Copywriting is the
process of composing words that promote a person, business, opinion,
idea, product, or service. The aim of any copywriter is to make a
marketing copy or promotional text to persuade a listener, viewer, or
reader to avail of a product or service or to agree to a certain
viewpoint. Copywriting can also be used to dissuade a listener,
viewer, or reader against a particular belief, action—and in some
cases—the product or service of a competing company.
Standard copywriting
includes making creative, persuasive text on body copy, slogans,
headlines, direct mail pieces, taglines, song lyrics, Web content,
television or commercial scripts, press releases, white papers, and
other written material that are used in advertising media.
The development of the
internet gave birth to another aspect of copywriting. Dubbed as web
content copywriting, or web copywriting for short, this new aspect of
copywriting focuses on ways of writing and wording articles in such a
way that they would get higher chances and higher rankings in search
engines such as Google or Yahoo. Web copywriting also focuses on
calculated positioning and recurrence of keywords and keyword pages
on web pages.
Today, web copywriting is
one of the fastest growing divisions of the copywriting position. In
fact, there is an increasing demand for web copywriters due to the
continuing expansion of the Internet.
So you want to be a web
copywriter? Here are some web copywriting tips that you can use to
make your writing more effective.
- First you have to know
your audience. Knowing your audience or your market is extremely
important. That knowledge will help you create the ideal type of
message that will appeal to that particular type of audience. For
instance, if you are making a web ad for a retirement home, then the
copy should not include slang words used by high-school kids. A web
ad for a new video game should not make any reference to 1980
cultural events.
- Write as if you are
writing to one person. This is an important web copywriting tip.
Technically, you are targeting a group of people who will possibly be
your audience when you are copywriting. However, when you actually
write the copy, you must write it as if you are conversing with only
one person. As a human, it is natural for you to be interested in a
comment or statement if that comment or statement is directed towards
you.
That is the same with
your audience. The chances of arousing their interest are good if
your text appears to be addressing to them personally. It is quite
easy to ignore statements that seem to be directed to a group.
- Another good web
copywriting tip is to use your own words. It is important to know
that web copywriting is about persuasion and communication. It is not
about the mastery of grammar or vocabulary. That means you should not
dwell too much on sentence patterns, proper agreement between nouns
and verbs, consistency in tenses, and others (although your copy
should be grammatically correct). Forget about using big, difficult
words and jargon. Effective web copywriting involves commonly used
spoken conversational language but in written form.
A good tip to determine
if your writing sounds conversational is to read the copy aloud. If
it sounds natural, then it’s probably right.
- An important web
copywriting tip is to emphasize the specific benefit of what you are
offering. Remember that the customer wants to know the value and what
they can gain if they purchase your product or avail of your service
as advertised in your site.
Be specific as possible
in describing the benefits that the potential customer can enjoy.
Follow these web
copywriting tips for a great ad copy.