Winning Copywriting Tips For Small Business Owners

Intro

Good copywriting is an essential component of business growth and marketing. Simply adding a blog to your company website can increase traffic by 55%. Most business owners understand this basic truth. Where they struggle is with implementing copywriting as part of their marketing strategy. Unless marketing is your business, chances are you don’t have much experience with this. Hiring a digital agency is too expensive, and AI tools are largely unproven.

This doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from good copywriting. It’s quite possible to write a great copy in-house. Start by following these easy-to-implement copywriting tips for small business owners.

Stop Writing. Start Researching

The most effective copywriting is done with a thorough understanding of the target customer and their search intent. You’ll get even better results if you understand how your top competitors are also responding to those inquiries.

Start With a Customer Profile

A customer profile is something of a character study of the people most likely to be interested in your products. If you appeal to a single demographic group, your work is easier. You just have to complete one profile. If your products have more diverse appeal, then you will have to create multiple profiles.

What should you include? Anything that would be relevant to your objective of communicating effectively with your customers and developing better customer relationships. Here are some details you might include:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Socio-economic status
• Hobbies and interests
• Motivation for using your product
• Where they will encounter your brand online

Once you have these details worked out, you’ll be able to tailor your content to reach each customer group better. For example, the content you publish to reach a college student who uses Reddit and TikTok is going to be much different than the content you use to convert someone in their 40s who is most likely to interact with your brand on Facebook.

Keywords And Search Intent

Keywords are the words and phrases that people use to search for your products and services. Search intent is what they are trying to achieve with that particular search. Every time someone conducts an internet search they have a question that they are trying to answer or a need they are trying to meet.

Do some rudimentary keyword research to get a better understanding of the search terms people are using and how your competitors are using content that contains those words. Start with a list of relevant words and phrases. You can start with product names, locations, and other details people might include in a search. For example, if you own a custom woodworking shop in Denver your list of keywords might include:

• Custom woodworking
• Woodworking in Denver
• Denver woodworking companies
• Custom Cabinetry Denver Colorado
• Custom kitchen cabinets cost
• Handmade wood furniture near me

You can use a free or inexpensive keyword research tool to help you with this process. If you prefer, simply start searching for these terms to see what is ranking highest in Google search results. This will help you understand what kind of copy resonates most with your target audience.

Know The Customer Journey

Search intent is influenced by the customer journey. This is the process people go through as they realize they need a product or service, research products and the brands that offer them, narrow down their choices based on what they learn, and finally make a purchase. Smart business owners also understand that post-sale support and customer re-engagement are also part of this process.

The content that you serve your customers should align with their position in the customer journey. Somebody who is at the beginning of the customer journey wants to know if you offer the products they need. They also want to know if your brand is trustworthy and if it aligns with their values. Somebody closer to making a purchase is more likely to be interested in details such as pricing, functionality, and availability. When they visit the site you offer them, you want the content they see to match their search intent and position in the sales funnel.

Where Are Your Customers?

Now you know who your customers are, what they want, and when they want it. The final question to answer is where? Specifically, where on the internet will they be engaging with your content? Will they be reading your blog, looking at your product pages, or viewing your YouTube channel? All of this will depend on the customer group you are trying to reach, the question you are trying to answer, and the search intent behind it.

You may find yourself investing a lot of time and resources in creating content for some channels and very little on others. Don't give up if you don't get things correct the first time. You may have to go through some trial and error as you figure out where to reach your customers.

Set Clear Goals

Every piece of copy that you write should be done with a specific goal in mind. Here are some of the more common goals for writing copy:

• Establish thought leadership
• Increase audience reach
• Create conversions
• Introduce new products or services
• Provide customer education
• Build trust
• Differentiate from competitors
• Drive traffic
• Boost social media engagement
• Improve search engine rankings
• Appear in local search results

Choose The Right Content

Copywriting is a broad term. There are many different types of content that you can write to market your business. Choose what will work best based on your current marketing objective.

Often, you will write several different types of content to achieve a goal. Imagine that you are introducing a new product. As part of your marketing strategy, you might:

• Create a dedicated landing page describing the benefits of the product along with a CTA button
• Write an engaging Facebook post with a link to that landing page
• Create a press release announcing the new product
• Publish an informative blog post that is relevant to your Target customers
• Write advertising copy for a Google AdWords campaign
• Work with an influencer to create a script to promote your new product on Instagram
• Write marketing emails for a drip campaign

If your business is newer, your focus may be on brand awareness above all else. In that case, you might want to focus on blogging as it’s statistically the most effective tool for that purpose.

Be Simple And Conversational

Give people what they need to meet their search intent and achieve your marketing goal. Avoid writing a bunch of fluff and filler. Don’t use jargon or buzzwords. You won’t impress your customers, you’ll just drive them to your competitors.

This isn’t to say that content should never be long or detailed. Sometimes your target audience will be asking questions that require lots of information. That’s fine. Still, you should write in a way that is accessible to the average person and is condensed enough that they can learn what they need to efficiently.

If you write long-form content, make it as easy to navigate as possible. Make your most important points in bold print, add a table of contents at the beginning, and give a quick summary of what’s to come in your intro paragraph.

Customer Over Everything Else

People are much less interested in you and your company than what you can do for them. So, keep your content focused on them. Write in a conversational tone and use the second person point of view. Use the words you and our frequently. This loops the reader into the conversation and reminds them that what you are saying is relevant.

Benefits Over Features

Don’t write about your product’s features. Write about its benefits. A feature is simply a detail about that product. A benefit bridges the gap between what the customer needs and what your product can do. Here’s an example:

• Feature - Our hammer has a thick rubber-grip handle
• Benefit - Experience 50% less soreness and fatigue with our rubber-grip handle

Never assume that someone consuming your content will connect a feature to a benefit for themselves. Instead, tell them directly and remove all room for doubt.

Make it snack-sized

Whether you write a 250-word product page or a 3000-word blog post, present the information in snackable, easy-to-digest pieces. Think about your own experiences reading content online. You certainly don’t want to read a wall of text, and neither do your prospective customers.

What is snack-sized? It is:

• Short sentences and paragraphs
• Plenty of subheadings for easy skimming
• Bullet points and numbered lists
• Pictures and graphics.

Build Authority

Smart people view any claims they see on the internet with a healthy amount of skepticism. Always assume that applies to your audience too. Feel free to talk up your company and products. Brag about your accomplishments and sell your business on its merits. Just be prepared to offer proof of your claims.

The best way to do this is by using authority links in your content. Simply put, that’s providing links to well-respected sources to back any claims you make. For example, if you claim that your products are endorsed by a well-respected industry expert, link to the article where they make that statement.

Another way to build authority is to establish thought leadership by becoming a source of information, advice, and insights in your industry. Write in-depth, informative content that appeals to decision-makers in your niche. Share that content on your social media channels so it reaches a wider audience. You’ll earn engagement, and perhaps some backlinks. Seek out opportunities to write guest posts and articles for websites and publications that are relevant to people in your industry.

Final: Tell Them What to Do

Now what? If your content works, you will have provided that audience member with an answer to whatever question they were asking. That’s the perfect time to ask them to reciprocate. So, always include a call to action in your content. It could be as direct as a request to click a button and make a purchase or a simple ask to share the content with others. Whatever you choose, just be sure it aligns with your initial content marketing goal.