, inviting, and direct! Those tips apply especially if we work in the digital and social media marketing environment, where the attention span of users is poor and our goal is to catch their interest by providing them content that is increasingly interesting and valuable. On social media and the Web in general we find plenty of content (and often we have to fight with content similar if not identical to ours), so knowing some little secret to make our copy more interesting could be the key to success.
What we will see are useful tips that are part of the baggage of every good copywriter: they are valid on the first draft, during, and especially after the writing of the copy, in the revision phase. Some things may seem trivial and obvious, but looking at them never hurts.
Let’s get started!
#1 KEEP IT SHORT
With the relentless growth of blogs and social networks (but more generally with the development of ICT) the written language, and our way of communicating, has drastically reduced. The words we use to describe a product, an object, or an experience are reduced to the bare minimum (often replaced by emoticons). At a time when our attention span is estimated at 8 seconds, a good copywriter cannot afford to write a page of Pride and Prejudice to promote clothes. Baroque, pompous, and full of details writing must continue to exist (it is important to safeguard the own proper language), but it doesn’t suit the narrative style that we use today, especially with social media.
But beware, we don’t want to destroy the language (and therefore the grammar, syntax, tense, and verbal forms): we intend to reduce communication to the essential. It is attributed to Blaise Pascal the famous letter in which he wrote: “if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”. So, keeping it short means the cutting of non-essential words, the removal of non-essential parts, and the use of short sentences to focus only on what you want to communicate.
Generally, this is performed during revision, when the copy is finished and you are putting the final touches before closing it or sending it permanently to the agency/account. This phase isn’t easy nor quick: read the sentences well, just focus on the message and observe what are the elements in excess (an adverb, a sentence, or a comma that becomes a point). Build short periods. Maybe at the end of the review, you find that there is nothing to cut away.
#2 WRITE HOW PEOPLE TALK
In this case, we are not talking about making grammar mistakes or biting the grammar and syntax, but to get as close as possible to the “natural” language spoken by our target audience, with the “poetic licenses” typical of oral speech. Don’t use terms that you wouldn’t normally use when talking to friends. Daniel Ogilvy, one of the most famous advertisers in history, during the sixties (far from today’s social communication), about the public, argued: “You should use their language, the language they use every day, the language they think in”. So, read what you’re writing loud: you’d say the same thing talking with a friend?
#3 USE ACTIVE FORM
Without going into the maze of the grammar rules, the passive form is mainly used in journalistic language, while in common speech we used to adopt the active form. “George assaulted the Count” is preferable to “The Count was assaulted by George”. However, this isn’t a diktat: the active form is to be preferred because more direct and “natural”, but depending on the case and what you want to communicate, you can also use the passive form!
#4 DON’T REPEAT WHAT IS IN THE IMAGE
Nowadays most of the social strategies of brands are based on promotional visual content (how do you sell a jacket if you don’t show it?). At this point the copywriter has the arduous task of working on a copy that brings the content, inviting them to read and pushing the users to act such as clicking on the button or filling out a form.
The advice is this case, in this case, to write what is inside the image: everyone sees it. Instead, think of words that can grab attention or details that can push the interest and curiosity of those who are reading: perhaps describing feelings and characteristics that images cannot provide. This is a part in which fantasy, creativity, and thinking outside the box must come into play!
#5 WATCH OUT FOR ADVERBS!
Adverbs are a fundamental element of grammar. Thanks to them we can change the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or a name; they can highlight a detail, communicate a different tone, and, in my personal opinion, they can be fatal if used improperly. For this reason, in journalism and the drafting of press releases, it is generally used as a minimum, as well as adjectives (even if in reality things are different). The suggestion here is to be careful: delete repetitive adverbs, those that are obvious, trivial or that can distort the meaning: “Luca maliciously smiled at photographers” have a different meaning than “Luca smiled at photographers”. In this example, we want to communicate something specific: what was the true state of Luke?
The speech changes if we intend to emphasize details or special feelings: for this, you have to dose the adjectives as spices with food: the right ingredient and the right amount give the best flavor!
#6 AVOID THE CHAOS
The secret of a good copy is to be simple and fast: that is, linear. Our brain processes about seven pieces of information at a time (according to the psychology studies taken from neuromarketing; so avoid overloading the text with too tortuous paths and complicated tenses, with obsolete or too technical words (unless if it necessary) or resorting too many denials. The risk is to create misunderstanding and confusion, building a non-linear copy difficult to read (and learn).
#7 AVOID HYPERBOLE AND THE “X” WORDS
How many times do we browse magazines, feed on a social network, or Internet pages and read phrases like “Best ever”, “Best on the market”, “X years of experience” or magic words like “quality”. We are addicted to words like that and in some cases, they are even made up for. The user, especially online, wants to feel involved, appreciate the experience of the brand/product and in some cases be part of it (just look at the generated user content); but doesn’t want to do it with those words, because if he/she follows and knows a brand it is obvious that he/she is the best on the market or those with X years of experience, as well as a potential buyer (it is up to the copywriter to prove it to them).
So, the job of a good copywriter is to communicate the same characteristics with different, appealing, inviting, new words. That’s why there is no magic recipe! Fantasy, creativity, and even a little study of the target and brand are fundamentals.
#8 WRITE BENEFITS INSTEAD OF FEATURES
This is a technique that copywriters active in the fields of electronics, beauty products, health care, the world of motors, and in general luxury goods know very well. The user is interested in the technical aspects (the memory of the smartphone, technical features of the camera, the horsepower and cyilindrate of a car) but is more involved in the emotions: the sensations you feel driving the new car or the most beautiful moments of a holiday caught with your new camera. Essentially, what are the benefits of owning that good or relying on that service. So, the advice here is to stay focused on the emotions, feelings, and sensations that can stimulate to hold the latest smartphone or the new cosmetic product.
#BONUS 1: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE RIGHT FORMATTING
Bold text, underlining, crossed-out texts, italics, and also, typical of social communication, emoticons are typographic elements that allow the reader to move on some parts of the text or to highlight details. They are useful tools to focus attention on some keywords or to make the text more engaging. Make the most of them make your copy more appealing!
#BONUS 2: LET YOUR COPY REST
If you have time, leave your text to “rest”. After writing the copy and doing the first review leave it completely: do (and think) others and recover it the next day. Then, read it again and you’ll see the errors, the excess parts, and other elements that had not come to mind during the drafting: it is simply natural. During the writing phase, we often remain excessively focused on some aspects neglecting others that could potentially serve our content. So, letting the copy rest can give us other ideas and allow us to look at the copy from a slightly more external perspective.
Well, these were some of the tips and tricks that I collected during my experience. The world of copywriting is much more complex and day after day facing challenges that need new solutions: just think about the whole universe of SEO Copywriting, constantly evolving. It is a journey in progress and the final recipe or the magic formula doesn’t exist. The practice then becomes fundamental!
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