Copywriting Essentials for Marketing Students

Intro

Copywriting is a fundamental skill in marketing across different industries. In essence, it is persuasive writing that helps all sizes of businesses to promote their products, services, and ideas. The best copywriters have what it takes to make a brand stand out from the competition. They can write compelling content for many different purposes. This may be in the form of blog posts, articles, emails, advertising copy, etc. Copywriters are also able to write content that works across diverse platforms. Their copy captures attention, creates engagement, and makes readers want to take action.

As a marketing student, you need to learn certain copywriting essentials if you want to enhance your job prospects. These include understanding an audience, writing with clarity and consistency, using storytelling, and optimizing content for SEO purposes. In this article, you will find out what can help you to excel in the digital marketing and advertising space.

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Understand your audience

You need to write what your audience wants to hear. If you don’t understand its needs, problems, and interests, your message won’t be relevant. How do you get to know your audience so you can create content that resonates with them?

Do your research

Analyze your website data, conduct surveys, etc. This helps you to understand your audience’s demographics, pain points, and interests.

Create buyer personas

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of an ideal customer. It helps you to keep a visual picture of your audience in your head while writing. You can find a buyer persona template online and customize it. It will usually include a name, age, gender, location, income, challenges, interests, etc.

Get insights from current customers

Your current customers can provide useful feedback in the form of reviews and social media comments. This feedback can help you to create a copy that really has an impact.

When you can create a copy that makes prospects feel as though you are having a personal conversation with them, it is more engaging and persuasive.

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Write clearly and concisely

If you want to be an effective copywriter, you must learn how to write clearly and concisely. Your language must be straightforward so it is easy to understand. Every single word you use in your copy must serve a purpose. You must use active voice and cut out jargon and technical terms.

Writing clearly and concisely is a skill you can learn by practicing. Practice breaking down complex sentences into short, pithy ones. Read through your writing and eliminate unnecessary words. Become adept at cutting out fluff and getting straight to the good stuff.

Trello has a very clear and concise product description. It describes itself as a productivity powerhouse with boards, lists, and cards so users can see clearly who’s doing what and what needs to get done.

Use brand voice and consistency

Strategic branding creates a distinctive voice for a business and helps it to stand out. Businesses use various types of branding. As a copywriter, it is vital to use a brand voice guide. It defines the tone, style, and type of language you need to use. This will help you to maintain consistency in your content which is the key to building trust with an audience.

BarkBox is a brand that uses playful copy and the words people use to talk about their dogs. For example, it offers “monthly dog goodies for good doggies.”

While making sure you maintain a consistent brand voice, you also need to adapt to the specific communication channel. The content you write for social media will be casual and conversational whereas writing a white paper or case study requires a more formal tone of voice.

Make your headlines stand out

Headlines may be a small part of a blog post or article but they can play a large role in getting results in digital marketing. An article may have such an intriguing title that people can’t resist wanting to read it. Here are some tips for writing a strong headline.

• Keep them short and simple. If you aim for less than 12 words and 70 characters, your headline won’t be cut off in the search results. The headline should tell readers what to expect. Trying to be too ‘clever’ could make a headline vague.
• Ask a question. Questions make people curious to know the answer.
• Use emotionally charged words. Words like ‘rock-solid’ or ‘effortless’ convey emotion. Don’t go overboard with these words or your headline will sound like clickbait.
• Numbers and statistics can give credibility to your headline. Adding a relevant statistic shows you have done your research and readers can trust what you say. Including numbers gives readers a sense of predictability and insight into the value they will get.

You can use a good headline analyzer tool to help you create better headlines.

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Practice the art of storytelling

The art of content marketing lies in creating valuable content that engages your audience and helps you to build authentic connections. Storytelling can be a powerful copywriting tool because humans can connect with stories. To weave storytelling into copy you need to start with an issue your audience can relate to. Using this as the starting point of your narrative will immediately create a connection.

Emotion is the driving force behind many actions. Evoking emotions like happiness, excitement, fear, or inspiration in your copy will make it more powerful. It’s important to be genuine and authentic. Your story will end with a solution your brand offers to solve the problem and improve your audience’s lives. Seeing the value of products or services encourages them to buy.

Marketing copywriters can also learn from GoPro’s emotional video of a firefighter with a GoPro attached to his helmet rescuing a small kitten and resuscitating it went viral. Over the years it has brought them millions of views. It gives the perfect example of how GoPro didn’t need to give viewers the features of their product but just show what their camera can capture.

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Learn how to incorporate SEO

Quality content for SEO purposes uses various SEO techniques to be ranked higher by search engines. This leads to more visibility and organic traffic. Marketers must understand the basics of SEO, such as doing keyword research and integrating keywords in the right places such as in titles and meta descriptions. They need to find that crucial balance between writing copy that’s engaging but is also SEO-friendly. There’s a real art to including keywords in content in a natural, organic way.

Many online educational resources are available to help you learn more about SEO. You can take free courses, study ebooks, or find a mentor to teach you. However, you will learn most by putting SEO techniques into practice. It can help to start your blog or website and use SEO to try and get it ranked in the Google search results.

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Create a strong CTA

Content in itself may be informative and engaging but it doesn’t drive action. This is why you need to tell people what to do. A call-to-action (CTA) urges them to sign up, click a link, or make a purchase. Using a call-to-action is proven to increase engagement.

• Many brands don’t use CTAs and they are missing out on an opportunity. In email marketing, newsletters that feature a CTA can result in a 371% increase in engagement.
• When creating a CTA you need to use clear and direct action words such as ‘buy’, ‘subscribe’, or register. Using action words in CTAs can increase conversion rates by 122%.
• Creating a sense of urgency can be a good motivator. You can tell your audience that stock is running out or they only have a limited time to book a webinar spot.
• It also helps to make your CTA stand out visually by using eye-catching buttons with bold fonts and contrasting colors.

Conclusion

Copywriting is an invaluable skill if you’re a marketing student. This article gives some of the elements that provide a strong foundation for creating engaging, persuasive content. You must know who you are writing for, write clearly, and make your headlines stand out. Using storytelling and incorporating SEO will create an emotional connection with your audience and help them find your content in search engines.

As a marketing student, it can take time, practice, and some trial and error to master the essentials of copywriting. However, if you practice and hone your skills, it can open the door to more job opportunities. Your skills will help you to pave your way to a successful career in digital marketing.