5 Copywriting Skills To Master For Success

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Master copywriting skills and you’re setting yourself up for success. Success in marketing and selling your products or services online to your target market.

You can learn copywriting skills by watching courses, YouTube videos, or reading books. However you prefer to learn copywriting, by writing copy you’ll master how to sell your services or your own products.

You’re probably thinking, that’s all good but I’ve got no skills at writing and failed at English in school. I hear you.

At school I was constantly told how bad I am at writing. But when I did my marketing class at College and University, I was told I had a talent for it. This has always told me, I’m hopeless at academic writing. But I’m better at writing so it speaks to people and human emotions.

Bottom line is, don’t give up on the idea of becoming a copywriter. If you’re able to speak to people in your writing, willing to learn the skills, and practice then you can write copy that sells.

By the time you’ve finished this blog, you’ll learn 5 basic copywriting skills. These basic skills will help you to understand the principles of writing great copy that converts.

5 Copywriting Skills To Master For Success

Start By Doing Your Research

Before you begin writing a word you need to do your research.

Doing your research you’ll do these two things.

  1. Understand your reader and the search intent behind the keyword
  2. Learn how you can create content and blog posts that rank higher on the search engines

Researching skills is important for copywriting because without it, you don’t know what to write. To do research effectively, you need to have tools. Researching what to write for Freelancer Lifestyle, we use 3 tools

using Google Trends in copywriting skills

Google Trends is a free tool that helps you to know what keywords people are searching for on your topic. You’re getting an insight into what’s trending, what people are caring about right now, and getting you on top of the trends.

Nobody wants to be creating content after something has been a trend. You want to add your 2 cents whilst it’s still trending.

Enter in your topic and you’ll get keywords that are being searched for.

In the example above, I entered the topic copywriting and I got the results of 2 top keywords that are trending right now. Plus I got related topics to copywriting, this is now giving me further ideas of topics that Freelancer Lifestyle could be creating content about.

Give it a try yourself. Go to Google Trends, enter in your topic, and see what keywords and related topics come up. But going back to this example, I would use the keyword ‘copywriting courses’ and type it into the next tool Answer the public.

Answer The Public

answer the public

Answer the public is a free tool that helps you to understand more about the keyword you found on Google Trends.

Entering the keyword into Answer the public, you’ll get

  • Questions
  • Prepositions
  • Comparisons

All this information helps you to understand the search intent behind the keyword. When you know the search intent, you can craft copy for your blog or landing page that converts.

If you’re going yes I get what people are wanting but I’m getting writers’ block, use the final tool Ubersuggest.

Ubersuggest

improve your copywriting skills with Ubersuggest content ideas

Ubersuggest is a free tool from Neil Patel. Although you only get 3 free searches a day, it’s well worth it.

Once you have the keyword you want to target, you can use the tool to see what content is ranking. Type in your keyword and go to the content ideas. This will allow you to see what the top content is that’s ranking, how many backlinks they have, and how many social shares they have.

After using these 3 tools, you’ve now thoroughly researched what content you should be creating.

Understand Your Audience

Understand your audience so you know what to be writing for your landing page, email, social media posts, or blog that connects with them.

Connect with your reader by speaking their language. Speak their language by using analogies or metaphors that they resonate with. Master the copywriting skills of understanding nyour audience and you’re onto a winner. When you understand your audience, you know exaclty how to position your product and make it irresistible to them.

For example, let’s say you’re writing copy about helping new mums lose weight after having a child. You need to research that audience. Research them to understand what phrases and keywords they use such as yummy mummy and flab to fab. These are very typical keywords that are used. But you need to make sure you’re using current ones.

Look at social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook groups to find more. Take the keywords you’ve found and include them inside your copy. Give that extra wow factor to your copy include metaphors for when they make sense. By adding metaphors the reader can understand what you’re talking about quickly.

Another tip to find keywords is to go on Udemy and Amazon. Take a look at the reviews good and bad. What words are they using in their review. This gives you a good idea of the language they use.

If you’re thinking, I don’t know any metaphors for my niche. Here’s 57 metaphor examples from Smart Blogger for you to use in your copy.

Level Up Your Copywriting Skills With SEO

Gert found by the right people by levelling up your copy with SEO. Learn how to write for humans as well as the search engines.

Don’t think that you need to be a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert for copywriting. But to level up your copywriting skills, you do need an understanding of SEO.

What Is SEO?

SEO is the acronym for search engine optimization. Basically though it’s the process of opptimizing your website and content for search engines. When your content and website is correctly optimized, then your product and service is found easily on search engines by your ideal customers.

When you’ve got an understanding of SEO and how it works then you can

  • Understand those Google updates
  • Avoid keyword stuffing
  • Improve user experience

How Does SEO Work For Copywriting?

Simple, you write for the reader first and not the bots. Use plenty of long-tail keywords, synonyms, and the language your reader uses. More importantly, sound human. Sound human by using those metaphors and storytelling.

Whilst doing your research earlier, you’ll have found plenty of keywords to put in your copy. To make sure that you sound like you’re not keyword stuffing, you need to write copy that naturally uses these keywords.

Another aspect of SEO for copywriters, is to make sure you give a good user experience. As a copywriter you give a great user experience by optimizing your layout. Optimize your layout by using shorter paragraphs and sub beadings. Shorter paragraphs and sub headins make your copy skimmable.

Thus allows the reader to take the information they want first and then go back to reading the full copy. Consider how you read copy yourself or ask people how they read copy. Use this information to decide how to layoout your own copy.

Tell Stories In Your Copy And Humanize Yourself

Since the beginning of time, we’ve been telling stories. Stories of what’s been happening in our lives or fictional stories to entertain each other.

By telling stories we provoke emotions:

  • Fear
  • Love
  • Sadness

Nowadays, storytelling is told everywhere we go. We hear or read stories on

  • YouTube
  • Podcasts
  • Television
  • Radio
  • Blogs
  • Emails
  • Social Media

The list goes on and on. Bottom line is, storytelling is used more and more as it’s how people connect emotionally with brands. But with so much content out there on the Internet, you need to stand out from the crowd.

In fact, there are 7.5 million blog posts published every day. To get your content read, you need to make sure that you are standing out from the crowd. Stand out from the crowd by using stories in your copy. Use stories by using an original story or use metaphors and analogies.

A great story inside your copy paints a picture of what you’re trying to tell the reader. They can visualize the story and be emotionally connected to the story. Great copywriting skills come when readers are emotionally connected with your story and can see it.

Before you put together you’re next piece of copy, think about what story you’re going to share. Also, how will it resonate with the reader?

Hook Your Reader And Reel Them In

Much like fishing, all great stories begin with a hook. This hook catches your readers attention and then you reel them in. This is true of any piece of writing, including pieces of copy.

Although you’re probably thinking about why I left this till the end, let me explain. When editing your copy, you know what you’ve written (obviously). Therefore, you can come up with better hooks that fit the writing. Not a hook without an explanation behind it.

In emails, this hook can be the subject line. In blog posts and landing pages, it can be the first line and headlines. What makes a hook is that it must be a line that stands out to the reader and compels them to keep on reading.Compelling headlines and introductions is the deciding factor for your reader. Deciding if they should click away or keep on reading.

Make sure that you’ve got a great hook by using one of these 5 things

  1. Funny opening sentence
  2. Thought-provoking question
  3. Sharing a shocking fact or statistic
  4. Witholding vital information
  5. Debunking a common thought in your niche

Next time you start a piece of copy or try to come up with a good headline, use one of these 5 ideas that’ll level up your copywriting skills.

In A Nutshell,

Use these copywriting skills when you next sit down to write your next piece of copy. Each of these skills are designed so you know exactly who you’re writing for and how to write for them so you grab their attention. When you’ve grabbed their attention and speak in their language, you’ll see more conversions.

About Post Author

Alison Wolf

Helping you to build an online business so you have an extra stream of income or quit the day job. Don't forget to follow me on social media using the handle @heyalisonwolf