Copywriting is rearranging words to make things sell better. It is salesmanship in text form that persuades a person or group of people to take a particular action. It’s an act of writing the text for advertising or other forms of marketing.

The number of marketing companies in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad has grown at a staggering rate in the past few years. Services like web development services and web design services incorporate these copywriting techniques to attract visitors and convert them into leads.

Let’s look at 8 great copywriting tips to make your copy convert better.

1.Write Irresistible Headlines

David Ogilvy, a British advertising tycoon also known as the “Father of Advertising” once said, “When you have written your headline, you’ve spent 80 cents out of your dollar”. On average, 5 times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. Pay attention to headline length to prevent them from being cut off. Google displays around 50-60 characters of the headline.

Begin headlines with numbers. For example

• 1. Top 10 SEO companies in Bangalore.
• 2. 5 ways to make yourself a healthier person.

Make use of “How to” headlines.

• 1. How to make a Starbucks like espresso at home.
• 2. How to make a perfect cup of coffee even if you don’t own a coffee maker.

Ask Questions

• 1. Do you want to start an advertising agency in Bangalore? Read this guide first.
• 2. Think you know how to build a treehouse? Quiz yourself and find out!

Make use of the 5 ‘W’s. Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

• 1. These five questions will reveal why you are not gaining muscle.
• 2. How to motivate yourself when you don’t want to study for exams.

2. Use the ‘AIDA’ formula

It is virtually a foolproof formula that will help you write all of your copy faster and help you get better results. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. Top advertising agencies in India use this method to grab people’s attention and guide them through your content to a point where they take action.

Attention – If you want people to take action on what they have read, then you need to seize their attention. You can do it with the headline or video title.

Interest – Once the reader is hooked, it’s time to turn that into interest. You’ve lost them if you don’t hold their interest for the first paragraph. So you need to keep the information fresh.

Desire – Engage them, so they want what you are offering. There are 3 ways to create desire in your copy.

• 1. Show product benefits.
• 2. Tell them how your product can solve their problems.
• 3. Show the results that other people have achieved, like testimonials.

Action – Once you’ve induced enough desire to get your readers thinking about taking action, it’s time to close the deal. Let the readers know what you want them to do next. Like, buy the product, sign-up for the newsletter or share the video. A strong call to action is the difference between pages that converts.

3. Include suitable keywords

Boost the traffic of your website by using apt keywords in your content and rank higher on Google. Top results get high click-through rates. The first, second and third results get around 31%, 14% and 10% of clicks respectively.

4. Flip features into benefits

Features tell but benefits sell. Think of the features as what your product can do and benefits as what your customers can do with your product. To create a strong desire for the product, you need to sell the result instead of the product. For example, consider the iPod.

• 1. Feature – 1 GB storage for MP3s.
• 2. Benefit – 1000 songs in your product.

To convert features into benefits, apply the “So what?” test to the list of your features.

5. Paint a picture

A picture is worth a thousand words. But a few words should paint a picture. The more vivid the picture, the better. Every fairly good author paints pictures on every page. Copywriting is about painting pictures as well as following rules. For example,

• 1. “Start melting away your embarrassing belly fat”.
• 2. “The days of waking up feeling young, alive and pain-free are here”.
• 3. “Start your own web design company from home and be your boss”.

6. Minimize the risk

If you want to reduce people’s fear and hesitation, then you should minimize the risk, really make it easy for them to say yes. For example,

• 1. Enrol today and enjoy a 100% money-back guarantee for 30 days.
• 2. Start your free trial today, No credit card is required.
• 3. Sign-up in just 30 seconds.

7. Keep it simple

Be clear on what people need to do, they don’t have time to figure it out. The paragraphs should be short, roughly 3-4 sentences. Use bold, underline and italics but use them sparingly. There must be consistency between the headline/title and the content. Write for the common man and don’t use long words when short words will do instead.

8. Write like your customers talk

Take pain points and desires that your customers talk about and write that into sales pages, emails and blogs. Know what is holding them back, what they love or hate, what they want to improve and what solutions there are. Nothing more powerful than understanding a customer’s pain points and desires. People love solutions – so address their problems provide them with solutions.

To summarize, here’s a handy list of the tips:

• 1. Write amazing headlines
• 2. Use the AIDA formula
• 3. Include well-researched keywords
• 4. Flip features into benefits
• 5. Paint a picture with your words
• 6. Minimize the risk
• 7. Keep it simple and short, when possible
• 8. Write from the point-of-view of your target audience

We hope these copywriting tips helps you beat your writer’s block and ultimately create content that can quickly convert those leads to sales. Content has the power to convert your customers into advocates for your brand as well, so leverage that well.