Copywriting is a content creation activity aimed at promoting a product, service, company, person or even an idea. This activity consists of arranging and arranging statements in such a way as to convince the recipient to take certain actions.
Often copywriter is referred to in writing as a seller. This sentence is quite true, but not complete. The goal of copywriting is not always an immediate, one-time sale. Sometimes it’s about getting people to subscribe to a newsletter, open a link, read an e-book, share an article on social media, etc. For this reason, the purpose of copywriting is best understood as persuading the recipient to take certain actions.
Outside the Internet, copywriting affects the headline of a newspaper article, what you read on billboards, or the content of a restaurant sign that is designed to encourage you to visit it. TV advertising content is also carefully prepared by the copywriter.
Copywriting – what’s wrong?
First, it should be noted that copywriting has nothing to do with the term copyright. Although they sound the same, they mean completely different things. The word “copyright” refers to intellectual property rights, that is, it deals with legal, not marketing issues.
Also, it’s worth noting that not every type of content on the Internet can be defined as copywriting. It all depends on whether the content is intended to encourage the recipient to take direct action. For this reason, Facebook ad content is an example of copywriting, but a tutorial article explaining how to create and manage Facebook ads is no longer copywriting.
Any content used in marketing, but which is more informative, educational and journalistic character, is already called content writing. However, the line between content writing and copywriting is pretty smooth. Blog articles tend to be shorter and less salable, but there are varieties that, for example, detail a given service while openly encouraging its use.
The concept of content writing is increasingly used all over the world, but usually people who write any texts published on the Internet for marketing purposes are called copywriters.
How it all started
When the production and operation of the first printing presses were mastered and improved in 1605, regularly published newspapers began to appear.
Over time, newspapers began to appear in ever larger circulations, and their content also grew. As they reached a large part of the population, for whom they were mainly the main source of information, entrepreneurs found that advertising in them could be a great way to promote their interests.
However, some time passed before there were people who were professionally involved in the creation of relevant advertising. The first fully professional copywriter is John Emory Powers from the USA who lived in the years 1837-1919.
He worked for the then popular retailers Lord & Taylor and Wanamaker’s. His clients appreciated what cleverly crafted advertising offered. As a result, John Emory Powers reciprocated, during his time with Wanamaker’s, the company doubled its profits. More interestingly, in 1886 he began freelancing and writing for many clients at the same time.
Another pioneer in this industry was Claude C. Hopkins who lived from 1866 to 1932. He was the first to emphasize the importance of analyzing customer behavior and human psychology for marketing content creation. As a result, many consider him the father of modern direct marketing. Already at one time, he creatively tested the results of various forms of headings and sentences, which today, thanks to modern technology, have become the standard.
Worth mentioning is Bruce Fairchild Burton (1886-1967). Before becoming a politician, he worked as a copywriter. He became famous as the author of advertising based on the narrative, that is, presented in the form of a story. It told about two men who participated in the Civil War and met after many years. They had very similar backgrounds and early life, but one of them was doing much better financially. The ad then goes on to describe how making good decisions and seizing opportunities affects the quality of life. Finally, she called for admission to the Alexander Hamilton Institute, which provided business education. The knowledge imparted there was supposed to ensure such success in life as one of the men from the introductory story was.
This example is noteworthy because, at its core, effective copywriting to this day consists of describing a particular story that the reader can identify with.
Copywriting – what it looks like today
Over time, copywriting becomes more and more important in business. Undoubtedly, his role has changed the Internet in many ways. Currently, copywriters may have a different scope of work. Those who work for established marketing agencies are often involved in brand building and marketing communications for the entire company from the ground up. Others, on the other hand, mostly write content for websites or product descriptions for online stores. Due to the fact that the content created by many copywriters needs to be visible on the web, some SEO knowledge is also needed, such as how and where to place the right keywords.
What should effective copywriting look like today? Here are 3 basic rules:
Heading is the basis of everything
In many cases, if the title of an article, ad, product description, etc. Not interested in the target audience, they will not be able to read the rest of the content at all. For this reason, in copywriting, so much attention should be paid to how the headline sounds.
Feel the position of your target audience
One of the biggest mistakes when creating advertising is to judge everything by your own standards. This approach limits perspective. A feature that is not worth paying attention to will be extremely important for the target group of buyers.
Therefore, copywriters in the process of work must take into account the exact cost of the advertised product and look at it from the point of view of the customer. Thanks to this, they will be able to present it in the best possible way.
Put the focus on the call to action
A call to action is usually the end of a given marketing message. This can be an open incentive to add a product to a shopping cart, sign up for a mailing list, provide your contact details, and so on. The problem is that in many cases this call to action is not clearly articulated, which greatly harms the advertising message, even if its content integrity was very good. So, as the sales mantra says – Always Be Closing (always close the deal).
