=a8 jn =j wn#8 nn =ggaj#s#8 · the copywriting course for business owners 5 days to become the...

COPYWRITING

FOR BUSINESS

OWNERS

SHOALCONTENT .COM

A FIVE DAY COURSE FOR

COMPLETE BEGINNERS

www.shoalcontent.com Copywriting, editing, strategy and training. [email protected] | 01273 803 240

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The copywriting course for business owners 5 days to become the writer your business needs. If you’ve ever sat staring at a flashing cursor and a blank page, wondering how to start that blog or update your website, you’re in the right place. This 5-part course is designed for you to complete over a working week. Start on Monday, and by Friday, you’ll be ready to write words that get results for your business.

Why learn copywriting? Being able to communicate effectively in writing isn’t optional. It’s a key skill for nearly all business people. Most of your customers aren’t in front of you – they’re out there, somewhere, in the big wide world of the web. The internet offers you a huge opportunity to connect with your audience, but it’s one you can’t take advantage of if you’re not able to communicate in writing. You could pay a copywriter, but maybe you can’t afford to. Or perhaps you don’t have the time to find and brief one. Or, you just have so many great ideas for content, you want to be able to get them down on the page yourself without any faffing. This course will give you the skills to write your own copy and, if you do use a copywriter to help you, it’ll make it much easier for you to figure out if they’re hitting the mark. By the end of the course, you’ll have written and edited a new page for your website, and learned the skills you need to write all kinds of copy, from blogs to newsletters. Along the way, you’ll get learn some expert copywriting techniques, take part in 13 practical exercises and even run an imaginary cake shop. Here’s what you’ll learn on each day of the week:

Monday: Writing for people

Tuesday: Developing your style

Wednesday: Setting goals for your writing Thursday: Getting words on the page Friday: Editing, redrafting and polishing

http://www.shoalcontent.com/

mailto:[email protected]


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Monday: Writing for people Many people feel they’re not good at writing. Maybe you’re one of them. But whatever your English teacher might have said to you at school, you can be a successful copywriter. Everyone is able to write good copy, provided they’re able to understand people. Copywriting isn’t about grammar (though of course, that’s important). It’s about creating a connection between a business and its customers. Exercise 1: Think of a headline or slogan that has stuck in your mind. It could be from a major brand or a local company. Write it down. Then, write down how it makes you feel. For example: Slogan: Just Do It. Feelings: Energised, ready for action, upbeat. You’ll see from this exercise that words have the power to influence people and their feelings. As you work through this course, you’ll learn how you can use words to increase your influence.

Think before your write Last time you sat down to write something for your business, such as a blog or a piece of web content, what did you think about? You might have thought about:

Making sure you included relevant information about your business.

Grammar, spelling and punctuation.

What you wanted the reader to do. All three of these are important. Copy that doesn’t tell people what they need to know or that is full of errors doesn’t have impact. But the most important thing to focus on when you write copy is to focus what you want your reader to do. It’s easy to get excited about starting a blog or creating an email marketing campaign without ever asking the question ‘what do I want to happen as a result




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of this?’. If you can write your copy with clear goals in mind, goals that focus on the people you’re writing for, you’ve already done half the job.

Get to know your reader Who are your customers, and what do they want? What can you do to give them what they want? Perhaps you’ve heard marketing people talk about ‘personas’. These are fictional profiles of your ideal customers. You may have already spent time on creating these for your business, and if you have, great. You already know who you’re writing for. If you haven’t, let’s do it now. This exercise will help you feel as if you’re writing for individual people. Without a good understanding of the people you’re writing for, it can feel as if you’re simply throwing words out into cyberspace and hoping for the best. Because this is a short course, I’m not going to ask you to create lots of detailed personas right now. Some businesses might only need two or three, others will need 10 or 20. The smaller and more niche your business, the smaller the number of personas you’ll need. Some businesses will spend lots of time creating detailed personas. This is something you might want to do too, but for now, we’re just going to create one simple persona. You can add more detail and more personas another time. Exercise 2 Identify one of your core customers and create a short persona using this template. Name: Age: Where they live: Who they live with: What they do for a living: How much money they earn: What their level of education is: What their most important life goals are: What their biggest fears are: If you want to include more, you could also write about their background, values and hobbies. You could create some relevant quotes: things they might say that are relevant to your business.




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If you’re a visual person, it may help to find photos you could use to represent them. If you’re artistic, you could sketch them.

Conversations that solve problems You’ve just created a person who you’ll have a conversation with in your copy. Everything you write should be a conversation designed to result in an action. That action could be:

To make a sale.

To generate an enquiry.

To create interest. This is true of all your copy, not just the copy in you might think of as sales copy, such as a marketing email. If you’re writing a blog, for example, you should have a clear idea of what you want to happen as a result of that blog. It may not be that you want a sale immediately, but that you want to position your business as an authority in your field so that you win more business in the future. Exercise 3 Make a list of all the types of copy you (and your colleagues or employees if you have them) write, or want to write. The list might include:

Website copy.

Blogs.

Print articles.

Marketing emails.

Newsletters.

Press releases.

Brochures.

Leaflets.

For each type of copy you identify, write down at least one way in which it will help you connect with your customers and achieve your business goals. If you can’t think of a way in which a type of copy will connect with people or help you achieve your goals, consider whether it deserves your time. If you still feel you want to write it, think harder about why. It’s tough to write well if you don’t know why you’re writing or who you’re writing for.




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Tuesday: Developing your style When you speak, people take meaning from the way you say things just as much as they do from your words. You might sound excited, scared, happy or apprehensive. You might have an accent. You might use formal words, or informal ones. All these things are part of your communication. Imagine you run a cake shop. How would you describe the way you talk to your customers when they come to your shop? You’d probably use words like:

friendly

warm

funny

welcoming. If you were that cake shop owner, and you were writing copy for your website, you might be tempted to write in a more formal way. But if you did that, you’d be misrepresenting your values and the way you do business, and you’d be creating distance between you and your customers. Unless you have a compelling reason not to, write how you speak. Have conversations with your customers. Conversations are interesting, being spoken at from a distance is not.

Tone of voice Part of being able to write how you speak is being able to use the right tone of voice for any particular situation. If you meet up with your closest friend for a night in the pub, you’ll use a different tone of voice to the one you’d use with your child’s teacher at a parents’ evening. If you meet up with your friend and they tell you they’ve just lost their job, your tone of voice will be different to if you get there and they tell you they’ve just got a promotion. We use tone of voice to:

Put people at ease.

Establish rapport.

Establish trust. We do this naturally when we speak. We can do it when we write too, as long as we know who we’re writing for.




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It is more difficult to do this in writing because when we write, we talk to lots of people at once rather than just one. Using personas helps us connect to individuals, but the reality is that when we write, we do it for a crowd. To make it easier to hit the right tone of voice, use your knowledge of your customers to establish some general principles for your writing. Exercise 4 Make a list of words that describe the way you want your business to speak to customers. Think about:

What your customers expect from you as a business.

Why your customers want to contact you.

What your customers value about you and your products. Use the work you did on personas to help you. The words you’ve chosen describe your tone of voice. You can use them to shape the way you write. Treat these words as the start of a living document that you can use every time you need to write something. Let’s think about our imaginary cake shop again. We can be sure that nearly all cake shops will want to be seen as friendly and approachable. A cake shop that specialises in weddings will also be keen to be seen as elegant and stylish. One that specialises in cakes for children’s parties will want to be seen as fun and wacky. The words you use to describe your business tone of voice will be determined partly by the industry you’re in and partly by where you want to position yourself within that industry. Your tone of voice should help you connect with your customers and set you apart from your competitors. Exercise 5 Take a look at the copy on your website. Compare it to a couple of your competitors. Do your words make you stand out? Would your customers notice if you used the same copy as a competitor? If you sound the same as everyone else, people are likely to think that your products and service and the same as everyone else. You should use your tone of voice to help you set yourself apart from others. What’s different about your approach and your values?

Conversational language




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As well as working out what tone of voice your business should hit, there are some general principles of that you should use to make your writing feel conversational and be more effective. These are:

Use simple, easy to understand language and everyday vocabulary.

Write in short sentences and use paragraphs to break up your text.

Use ‘you’ (the second person) to talk to your customers directly, as you do in conversation.

Limit your use of adjectives and adverbs.

Using simple language To make your language easy to understand, think about the kind of words you use when you speak to friends or to your customers in person. If you were working in your cake shop, and someone came into the shop, would you say: “Can I assist you?” or would you say “Can I help you?” You’d almost certainly use help, and so, you should use help when you write. Other examples:

Instead of endeavour, use try.

Instead of ensure, use make sure.

Instead of due to, use because.

Instead of please don’t hesitate to call, use please call.

Instead of in error, use by mistake.

Using short sentences Use the rule ‘one thought per sentence’. Long sentences are confusing and don’t give your reader the chance to absorb and think. Keep your paragraphs short too, because when people are skim reading your page, they’ll miss the middle of a long block of text.

Using the second person Consider these two sentences:




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I think this cake is delicious. You’ll think this cake is delicious. Which is more likely to make you want to eat the cake? The obvious answer to the first statement is just ‘good for you’. After that you might think ‘and why should I care?’. The second statement is intriguing. It makes you think ‘why and how?’.

Using too many adjectives and adverbs Using descriptive words might seem like a great way to bring your copy to life. In reality, they often make copy harder to read and understand. They get in the way of your message by distracting your reader. Remember that the people reading your copy are busy. They want to know what you can offer them, and they want to know fast. If they have to wade through lots of unnecessary description, they’ll turn away. Whenever you want to use a descriptive word, ask yourself the question ‘do I need to use this word to get my message across?’. If the answer’s yes, use it. Otherwise, cut it.




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Wednesday: Setting goals for your writing On Monday, you made a list of different types of content that you might use in your business and identified how each of them could help you meet your business goals. When you write, you should always set goals for that piece of writing. Each time you sit down to write a new page or new blog, work out what you want to achieve by writing it. Exercise 6 Imagine that you are going to write a new page for your website, or rewrite one you already have. It can be any page you choose. Consider the question ‘when they’ve finished reading this page, what would I like the person who’s read it to think or do?’ If you ran a cake shop, your answers might be:

That next time they need a cake for a birthday or party, they’ll call you for a chat.

That they think you make tastier cakes than cake shop x.

That they’re glad they won’t have to bake cakes at home any more.

That they’d love to sign up for your mailing list and get new recipes. All of these answers describes a way in which the cake shop can make its customers’ lives better. By using the cake shop, people can:

Have tastier cakes.

Have prettier cakes.

Keep their children happy.

Impress their friends. And if they don’t use the cake shop? They might:

Have to put up with bad-tasting cakes.

Not enjoy pretty cakes.

Have grumpy children.

Not be able to impress their friends. Whoever your customers are, your role as a business owner is to make their lives better. And your role as a business copywriter is to show them how you’ll do it.

Now you know what you want to write. How are you going to write it?




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Marketers often use a tool called AIDA. AIDA stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. It describes the process people go through when they read and respond to an advertisement or marketing material. It can also be used to help us plan our writing, with each part of AIDA corresponding to part of a page.

Attention: how will you use the copy to get your reader’s attention?

Interest: how will you keep their interest?

Desire: how will you make them want to keep reading?

Action: how will you encourage them to take action, and what will that action be? Attention = your headline. This should grab your reader’s attention and make them interested enough to read on. Interest and Desire = your body copy. This is where you tell your story, show your reader why what you do will help them and lead them towards an enquiry or sale. Action = the call to action. This should tell your customers what you want them to do, and how. Exercise 7 Think again about the website page you used in Exercise 6. Using AIDA as your guide, make some notes on what you’d like to include in your re-write. In Exercises 6 and 7, you’ve created a plan you can use to write your copy.




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Thursday: Getting words on the page Now you have a plan for your copy, it’s time to write. We’ll spend today walking through the writing process, with examples and tips to help you through.

Getting attention with a headline Your headline should:

Get attention from the people you want to attract.

Make them want to read more. Your headline shouldn’t:

Tell the whole story. Because if it does, why would anyone read on?

Tell none of the story. There’s no point getting attention with a headline that doesn’t connect to the rest of your copy. If your headline is Hot Naked Girls you’ll certainly get attention, but if you’re selling cakes for children’s parties, it won’t get you the customers you need.

Be confusing. Confusing headlines turn people off, because they don’t know what it is you’re trying to tell them or what you want to talk about. Your customers aren’t looking for you to show you you’re clever. They want to know what you can do for them.

What can you promise in your headline that your customer wants? What is the benefit to the customer of using your product? Go back to the cake shop. Imagine you’ve decided you want to branch into the corporate gift market. You could write: How cake can increase your sales this Christmas Every business wants more sales, and this headline offers a way to get them. It’s intriguing, because cake isn’t usually associated with higher sales. It makes you want to read on to find out how and why this happens. Exercise 8 Write your headline.

Maintain interest with your body copy




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You’ve got attention. How do you turn that into sustained interest? Remember that lots of people won’t read much, or even any, of your body copy. They might skim over the sub-headings and read a few words, but most people won’t read everything. If you’re going to stand a chance of keeping them on board, you need to explain to them how your business can make their life better. Any product or service has both features and benefits. The features are the facts about a product, such as its size, colour or what it does. The features of a cake might be: sweet, large, shaped like a pig. The benefits of a product are the things that its features will do for a customer. Tell your customer your cake is pig-shaped, and they’ll say ‘so what?’. Tell them why being pig-shaped benefits them, and they’ll be interested. If we know the features of something, we know its benefits. Sweet = will taste good. Large = will feed lots of people, perfect for big birthday parties and people with big appetites. Pig-shaped = children will love it, it will look great in photos, and people will remember it. Exercise 9 Write down the key features of your product or service. For each feature, identify at least one benefit. Don’t write about your product without writing about its benefits. Your customer will also want to know about its features, but features alone won’t win you sales. Be careful not to get carried away when you write about benefits. If you make outlandish claims, you’ll make it difficult for people to believe you. However good your cake might be, if you say: Our cake tastes ten times better than any other cake People might have a hard time believing you. But if you say: Our cake will keep them coming back for an extra slice You’re much more likely to be believed. You’re also more likely to make people care about your cake, because you’ve given them a reason to care. If they’re throwing a party, your customers will love it if their friends want an extra slice of cake. The friends will go home happy and they’ll have the satisfaction of knowing they’ve thrown a great party. That’s a great reason to care about your cake.




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Exercise 10 Write a few lines or short paragraph of your body copy. When you’ve finished, check that:

You’ve talked about benefits as well as features.

The claims you’ve made are believable.

Your customer will care about what you’ve said.

Generate desire You should already have started the job of generating desire in Exercise 10. You can use these techniques to increase their desire and win you a sale.

Testimonials. These can be hugely powerful. They demonstrate that others have used your product and are happy with it. If you don’t have any testimonials, ask for some.

Restricting access.

By making an offer time-limited, or by only giving it to a small number of people, you create desire because people fear they’ll miss out if they don’t buy quickly.

Telling a story. Can you show your customers exactly how someone else has used your product, and how it’s benefitted them?

Exercise 11 Make a step-by-step plan for your body copy. Decide what sections and sub-heads you need, and note down exactly what will go where. Then, use your plan to write. Don’t get hung up on quality right now. Remember that this is a first draft, and no-one will see it apart from you. Tomorrow, we’ll look at editing and rewriting.

Taking action




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Your customer now knows what you’re offering them and how it will make their life better. How can they get it? Perhaps they’ll need to call you, email you, or subscribe to your email list. This is where the call to action comes in. Your call to action should be specific and clear, making it easy for your customer see what it is they need to do. Some common calls to action include:

Sign up.

Join now.

Click here. All of these are reasonable calls to action, but none of them stands out. They’re easy to miss or ignore. The best calls to action don’t just say what you should do, they say why. They’re specific, using a benefit to encourage an action. For example:

Sign up here to get a free cake, delivered to your table.

Discover the secret to perfect baking. Join cake club.

Click here for cake recipes you can make at home in less than 20 minutes. Exercise 12 Write your call to action.




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Friday: Editing, proofreading and polishing You’ve now written a first draft, but you haven’t yet got publishable copy. You should expect to have to redraft and edit more than once. Don’t think of this process as an optional extra, but as an integral part of the writing process. You’ll probably find you make significant changes draft one and draft two. After that, you might need one or two more drafts and a final proofread before you’ve got your perfect copy.

Redrafting allows you to make good errors in your copy. It also makes it much easier to meet your writing goals. If you want to write in a single draft, you need to get it right first time. If you know that you’ll redraft at least once, the pressure is taken off your first draft. This tends to make the whole process quicker, as you’ll feel able to write freely, rather than worrying about first-time perfection. Use these tips to help you through the process:

Leave a day between your last draft and a final proofread. It’s difficult to pick up errors if you’ve been staring at the same page for hours.

Get someone else to read over your copy before you publish. They’ll see things you may have become blind to.

Print your work before a final proofread. It’s easier to see mistakes when you read in

a different format to the one you wrote in.

Read it out loud. This will help you check whether your writing feels conversational and natural.

Editing checklist

Have you checked and double-checked your spelling, grammar and punctuation?

Is the copy relevant to your target market?

Does it tell your customers why they should want to buy it?

Does the headline make you want to read more?

Have you included testimonials, a case study or another way of generating desire?

Are your sentences and paragraphs short?

Is your language simple and easy to read, with limited adjectives and adverbs?

Is there a strong call to action that includes a benefit?

Exercise 13 Use the editing checklist to redraft your copy. Do as many redrafts as you need. Once you’re happy with it, you’re done!



=a8 jn =j wn#8 nn =ggaj#s#8 · the copywriting course for business owners 5 days to become the...

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