One of the biggest challenges copywriters and marketers face today is readers’ attention span, which is just 8 seconds.
It means the hook and the opening lines better be good, or the success of your write-up breaks there and then.
But, if you make the reader read or skim the copy for 3 minutes at least, it’s 2x more likely that they will return to your site to get more information later.
But, to make the readers read and stay on your site longer, you must keep their attention. Here are eleven proven copywriting tips to make your readers scroll more, engage, convert, and keep coming back.
Platform | Description | Use It for/to | Visit |
---|---|---|---|
Readable | A tool that provides a readability score to identify difficult-to-read areas of content and suggestions to improve them | Improve the readability of your content | |
Copy.ai | An AI tool with 90 templates to write short-form and long-form copies, decent text editor, and train the AI template to develop unique and personalised tone. | Develop personalise tone | |
Jasper | A tool with expert-led unique templates based on frameworks that can help create several marketing copies for blogs, websites, or social media accounts in mere minutes. | Use several templates | |
Grammarly | An editorial tool that can improve the writer’s ability to produce grammatically correct writing. | Get right with your grammar | |
Frase | An AI-powered content platform that helps to research, write and optimise high-quality SEO content. | Make your content SEO optimised |
Write A Problem-Solving Copy
When people search for something, chances are, they are trying to solve a problem. So, think about the needs and problems of your audiences and communication to them that you have a solution for them. By doing this, you grab their attention and make them curious about what you have to offer.
Remember, if you succeed in showing how your products benefit the user in your copy, you are more likely to convert them into customers because honest empathy and solution are always warmer for the audience.
So, ensure your copy is clear, concise, and focused on solving your target audience’s pain points.
One of the examples of the problem-solution ad copy can be, “Say Goodbye to Chronic Back Pain with Our Revolutionary Posture Corrector”
In this example, the copy addresses a common problem – chronic back pain – and offers a solution – a posture corrector. By using a problem-solving approach, the copy immediately catches the attention of people who suffer from back pain and are looking for a solution. Additionally, using the word “revolutionary” implies that the posture corrector is unique and highly effective, making it even more appealing to potential customers.
Write What People Care About, Not Features
Honestly, people often tend to overlook or not care about a product or service’s features (unless a tech-savvy person is analysing it). Instead, their primary concern is how that product or service can address their specific needs and offer a solution to their problems.
On the contrary, Judith Charles says, “A copywriter is just a salesperson behind a typewriter”, and then it is a fact that most purchases are emotional decisions.
So, when you as a copywriter have to convert customers and bring sales but create an emotional trigger too, ensure to direct your writing towards including eliciting emotions in your content.
An emotion that clearly states how the product can transform someone’s life (something people care about) by solving a problem will definitely bring conversions to the brand.
Write In Active Voice
Active voice is a simple and effective way to make your writing clear, concise, and powerful. By using active voice, you can engage your readers, express your message more quickly and easily, and take control of your writing. It’s a stronger and more assertive way of communicating that can help you make a lasting impact on your audience. In contrast, passive voice can make you appear weak, uncertain, indirect, longer, harder to understand, and even make it awkward. So, if you want to make your writing more engaging and effective, make sure to use an active voice as much as possible.
For instance,
- Active Voice: “The cat chased the mouse.” (The subject “cat” is performing the action “chased.”)
- Passive Voice: “A cake was baked for my friend.” (The subject “cake” is not performing the action. Instead, it’s being acted upon by the subject “I.”)
- Active Voice: “I baked a cake for my friend.” (The subject “I” is performing the action “baked.”)
- Passive voice: “The cat chased the mouse.” (The subject “mouse” is not performing the action. Instead, it’s being acted upon by the subject “cat.”)
It’s common to unknowingly slip into passive voice while writing in a fluid manner. But, to overcome this copywriting challenge, you can use Readable to help you improve your copies. It will help you improve your text’s readability by identifying long, complex sentences, passive voice, and difficult vocabulary.
Don’t Always Go With Pleasant, Make It Conflicting
It’s typical for people to forget the pleasant things they read earlier in the day, but they tend to remember, search for, share, and engage with content that presents a conflict. However, you don’t have to be overly aggressive or target a competitor to create a conflict in your copy. By subtly including a conflict in your writing, you can make it more memorable for your readers.
This could be as simple as highlighting a common problem that your audience faces or presenting a different perspective on a topic. Doing so can capture your readers’ attention and encourage them to engage with your content.
Make It Memorable
When it comes to copywriting, it’s important to make your message memorable to make it stick.
You can use different frameworks and storytelling methods to organise your message and make it more memorable.
Frameworks you can use include:
- Before-After-Bridge,
- Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA)
- Problem-Agitate-Solution (PAS),
- Problem-Promise-Proof-Proposal (PPPP),
- Features-Advantages-Benefits (FAB)
- Star-Story-Solution
- Awareness-Comprehension-Conviction-Action (ACCA)
There are many more frameworks available you can use to create your copies that contribute to creating top-of-mind awareness and making the message not easily forgettable.
However, studying and then creating copies on each template can be an overwhelming task for any copywriter or marketer. So, to address that challenge, you can use AI writing tools like Jasper and their number of expert AI templates to create your copies.
Set Off Using Adverbs, Adjectives & The Powerless Words
You know the importance of using strong, impactful language that captures your reader’s attention and conveys your message effectively. But, honestly, there are some words that can actually detract from the power of your writing.
These words are weak adverbs, adjectives, and those pesky little powerless words that don’t add much meaning or depth to your writing. They’re the “good,” “nice,” and “very” of the world, the words that take up space without providing any real value to your readers.
For powerless words, take the example of ‘planning in advance’ These words seem to be harmless, but they are not.
Because planning, in itself, means planning in advance, even Google agrees to this.
These powerless words can be a real problem for your writing. Not only do they dilute your message and make it less compelling, but they also make your writing feel lazy and uninspired.
Make Your Offers Risk-Free
People always expect the company they are making a purchase from to have accountability if they are unsatisfied with the purchase.
Thus, offer a risk-free guarantee to alleviate your sceptic customers’ fears. Because they often worry about wasting their hard-earned money on low-quality products or services without the assurance of a return or money-back policy. This hesitation can even prevent them from making a purchase.
So, When your customers know that they can get their money back if they are unsatisfied, they are more likely to take a chance on your offering. This also enhances your brand’s credibility, as it demonstrates your company’s confidence in the value of your offering and willingness to back it up.
Make Your Copies Skimmable
You need to make your copies more skimmable these days. Because people today do not read word-to-word as much as they used to.
They skim.
It also makes sense to make the copy skimmable because it tells the reader what your copy is up against.
Breakup up your content into smaller, easy-to-digest chunks and use attention-grabbing subheadings, bullet points, and bold text. It will increase the chances of your readers sticking around long enough to get your message.
If you want to stand out from a lot of content out there, format your content properly and make it visually appealing.
Develop A Unique Style And Tone
Harry Styles is a talented singer and owns a unique music collection. But that is not what made Harry Styles the best-selling boy group around the world.
It was his unique style of music, fashion and his ability to connect with his audience that made him Harry Styles.
The same thing goes for copywriting. You might put up a thousand words of dry content if you do not have a tone and energy in your content.
To make your copy stand out, develop a unique style and tone that’s consistent across all your communications.
Start by understanding your brand’s personality and values, then experiment with different writing styles until you find the one that resonates with your target audience. Remember, your style and tone should reflect your brand while being engaging and persuasive. By being unique, you’ll create copy that stands out and connects with your audience, ultimately driving business results.
Finding the right tone in your writing can be tough, especially when experimenting with different styles.
One tool that can help you with this is Copy.ai. This AI tool allows you to try out various tones until you discover the perfect match for your brand. Once you’ve found it, you can train the AI to generate content that sounds like you wrote it.
Use Appropriate Tools To Perfect Your Writing
We all know advertisers and marketers have many tools, applications, and software to help them.
Well, copywriters have them too.
But, one rule always goes for them: never rely entirely on any tool and never post the first generated draft.
That not only goes for just one proofreading shot, but it requires your personal writing all the time to make it perfect and sound like your content.
As mentioned above, you can use Jasper, Copy.ai, and Readable for your content generation and improvement, you can use Frase and Grammarly to make your writing even easier.
No matter how amazing a writer you are, spelling mistakes happen, and we also slip into writing, passive voice, long sentences, and fussy paragraphs.
So, to get your grammar right and get flagged for your typos, long sentences, passive voice, tone, and more, you can use Grammarly.
To make your content have keywords and get SEO optimised, you can use Frase. Frase will help you identify the most important topics to cover, the best keywords to target, and optimise your content for search engines. It also has a built-in content editor that will help you write better content and optimise it for SEO as you go.
Bottom-Line?
Copywriting is an essential skill for anyone looking to create effective marketing materials or communicate effectively with their audience. By following these ten tips, you can improve your copywriting and create content that resonates with your readers.
Remember to focus on problem-solving, write actively, and make your offers risk-free. Additionally, it’s crucial to write what people care about and use a unique style and tone to make your copy memorable. Finally, using appropriate tools can help perfect your writing and take it to the next level. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a skilled copywriter and crafting content that engages and inspires your audience.
Ravpreet is an avid writer, prone to penning compelling content that hits the right chord. A startup enthusiast, Ravpreet has written content about startups for over three years and helped them succeed. You can also find her cooking, making singing videos, or walking on quiet streets in her free time.