12 Timeless Copywriting Skills You Need to Know
Copywriting is considered as an important and coveted skill in contemporary marketing and strategic communication.
No matter what you do professionally or where your passion lies, the global demands and trends require you to develop some ‘sharp and ready’ copywriting skills.
Now, if you’re a wellness coach handling your own marketing activities, you need to work hard on those skills.
There are so many factors to consider when it comes to copywriting.
Writing good copy with on-point key messages, a strong call-to-action, and most importantly an enjoyable story, not only helps maximise your marketing efforts, but also spreads your name as a good writer and content creator.
Who knows, you might even unlock your hidden talent for writing, and create new opportunities for your brand to appear in popular publications and reach new audiences.
To help you along, in this article we have covered everything (well, almost), you need to know about copywriting skills as a beginner.
We also added a few tips the experts swear by. So, whether you’re a wellness professional, an aspiring copywriting enthusiast or a marketer by choice, this blog is for you.
What is Copywriting?
Copywriting is the art of creating impactful, persuasive, and compelling written content for a variety of communication channels, with the added goal of generating a response from your audience.
Great copy can further work towards that much-wanted sales conversion.
The "voice" of your marketing plan should be heard in the copy you’re writing.
Sales letters,
Blog entries,
Commercials,
Social media posts
are all examples of media where copywriting skills are essential.
Copywriting is a very specific skill set but with a good amount of research and regular practice, it can be mastered.
The emphasis is on practice.
Your copy will be more powerful and effective if you consistently practise writing.
In general, copywriters are also expected to proofread and edit content in addition to writing unique and engaging copy for a variety of platforms.
If your content is poorly written and contains grammatical errors, you risk losing your audience (your existing and potential clients).
Researching the target audience and understanding their language is also an important part of copywriting. Failing to do so, the content will end up talking to no one.
So, unless you decide to hire a professional copywriter, you’ll have to do all of the above by yourself.
Why Should You Learn Copywriting?
Or even better, how could copywriting skills impact the growth of your business?
The goal of copywriting is to persuade customers to buy your company's goods or services. An effective copywriter will use the right language to persuade you to make a purchase from a business rather than telling you to do so.
A good copywriter will demonstrate to customers how your goods and services will benefit them and improve their quality of life through purposeful storytelling.
We listed a few more reasons why you should master your copywriting skills:
Boost conversion rates on important pages
Enhance article flow and structure
Increase social media post engagement
Have more people share your content
Help recognize the needs and preferences of your client
Now let’s look at a few tips on how to get you started.
Copywriting Skills - A Beginner’s Guide
1. Know Your Target Audience
The first step of learning copywriting is to have a clear idea about who your audience is.
Who is going to read this copy, who do you want to read this copy - the answers to these questions are going to shape your writing style.
Check out their demographics and psychographics. Every demographic and psychographic has its own voice.
Learn about their habits and problems, so you can solve them with your sharp and targeted content.
2. Work On Your Persuasion
The single objective behind copywriting is to convince someone to buy your product or subscribe to your services. Even if you are writing a non-sales blog post, the end goal is to make sure your reader consumes your content, so that they can move onto the next stage of the lead funnel.
For this reason alone you have to work hard on your persuasion skills.
As a wellness coach, thanks to your profession, you are already very people-oriented. However, by doing a few free courses on Coursera or LinkedIn learning, you can really learn how to flex your persuasion skills.
3. Be Simple and Concise
In the era of Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, people really don’t want to spend too much time reading long slabs of text.
You should always be simple and straightforward with your messages. Beating around the bush is only going to increase the bounce rate of your web pages.
4. Focus on Delivery
Another key aspect of copywriting skills is knowing your grammar.
Whether you’re a native or non-native English speaker, sometimes it can be tough to always have a perfect grasp on grammar and spelling.
If your audience is somewhat picky in nature, identifying a single grammatical mistake will give them the wrong impression about your brand. As a precaution, you can use Grammarly to avoid those dreaded mistakes.
5. Avoid Jargon
You know more about the industry than your customers. However, as an industry expert you should still stay away from industry jargon.
Sticking to jargon can lead to:
Confusion within your target audience, or even worse
Inferiority complex in them, thanks to your highbrow mambo jambo
Just keep it simple and honest.
6. Include a Call-to-Action or CTA
The CTA or call to action - articulates the step that you would like your audience to take after reading your copy.
You need to be very clear. The general copywriting rule of thumb is to include one CTA only. The response rate from your audience will be much higher.
7. Learn the Basics of SEO
This element is specific to website copy. It's always in your best interest to write content that is searchable.
Use keywords that will boost the ranking of your site in the search engine results.
Of course, SEO copywriting is not that simple. The secret is balancing enjoyable content with keywords. If it diminishes the quality of your work, avoid stuffing it with keywords.
8. Start With a Hook
Ever wondered what might be the reason for a high bounce rate on your webpage or why your social media posts don’t have enough engagement?
Well, many people don’t even read further than the third line of your copy, simply because they lose their interest after the second line.
To get people’s attention you should always start with a strong ‘hook’: An opening statement that is also a teaser.
A few examples can be statistical information, a question, or a quote that your audience will be able to relate to.
9. Be Platform-Specific
Each communication platform hosts different audiences.
Their preferences for copy and content are different. So always consider where your content is going to be published.
For example, when it comes to a newsletter, people want straightforward concise information with clear CTAs. However, in the case of blogs, people are okay with a bit of storytelling.
10. Highlight the Benefits
Always focus on what people are going to get from reading your content.
The good old question of: What’s in it for them?
Highlight those key bits of information at the beginning so they are more inclined to fully consume your content.
11. Give Breaks Between the Paragraphs
A rule of thumb, when it comes to the aesthetics of copywriting, is to create enough space for your readers’ eyes.
Audience psychology tends to dislike long paragraphs and stuffy content.
Break down your article or blog into short paragraphs, so there is enough space for the audience to comfortably read it.
12. Research Your Competitors
Be always on the lookout to see what your competitors are doing. Take notes on what works and what doesn’t work for them, and then work out a strategy on how to out-write them.
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Copywriting skills are not something you develop overnight. It takes months and years of practice and learning.
As a side note, a good copywriter not only writes but also reads a lot. Take your time to seek out some well-known copywriters and always check for trends.
Or maybe, after reading this article, you decided that copywriting is not for you because you are already busy with your wellness business. In that case, maybe hiring a high-quality copywriter with experience writing for a variety of industries is something that would be helpful.
If this seems like something you’d like to explore more, we’re happy to have a quick complimentary call with you and show you some copywriting examples from our work with other clients.
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