Words are incredibly powerful, especially when used correctly.
Copywriters are used by many companies to increase the value of products and services. Good persuasive writing can help ensure a product sells better. It’s a bit like cooking from a recipe. The right ingredients mixed in together make the perfect copywriting dish.
The Three-Part Recipe for Incredible Copywriting
1. One Big Idea
Whether you’re writing about a product, service, or anything else, persuasive writing starts with one big idea. You might have a product to solve a big problem. No matter the big idea, this is the first ingredient in your copywriting recipe.
2. Add in Facts, Evidence, and Proof
Once you have the product or service (your one big idea) you will need to provide support for that idea. Any type of proof or evidence that your product or service does what you claim it will do will make a big difference.
Whether this proof is provided through research or testimonials, you will need to add this in. Persuasive writing requires proof or your copywriting won’t really work the way you prefer.
People tend to make buying decisions based on emotion, but they want to use logic to justify what they buy, too. By providing proof your product or service works, you can provide the logic customers need.
3. Add a Dash of Emotions
Facts, evidence, and testimonials are great, but they can be boring, if you don’t provide good persuasive writing, too. Adding in a dash of emotions will make a big difference.
If you’re trying to convince someone that your product will help with weight loss, emotions play a factor. Any service or product you want to sell will likely sell better with a bit of emotion added into the copywriting.
Engaging, persuading, and influencing people with your copywriting requires emotions behind the writing.
These are the three ingredients you need in your copywriting recipe. If you want to make sure your copy sells well, use these persuasive writing ingredients.
10 Persuasive Writing Techniques for Better Copywriting
1. Use Storytelling
A very powerful type of persuasive writing is storytelling. People can relate to stories and love to be entertained. If you use this copywriting technique, you can make your content even more powerful.
Storytelling can be used to help sell a product or a service. It can also be used to make your blog content more persuasive. If you’re trying to build an audience online, storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to get people to come back for more.
2. Understand Your Buyer & Speak Their Language
When you know the buy, you can better speak their language. Speaking the language of a buyer is a great way to connect with them. For example, if your main buyers are 65 and older, but you try to use lingo mainly appealing to teenagers, you’re not speaking the right language.
Know the language of your target audience and use it in your copywriting. Without the right language, your writing will not be very persuasive.
3. Trigger Your Audience, in a Good Way
Triggers are a tool used to influence and motivate your prospects. There are many different emotional triggers and trigger words you can use in copywriting. With the right trigger words, you can direct your website visitors to take the right action.
4. Include Your Unique Value Proposition
As a copywriter, you must include your unique value proposition, or your copy will struggle. This is what you have to offer that your competitors cannot offer. Whether your product or service is better for some reason or unique, communicating this will make a big difference for your copywriting.
Persuasive writing requires you to make a clear statement that describes what you have to offer and how it benefits the user. This might simply be how your product solves their problem. It can also be how it’s different from the competition.
5. Keep Them on the Edge of Their Seat
When you write good copy, you want to keep prospects wanting more. If they are engaged with your content, now you need to keep them on the edge of their seat.
Have you ever watched a TV show where you just had to start the next episode? They leave you with a cliffhanger and you just have to know what happens next. This is a great example of persuasive writing.
When applied to copywriting, cliffhangers often come with phrases, such as but their’s more or and that’s not all. You are telling your audience to keep reading or they will miss out on something.
As long as your readers are curious, they will keep on reading. Of course, when that curiosity is woven into a call to action to make a purchase, that’s when your copywriting becomes top-notch.
6. Show off Your Authority
If you’re an expert/authority on a subject, use that to your advantage. Backing up your authority with credentials is, of course, necessary. For example, if you’re a fitness trainer, you better have some type of credential or some success stories to show that you know what you’re doing.
7. Create Urgency
Another very popular and effective copywriting technique is creating urgency. You can do this through scarcity of supply or through a limited-time offer. For example, maybe you’re launching a new eBook. You can offer a discounted price for the first 100 customers.
This persuasive writing technique can also be used by only offering the product for a limited time. People respond to limited-time offers and sales because of a fear of missing out.
8. Everybody Likes a Little Humor
If you prefer to make people laugh, a little humor can go a long way in copywriting. It can entertain and keep people engaged with your content.
You don’t have to tell a silly joke to write humorous content, however. There are many ways to sneak in a little humor when writing your sales copy. Depending on your brand, you might be able to use puns or funny stories.
9. Benefits over Features
While the features of your product or service are important, putting a heavier focus on the benefits will help you boost sales. Customers care about the features, but they care more about how your product or service will benefit them.
You might be wondering what the difference is between benefits and features. The features will describe what a product is, while the benefits describe what the product will give the user.
Potential customers will find the value in the benefits more than in the features. You want to tell them how the product or service will solve their issues or provide benefits to them.
10. Use Frequently Asked Questions
A very powerful way to make sure those looking for more information get what they need is frequently asked questions. These questions might also be objections coming from the buyer. Some prospects need to research quite a bit before buying. A good FAQ section can help these specific buyers.
Raise the right questions and provide solid answers for your audience. With a strong FAQ section, you can take your persuasive writing to the next level.
Frequently Asked Questions About Persuasive Writing & Copywriting
What does a copywriter do?
If you want to become a copywriter, you will spend time writing about products and services. Your job will be to use persuasive writing to help sell products and services through ad campaigns, landing pages online, and other forms of marketing.
How can I become a copywriter?
The road to becoming a copywriter starts with gaining excellent writing skills, specifically persuasive writing skills. While a college degree can help, it’s not necessary, especially if you become a freelance copywriter. You will need to create copy that sells, however.
The best copywriters understand how to use persuasive writing. They know how to sell others on a product, service, or idea.
How much can I make as a copywriter?
If you become a skilled copywriter, you can charge between $40 and $150 per hour. It’s common for copywriters to charge around $65 per hour when billing hourly. Some will bill per page or per word, as well.
Those working on the staff of a company or agency will likely start at $25 per hour. The rate goes up as you gain more experience, however.
Are copywriters and content writers the same?
No. While both provide content, copywriters use persuasive writing to help sell a product or service. Content writers, on the other hand, tend to entertain, inform, or educate.
Copywriters will handle the sales pages, ads, and other marketing materials. Content writers often create the blog posts for a website or content for a newsletter.
Whether you want to go into a career as a copywriter or you just want to write your own website content, using the right persuasive writing techniques will help. With great copywriting, you can sell a product, service, or yourself. It can be a powerful way to make money online as an affiliate or for your own business.
Of course, you can also enter a career as a copywriter. This type of career can be very high-paying, especially for freelance copywriters.
Jordan Fabel
Covering different 'paths' that people's lives can take. Creative, foster parent, ticket dismissal, you get the idea. Exploring the requirements, certifications, exams, and obviously, approved courses along each path.