Excellent writing skills
No matter who you write for – whether you work through a copywriting agency, in-house, or independently – one of the key skills you must have as a copywriter is to write to an excellent standard. That doesn’t just include knowing your UK spelling from your US or being gramatically correct; it also means being able to steer clear of cliches and use the best words in the right order for the subject you’re writing on and the audience you’re addressing.
Remember, you are being employed specifically for your capabilities of combining words together in the most fluent, nuanced, articulate and inspiring way. If you aren’t able to do this, it will simply lead to disappointed customers, a lot of wasted time spent on edits and re-writes, and a less than profitable use of your free hours. It’ll also make it probably feel like an arduous and unpleasant task to fulfil.
Excellent writing doesn’t always mean long words and complicated sentences. As Copyblogger notes, “Good salesman are not verbose. They do not use fancy words. They speak like an aged rural sheriff. Calm, confident, and kind. They are patient, good listeners, and fantastic storytellers. Each word is pronounced properly. Each story is trimmed of excess. It’s a spell-binding time spent with a good salesman. In fact, you don’t even know you are being sold… be clear, concise, and compelling.”
Skill #2: Ability to Write Clearly and Concisely Without Losing Meaning
When writing the first draft, get all your ideas out. Write down everything you wish to include in the copy — no holds barred. Once that’s done, go through each line and ask yourself — is this relevant and necessary? Is this providing value to the reader? More often than not, your answer would be “no”. You’ll likely find that you can trim about half of the content without losing anything of value. Go all out with the trimming and K.I.S.S. it — keep it short and concise. Get rid of all the fluff. The tweet below, by Buffer’s VP of Marketing, is an excellent example of the four C’s in action. Seriously, nobody has the time to read a long copy — it is tedious, and your audience will soon lose interest. Moreover, use simple words, short sentences, and shorter paragraphs to get to the point. Never use jargon, slang, and fancy words that attract attention but diverts the readers from what action you want them to take. This should be applicable no matter where you are in the sales funnel. In other words, when writing anything, simplicity and brevity are key. That said, brevity doesn’t mean you leave out relevant information. Keep your copy as short as possible, but also as long as necessary.
At the heart of every marketing campaign is — you guessed it — your customers (potential and existing). The job of a content strategist includes coming up with buyer personas, understanding the pain points of the target audience, and planning what content to put out and when. As a marketer who writes words meant to convince people to do something, you must be able to conduct and interpret customer research yourself.
Customer research lays the foundation for writing compelling copy. Your words will only hit home if you know exactly what makes your customers tick. Thus, if you haven’t already, develop the skills to conduct face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions, or qualitative surveys to understand your target audience. Likewise, the ability to correctly interpret existing customer research and incorporate all the relevant bits into your content or copy will serve you well.
Source:
https://blog.copify.com/post/what-are-the-main-skills-you-need-to-be-good-at-copywriting
https://coschedule.com/blog/copywriting-skills
14 Copywriting Skills Every Marketer Needs to Have
Tip 21: Prepare to edit your content multiple times
The number is so specific that it jumps out. And it also implies that this is a plan that really works. People hate vagueness, which probably explains our opinions about politicians [and, in particular, their election manifestos].
Take dieting as an example. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that the best way to lose weight is to eat more vegetables and exercise more. But this is obvious so really, everyone’s saying the same thing in slightly different ways.
The main problem with eating more healthily is that people can only hold out for so long. In other words, at the start of any diet, we’re usually quite enthusiastic. We cut out all their sugary foods, but this lifestyle change only lasts a week or a month.
And if that was true, you could reframe a diet and speak about it in a different way by using the power of opposites. Imagine if you saw an advert for a diet plan that had the tagline:
By combining the topic of dieting with something fairly unrelated [chocolate], you can capture attention quickly. Once you’ve done that, you can talk about how humans will be more likely to stick to a diet if they’re allowed some days off.
Skill #2: Ability to Write Clearly and Concisely Without Losing Meaning
When writing the first draft, get all your ideas out. Write down everything you wish to include in the copy — no holds barred. Once that’s done, go through each line and ask yourself — is this relevant and necessary? Is this providing value to the reader? More often than not, your answer would be “no”. You’ll likely find that you can trim about half of the content without losing anything of value. Go all out with the trimming and K.I.S.S. it — keep it short and concise. Get rid of all the fluff. The tweet below, by Buffer’s VP of Marketing, is an excellent example of the four C’s in action. Seriously, nobody has the time to read a long copy — it is tedious, and your audience will soon lose interest. Moreover, use simple words, short sentences, and shorter paragraphs to get to the point. Never use jargon, slang, and fancy words that attract attention but diverts the readers from what action you want them to take. This should be applicable no matter where you are in the sales funnel. In other words, when writing anything, simplicity and brevity are key. That said, brevity doesn’t mean you leave out relevant information. Keep your copy as short as possible, but also as long as necessary.
At the heart of every marketing campaign is — you guessed it — your customers (potential and existing). The job of a content strategist includes coming up with buyer personas, understanding the pain points of the target audience, and planning what content to put out and when. As a marketer who writes words meant to convince people to do something, you must be able to conduct and interpret customer research yourself.
Customer research lays the foundation for writing compelling copy. Your words will only hit home if you know exactly what makes your customers tick. Thus, if you haven’t already, develop the skills to conduct face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions, or qualitative surveys to understand your target audience. Likewise, the ability to correctly interpret existing customer research and incorporate all the relevant bits into your content or copy will serve you well.
10 practical tips to consider when learning to write copy
1. Research the competition
2. Make room for voice
3. Think about your target audience
4. Storytelling wins
5. Use emotions, but don’t manipulate your audience
Fear tactics or positioning your product as “the best” is weak copywriting. Instead, show your audience the benefits they’re missing out on and highlight which demographic your product best serves.
6. Choose words carefully
Being a great copywriter requires that you show more and tell less. Use visuals, choose language that evokes imagery, and edit ruthlessly to remove unnecessary adjectives and adverbs until you only have words you can’t do without.
7. Experiment with copywriting formulas
8. Use copywriting templates
Instead of starting with a blank page every time, try using templates. Jasper, an AI copywriting assistant has over 52 writing templates, several of which work well for copywriting. Some of our favorite Jasper copywriting templates are:
9. Address the elephant
If your customer has a brand quirk that might put off potential buyers, address it in your copy. Are they more expensive than competitors? Mention it and show why they charge as much.
10. Keep a swipe file
Copywriting requires merciless editing, so save your darlings in a swipe file for days when you’re low on inspiration. Well-written phrases, hard-to-find statistics, and witty CTAs you loved can all go in your swipe file.
Resource:
https://www.splashcopywriters.com/blog/copywriting-tips/
https://coschedule.com/blog/copywriting-skills
https://www.jasper.ai/blog/learn-copywriting