Although the internet is bombarded with photos, videos, GIFs, and animations. The fact is, copywriting is still important. As a business owner, are you still introducing your brand and products in a cliche way?
Have you grasped the essence of good copywriting and how influential it could be? With good copywriting, brands are able to elevate their image, boost sales, and build loyal customers. In this article, we’ll introduce some tips on how you could improve copy for your website and products.
1. Humanize your product description
We all want a product description that gives out detailed information of all your product advantages. However, with some products, the descriptions can get very complicated with a lot of technical terms, specific product specs, and jargon. For example, the product description for some iPhone merchants can go like this:
iPhone X
- Weight: 174g.
- Dimensions: 143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7 mm.
- OS: iOS 12.
- Screen size: 5.8-inch.
- Screen Resolution: 1125×2436.
- CPU: A11 Bionic.
- RAM: 3GB*
- Storage: 64GB / 256GB.
This information only provided the product spec instead of communicating its features or so, which doesn’t seem useful for regular users. Consider your product as a real person, and talk about its good quality to the audience just like how you would introduce a friend to strangers.
Let’s try again:
iPhone X
- With the biggest screen size among all models, enjoy quality image in HD
- Store up to 60,000 songs with 256 GB
- The A11 chip is 25% faster than the previous generation, get things done fast and efficiently.
- Get a sharper and more detailed image with dual camera. Capture better images with better focus and get wider angles.
The key is not to exaggerate the product with fluff but to convey how people could benefit it from the real-life situation.
2. Point out what pain points your product can address, bluntly.
[Pictures source: https://casper.com/]
A lot of products are made for practical reasons. For instance, sunscreen to prevent getting sunburnt, air-conditioners to cool off the heat, and more. All good products or services start with identifying a problem and point out the pain point to resonate with the customers that makes them feel something.
Take Casper for example, it offers free mattress delivery and customers can test sleep the mattress up to 100 nights, if they don’t like it, they can return it within 100 days, for free.
On a practical level, it addressed the need for a mattress; On an emotional level, it helped customers to overcome the barrier and indecisiveness when getting a big purchase on a mattress, by providing a free trial and free returns.
Benefits sell, features don’t. Casper’s copy shifts its customer to focus on having a good sleep, instead of buying the mattress, and it made buying mattress cool.
3. Ask Questions to Evoke Curiosity
Questions are widely used in headlines to grab attention. However, your headline shouldn’t ask a question that the reader can instantly answer, otherwise they won’t check out what you have to say. Think of the question as an invitation to participate in a conversation, and gives your audience the tendency to learn more about the topic.
Here are some examples of asking questions in the right way:
- How Long Should Your Business Take to Earn Revenue?
- Do you want to know the top 5 mistakes most bloggers make?
Some questions are truly open to debate, and you can often draw in readers with a blog post sharing your opinion on the topic. Rather than stating your opinion on the title, make the question the title and then provide your response in the post. A side benefit is that by asking the question upfront, you make the topic open to debate. At the end of your post, you can offer up the question to your readers and spark a lively discussion.
4. Adjust your language to a target audience
If your product is not for the mass audience and has a narrower target audience. Then refine your brand voice to reach your audience better. Brand voice refers to the personality and emotion infused into a company’s communication, it encompasses everything from the words and language you use, to the personality and images your marketing assets aim to invoke. It plays an important role in making sure your message cuts through the noise and makes a lasting impression on potential customers.
Here are some examples below:
Empower and Uplifting — Dove
Delightful and surprising — Virgin Airline
Clear and Informative — MailChimp
You might be wondering how to develop a brand voice to connect with your shoppers. Try looking into your customer data and learn more about them both demographically and psychographically. Also, Your brand voice should be consistent across all channels, this consistency helps foster familiarity.
5. However, the big principle is …..
If you just started and not sure if you’re doing it right, here’s a checklist for you to run a quick diagnosis.
- If a customer only has 2-3 seconds to read your headline or ad campaign, can he/she understand it right away?
- Can customers find out what problem your product addresses from the product description or blog posts?
- With other brands selling identical products, did your product description stands out from others? Did you offer something that others didn’t’?
- Are they wordings accurate? Trust me, double-check it.
Conclusion:
You can follow the tips above to start zeroing in on the audience you would like to serve and test their reaction with your copy, see if it brings sales, and tweak it from time to time to achieve best results.
If you have already started promoting products and making money, give this some thought: what is your most selling product? Is there another audience that might be underserved and have potential? In the end, is it worth mentioning that your brand must offer a solution to a real problem? You can’t get people’s attention and turn yourself into a successful brand without being valuable.
Marketing Associate at SHOPLINE. A digital marketing nerd and a podcast fan. You can find her out in the woods once in a while but most of the times she’s glued to her laptop screen indoors.