21 Instant Copywriting Tips You Can Use Now
Suck at Copywriting?
Too lazy to go through a 148-hour copywriting course?
We got your sweaty back.
21 impactful copywriting tips that you can instantly use on your copy.
I’ll repeat that: INSTANT COPYWRITING TIPS.
Just like your instant cup noodles. Pour hot water and wait for 3 minutes.
In this case, spend those 3 minutes reading this post and pour these tips on your copy for magic.
Ready?
1. Write like your pen is running out of ink
The lesser you write, the more you convey.
The trick here is to first draft out your copy as per normal, then delete some words, then delete again, and again, and again… until you get your perfect copy.
2. 4,187 customers are attracted by specific numbers
Did the above subheading attract you more than it should?
As compared to “4,000+ customers” or “Thousands of customers”, specific numbers are weirdly attention grabbing.
Enhance the effect by using odd numbers.
3. You lose when you use big words
Copywriting is not your English composition or essay. ‘Flowery’ and ‘Powderful’ language brings you nowhere.
Big words make you feel clever, but the reader will feel stupid if he/she don’t understand it.
4. Use unusual words or phrasing instead
I don’t mean big words. Just simple, unusual words that are not commonly used to describe the thing that you are trying to describe.
"We are passionate about service"
vs.
"We are fiercely passionate about service"
"Golden Village Gold Class Review"
vs.
"Is Golden Village Gold Class a scam?"
5. Features are boring. Focus on benefits
You love the features that your product or service has but sorry to hurt your feelings, your customers don’t really care about it.
Neither do they care about the features of your competitors’ products or any products for that matter.
They care about the benefits that they get and Apple does it brilliantly with their iPod’s copy.
To put things into perspective, 5GB of storage is a lot in 2001 and can easily be the selling point. But instead, Apple focuses on the benefits.
This is updated in 2020, when instead of focusing on the capability of streaming songs on the Apple Watch, it went back to its magical marketing copy of having “60 million songs on your wrist”.
6. Personality is king
Sprinkle a bit of personality to your copy, as long as the personality suits your branding.
If you are targeting Singapore customers, throw in some Singlish lah.
If you are a one-man show working from your bedroom, you can be honest about it.
7. Fire your English teacher
Do not feel that you must stick to proper words, grammar, syntax and mechanics.
At appropriate times, it is okay to break these rules so your target audience can easily understand it or formed a sense of rapport with you.
Just like the previous tip about using Singlish when appropriate, creatively breaking the rule can reap happy rewards.
Here’s a brilliant advertising campaign from SwissLife about the unpredictable nature of life.
8. A for Analogy
Analogies work because it can create pictures in the readers' mind that makes an abstract concept easily understandable.
When used appropriately, a simple analogy can convince customers to convert.
Moreover, analogies are great at making boring topics, fun. They are like your Sambal for a plate of Nasi Lemak
9. Everyone is no one
You are selling to no one if you are selling to everyone.
This is marketing 101 but you will be surprised how frequently copywriters make this mistake just so that they don’t alienate customers outside of their core target markets.
10. Nice guy finishes last
Don’t try to be too nice or professional about your copy. Add some spices to it so it pops out from competitors.
This is especially true for smaller companies. They want to appear too professional that they blend in with the crowd, never to be seen again.
Tabloids are best at producing ‘bad guy’ titles that you can’t help but smile.
Even if they seem thrashy, you can take reference from some great tabloid headlines to help you in crafting future headlines.
The sex-for-grades scandal in 2012 is being headlined in a Chinese tabloid as “even after having sex, it’s just a B”.
11. Scannable & Readable makes you likeable
Only 28% of your written text are read and that’s because scanning text is an extremely common phenomenon among web users.
Make sure you have clear flow and subheadings for your copy, or users will press the ‘back’ button on you in less than 3 seconds.
Here’s a short guide to increase readability.
12. Love at first sight
Snatch the reader’s attention on first sight.
Whether this is the title of the post or the first line of your content, your first line has to hook them in real quick.
In the brilliant Flex Tape advertorial, the first scene where the guy slaps a piece of tape on a gaping hole catches the audiences’ attention so well that the advertorial help launched the brand into a US$21 million annual revenue cash machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xzN6FM5x_E&ab_channel=FlexSeal
13. Make sure your CTA is not MIA
Newcomers sometimes get so satisfied with their copy they forgot to include the most important thing to any sales copy: CTA.
Also, spend some time optimising your CTA text. Some creative CTA text can hugely increase conversion.
(For those who don’t know, CTA is call-to-action and MIA is missing-in-action.)
14. Imperfection can be perfection
It is not always necessary to just talk about the positives of your offerings. Answering the potential rejection points right can be equally powerful.
Rather than beating around the bush and making it subtle, inkmypapers dedicated a page to answer a very popular rejection point straight up.
15. Do you really know who is your target audience?
Here’s something that is not writing related but perhaps the most important tip of them all.
If you did not go through any customer persona exercise before you start writing, you are seriously doing it wrong.
Go back to the drawing board, know who your customers are, then get back to writing.
Source: Aweber.com
16. Clarity
While incorporating personality, analogy and even unusual words to your copy, sometimes it can get confusing for the customer.
Make sure when using these techniques, your message is still crystal clear and easy to understand.
Get a few friends to read your copy and ask if they understand the message.
Dollar Shave Club’s key copy is so crystal clear that you are hooked within seconds. “For a dollar a month, we send high quality razor right to your door”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI&t=9s&ab_channel=DollarShaveClub
They know their value proposition is unbeatable and that their target audience are men who are more attracted to rational offers than emotional offers.
17. A picture speaks a thousand words, and more images speak more words.
Images naturally draw more attention than words.
So include images whenever necessary, especially for long copy where images can help retain the reader’s attention.
Did you read the words or see the guy’s face first?
18. Everyone remembers a story
Stories stick and make your brand outstanding.
You couldn’t list the characters’ name but you sure know what happened
When the copy presents an opportunity for a story, always tell a memorable one.
Kill Kapture makes sure that customers know their clothings are authentically made by a through and through military guy.
19. Less is really more
We know your awesome product has 1723 benefits and you are eager to tell your customer all of these benefits.
However, stuffing too much information and benefits can and usually will backfire.
Rather than giving more reasons for them to buy your product, you are actually just diluting the impact that your core benefits have on the customer.
So just focus on 1 or a few core benefits, and keep your copy minimal.
20. To hell with perfection
Copywriting is a form of art, but it is also heavily linked to results.
While you definitely need to spend significant effort to craft a good copy, do not let the perfectionist in you cause significant delays to your copy.
A better way will be to craft a good copy, then keep testing with new variations.
21. Last but not lease... proofread
Otherwise you will make the same mistake as I did in the subheading.
Conclusion
If you made it all the way here, it means that the content draws you in enough for you to be hooked for at least 3 minutes.
Copywriting is definitely not easy and many times, very time consuming.
I hope this post serves as great reference for your copy and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!