The Copywriter's Guide to the Galaxy

take your copywriting Skills to interstellar levels

Dig in

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is more than just writing.

It’s a type of writing where knowing your audience matters more than knowing your grammar. .

Your first job as a copywriter is to grab your reader’s attention. The second is to get something from your reader: their email address, their vote, their money … 

Copywriting is everywhere. Ads in a magazine, promoted social media posts, sales emails, product descriptions; everything is copy. This very page has elements of copywriting: I want you to read this, like this, and buy my products or services.

How to write copy?

Copywriting never starts with writing. Finding the correct words and convincing your readers is key, but it won’t work without a bunch of underlying skills:

  • Understanding your audience
  • Addressing pain points
  • Knowing the benefits
  • Touching emotions
  • Triggering action
On this page, we’ll dig into all of those skills—and some more.
But none of this matters much if you don’t know why you’re writing in the first place… 

Before anything else: determine your goals

Before you even start thinking about the words you’ll use, the landing page you’ll design or the storyboard you’ll create, you should be clear on your goals.

What do you want the reader to do?

  • Subscribe?
  • Buy?
  • Share?

Who do you want to reach?

  • How old?
  • Wherefrom?
  • Interests?
  • Budget?

How to do audience research?

When you know who you want to reach, it’s time to get to know those people a bit better. One of the biggest mistakes copywriters, founders, and marketers make is thinking they know their audience.

Let me tell you a secret:

They don’t.

That’s why audience research is a crucial aspect of copywriting.

First, it will show you where customers struggle, what their problems are and what they don’t like about a product. And hence, you’ll learn which pain points to address to make your audience desire your offer.

This is the minimum information you’ll need in most cases: (It’s better to gather much more information than you’ll eventually need.)

  • Pain points, needs and struggles.
  • Stories, goals and motivations.
  • Beliefs, limitations and objections.
  • Prior knowledge of your brand and products.

Research not only teaches you what your audience struggles with but also how they talk. Use their exact language and examples in your copy to create a connection.

During this stage, something tragic may happen too. As a copywriter working for a client, you will sometimes discover there is no product/market fit. Even the best copy won’t generate sales. Don’t even try. Talk to your client, change your approach or leave.

Advanced Reading:
How to Do Target Audience Research in 3 Simple Steps

Where to do audience research?

Do research where your audience hangs out.

  1. Reddit and Quora are great places to start because they have spaces for each imaginable topic.
  2. More traditional social media also works, but they may be more content-specific.
  3. Go where people buy. Read reviews on Amazon, the App Store, Google Play Store…

And the best and easiest way?

Ask your existing customers.

You’ll find the most detailed description of audience research for choosing a product in Arvid Kahl’s The Embedded Entrepreneur. You can easily apply this practical advice to audience research for copywriting too.

Some of the most important questions to ask your customer are:

  • What problem did our product/service solve for you?
  • How much time did you save by using this?
  • Why did you decide to use our product and not company X’s?

And don’t forget that you’re almost always doing audience research. Whenever you read comments on social media, go to competitor’s websites or receive an email, write down your insights. You’ll save yourself a lot of time later on.

There’s more. You need to immerse yourself in the world of the average person or your specific audience. Read what they read, watch what they watch, talk to them, study the copy that works on them. Be them.

What about persona's and avatars?

While you’re doing your research, start creating a persona. That’s an ideal picture of your buyer. Create a complete profile. What are their interests, fears, friends, hopes? What do they look like?

Additionally, write their story. This humanises them and makes it much easier to optimise your copy.

The better you do this, the better your sales will be in the long term.

When you direct your copy to the correct person, and not just anyone, you’ll have more “correct” buyers. This way, you avoid disappointing people by not delivering what they wanted. As a result, your copy will lead to good testimonials and avoid bad ones.

Are you writing for the user or the buyer?

The buyer isn’t always the user.

Think about candy. Most consumers are kids but the buyers are parents. Who are you going to address?

Same with SaaS products:

Are you going to address the user?
» Save time

Or their boss?

» Make more profit

Understand levels of awareness

Before you address your reader, you should figure out their level of awareness. Do they know about your product? Or have they never even heard of your brand? There are five levels.

  1. Most aware
  2. Product aware
  3. Solution aware
  4. Problem aware
  5. Least aware

Here’s how you adapt your copy to each level:

  1. Most aware: They know your product and they need little convincing because they are true fans. Maybe they won’t buy everything but a good deal could convince them otherwise.
  2. Product aware: They know about your product but aren’t sure if you are the best deal. Focus on your benefits and how you’ll improve their lives. Promise and overdeliver.
  3. Solution aware: They know theirs a solution for their problem, but they don’t know you have it. Show you understand the problem and explain your solution.
  4. Problem aware: They know they have a problem, but don’t know where to find the solution. Focus on the problem and your understand of it. Sympathise.
  5. Unaware: they have no idea about their problem. You might try to convince them they have a problem but it’s probably a waste of time.

The more aware your reader is of your product, the more direct your copy can be. Don’t waste too much time on fairytales. Bu

Branding as part of copywriting

Copywriting is a lot more than slapping a few words on a piece of paper. You need to do your research, you need to understand your brand, you need to create emotions.

As we just discussed, you need to understand what your audience looks like, but it’s just as important to understand what your brand stands for.

When you write copy, you need to understand this:

  • What does the brand value?
  • What does it believe in?
  • What makes it different? (See USP)

But branding is more than a company’s position in the market. Great brands have a purpose. This purpose connects them with their audience. So as a copywriter, you need to make sure this purpose is clearly communicated.

What is your unique selling propisition?

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is what makes your brand different. What makes it stand out from the rest? Why should they buy from you and not your competitor?

In short, why you?

You can find it with this formula: “Unlike most of our competitors, we …”

Understand the first goal of your copy

The final goal of your copy is to inspire action; buy, subscribe, call …

But what is the first goal?

The first goal is to grab attention and make people read. They need to read the headline, then the intro, then the body and make it to the call to action (to which I’ll dedicate a full chapter below). The goal of your first sentence is to make people read the second one and so on.

So how do you get people to start reading? And how do you get them to read on?

How to write compelling headlines?

Unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money. – David Ogilvy

I can’t stress this enough, (because I still don’t fully believe it myself), your headline is the most important part of your copy.

If your headline sucks, the rest doesn’t matter. Simple as that.

That’s why you need to spend more time on your headline. Let’s discuss some tips and formulas.

Instead of stating what you do or what you will talk about, give a promise. Tell the reader about the benefits and outcomes. Of reading the rest. Of buying your product. Of acquiring your services … What’s in it for them? What is the reward if they keep reading?

What will they gain and how will it improve their lives? Or what will they avoid that could harm them?

Headlines also need to be specific. “Earn more as a copywriter”. It works, but probably not that well. How much more? Double? Triple?

Numbers help to make your headline more specific. And you probably want to use odd numbers. They make your headline more believable.

Evoke emotions in your headline to

You want to write at least 20 headlines. The firsts ones will be bad. I promise. But to find good ones, you need to get rid of the bad ones.

Pro tip: Don’t limit your headline creativity to blog posts. Try something else instead of “about us”, “FAQ” and so on too.

Some tricks and formulas for better headlines

  1. Use big numbers
  2. Show the dollar Signs
  3. Boost authority with credible Names
  4. Write about something recent. “This Just Happened”
  5. Address one specific industry. Call them out.
  1. “The Success Story”
  2. Combining things that shouldn’t go together.
  3. Question/Answer
  4. Numbererd list
  5. How to…
  6. Feature + benefit
  7. Verb + action + outcome
  8. Outcome + “with” + process
  9. Become + result + time frame
  10. Be desired position without pain-point
  11. Anaphora (start with the same word or phrase)

When possible, start with a verb. It’s a more direct approach and users have a clearer idea of what to expect.

And a final trick: “Wrapping your title in quotation marks makes it seem more important.” It can increase the number of readers by up to 25%

Writing an enticing lead

Successful headline? Check.

Now, how do you move on? The next few lines are just as important. The reader isn’t convinced yet but at least you’ve got their attention. Use the lead to hold on to that attention. Make them want to read the body too.

Make is short and quick. Proceed with the idea that you gave in the headline. Give a first reward.

Here are a few ways to make your lead interesting:

  • A thought-provoking quote
  • An unconventional opinion
  • An open-ended question
  • A half-told story
  • An impressive stat
  • A surprising finding
  • A statement with high authority

Write a breadcrumb body

In your body, you hand out breadcrumbs, little drops of information. Every breadcrumb should make your reader want more. In between breadcrumbs, you use other strategies to make your reader curious. Make sure they want to read on.

There are a few ways to do this.

  1. Ask questions.
  2. Use bucket brigades: words or short phrases that bridge the gap between two paragraphs.
  3. Leave open loops: “more about this later”.
  4. Tell stories.

Make your body easy on the eye and easy to skim. Use subheadings, whitespace and takeaway lines.

No fluff.

Many examples

Some copywriting rules to increase sales

  • Sell emotional benefits, not features. Few people care about features. Instead, they want to know how it will make their lives easier, happier, healthier, more glamorous etc. They want to know which problem it is going to solve. They want to know how it will save them time or make them richer.
  • Take it one step further. Sell the outcome. What will happen if they buy your product?
  • Address their pain. People don’t just buy something unless they believe it’s going to solve a problem. If you want to do this well, you need to find the root of the problem. Figure out what made your target audience start looking for a solution.
  • Focus on cures, not ways to prevent.
  • Don’t say there is proof, prove it.
  • Write from a place of abundance. If you sell an info product, don’t just warm people up about the huge benefits they will get from buying your course. Give away information for free. Stuff your copy with value, and only keep the best information behind your paywall. Besides, people buy for convenience more than value. Everything on the internet is free if you’re patient enough to find it.
  • Anticipate objections. Whatever you say or promise, people will have doubts. It’s your job as a copywriter to find out what they are and answer them before they start losing confidence.
  • Write copy your audience is more likely to agree with. People love to hear they are right. Use it to your advantage.
  • Show credibility, authority and trust before you try to influence or convince your reader.
  • Use the science bias to your advantage. Refer to charts, stats, experts and more to give your copy a more scientific feel. Because if science says it, it must be true.
  • Don’t oversell. No one likes to be sold to. Instead, focus on making your product so desirable that readers want to search your buy button.
  • Aim your copy towards the heavy users. About 20% of customers are accountable for more than half of your sales. Target them.
  • Don’t be afraid to repeat the same message. Many people won’t see your copy the first time, not the second. You may need to repeat it many times before people stop and read it. And don’t worry about them seeing it more than once either. More exposure leads to more familiarity. But if you’re worried people will get bored, play around with some variations of your copy. 

More copywriting tricks to boost sales

The above rules are quite universal. You’ll see them in all quality copy. At least, you should. Next to that, copywriters have a whole list of tricks up their sleeve:

Create urgency in your copy

If you’ve never seen this, you’ve lived your entire life on Mars: “Offer expires tomorrow”. It’s probably the most used trick in the book. Because it works.

Ever heard of FOMO?

Fear of missing out. People hate missing out on a big deal. Or a new trend. If everyone else is in, why aren’t you? If you can create this fear in your copy, your results will drastically improve.

But be careful.

Stand by your word. Don’t be one of those companies that says “Last Chance”, but keeps sending the same sales email for weeks on end.

Leverage risk reversal

The lower you make the risk of making a purchase, the more you’ll sell.

Some great examples:

  • 100% money-back guarantee
  • Unsubscribe anytime
  • Free trial
  • No credit card needed
  • Easy setup

Don’t worry too much about people abusing a money-back guarantee. There aren’t as many leeches as you’d think. If they wanted your product for free, they would have already found an illegal download or anything elsewhere, don’t you think?

Tips for pricing and discounts

The first rule is to make prices look smaller. It can be as simple as saying “a small fee” instead of “a fee”. Or maybe you’ve seen something like this: “Cheaper than a Starbucks coffee” or “For less than $1 per day”.

Here are some advanced tactics to make your prices stand out:

When you offer a discount, always pick the bigger number. Giving $3 off on a $10 product? Make it 30% off. Similarly, Giving 20% off on a $150 product? Make it $30 off. Be sure to draw a fat red line through the original price too.

You can also make your product look cheaper by contrasting it to a much more expensive product. Present the expensive option first and then the cheaper product, the one you actually want to sell.

Want another trick?

You’ve seen this one. Nearly all products come in three price ranges equivalent to small, medium or large. Ever noticed how the medium package never sits in the middle between small and large. An example: (Small $5, Medium $8, Large: $9).

Why do cinema’s and fast-food restaurants do this? Simple. It makes the large one look cheaper.

Offering early access

People love to check things out before others. It feels exclusive.

So consider behind the scenes, waiting lists or early access for a select group. Moreover, there’s not better way to make someone feel praised, than calling out to them individually for early access because you want their opinion.

beta-readers for books

Copywriting formulas you must know

AIDA

AIDA stands for:

  1. Get their attention.
  2.  Spark their interest.
  3.  Create a strong desire.
  4.  Convince them to take action.

There are two approaches:

  • Get from attention to action (which is difficult).
  • Figure out at which stage your customer is and tailor your content for that stage. (Which is easier but doesn’t always lead to a clear action). If your customer is aware of the product and realises it can satisfy his desire, start with your product and the action. If they are not aware of your product, but only of the desire itself, start with the desire. If they are not yet aware of what they seek but are concerned with a general problem, start with that problem, get their attention, and turn it into a need.

PASO

PASO is a four-step process you can use in all sorts of copy.

Start with a problem. Agitate it, offer the solution and show the beneficial outcome

The 4P framework

Start by painting a picture. Use visual language and storytelling to connect.

Then promise a change. Tell what you will deliver and do for them.

Prove it. Show results.

And push. Close the deal with a sweet call to action.

FAB

FAB stands for feature, advantage, benefit. Not the best formula for your headline because you want to address desires or problems first, but this works perfectly fine for the body. Just stating a feature is boring, but explaining why it’s advantageous and what you’ll achieve thanks to it makes the cashier ring.

BAB

BAB stands for before, after, bridge. It’s a beautiful storytelling tool to make your reader desire your product. Start with a problem or situation they are facing now. Then portray the desired outcome or change. Close with the bridge—the solution— that will take them from point A to point B. 

Using emotions in your copy

“People buy because of an emotion and justify with logic”.

Copy that gets the reader emotionally involved, boosts advertising efficiency. Rational copy makes the potential buyer think more about the purchase and thus has an opposite effect.

When you touch on one of the eight desires of humans, sales copy will work better.

  1. Survival, enjoying life, life extension.
  2. Enjoying food and beverages.
  3. Freedom from fear, pain and danger.
  4. Sexual companionship.
  5. Comfortable living conditions.
  6. To be superior, winning.
  7. Care and protection of loved ones.
  8. Social approval.

Number three is one of the strongest. The urge to avoid loss is stronger than the urge to gain something.

The good thing for you as a copywriter is that you can leverage this. Show them how to fulfil these desires or even how someone else did it.

Create “mental movies” for your readers.

It’s one thing to read about a product, it’s another to actually imagine how you’re going to use it or how it will change your life.

Help your readers do this by painting vivid pictures. Sketch situations they are familiar with. Make it relatable. make them feel it.

In general, there are four forces that make people decide whether to stick with the status quo or make a change:

  • PUSH: People want to find a new solution due to current problems.
  • PULL: People are attracted by what could be achieved with this new product
  • ANXIETY: People are insecure about the risks of moving to a new product
  • INERTIA: People don’t like change.

Another way to touch those emotions is to use power words.

And remember: “words tell, emotions sell”

 

17 factors that motivate people. Here are they (in rank order of power):

  1. Survival
  2. Sustenance (food and water)
  3. Freedom from pain and fear
  4. Companionship
  5. Comfortable living
  6. Achievement and winning
  7. Caring for loved ones
  8. Social acceptance
  9. To be informed
  10. Curiosity
  11. Cleanliness of body and surroundings
  12. Efficiency
  13. Convenience
  14. Dependability/quality
  15. Expression of beauty and style
  16. Economy/profit
  17. Bargains

The one you can't miss: social proof

Social proof is the best way to show your product’s value. Ten people praising your product is worth way more than your own copy hailing it. And social proof doesn’t even have to be that hard.

You can use testimonials, display the number of users/subscribers, show reviews or add company logos.

For new SaaS products, I’m seeing people display the profile pictures of famous users (within a niche) too.

Ever heard of the bandwagon effect?

When people see others are adopting something new, they don’t want to stay behind. They want to jump on too. They want to be like the people/idols they identify with.

Using testimonials

Testimonials are so important they deserve a separate section.

They are often fake, and it shows. I don’t mean to say, you can’t write your own testimonials, I mean you should do a better job.

  • Use photos or videos (you can still write the script).
  • Use the following outline:
    • What’s the problem before buying the product?
    • How did the product solve the problem?
    • What would they tell others about it?

Good ways to make your testimonials more credible are:

  • Adding the full address.
  • Adding a photo.
  • Localising the testimonials.

Of course, not all testimonials were created equally. Bold or highlight the most important parts.

Other types of proof for your copy

Back it up with facts. Even though most buying decisions are emotional, people don’t like to admit that. They want to think of themselves as rational people. Help them to find rational reasons to buy your product. Give them facts and evidence.

You can back up your claims in many ways. But it all comes down to reputation. What reputation do your users have? And the material you used? And your company? And what do the experts say?

“People buy because of an emotion and justify with logic”.

Copy that gets the reader emotionally involved, boosts advertising efficiency. Rational copy makes the potential buyer think more about the purchase and thus has an opposite effect.

When you touch on one of the eight desires of humans, sales copy will work better.

  1. Survival, enjoying life, life extension.
  2. Enjoying food and beverages.
  3. Freedom from fear, pain and danger.
  4. Sexual companionship.
  5. Comfortable living conditions.
  6. To be superior, winning.
  7. Care and protection of loved ones.
  8. Social approval.

Number three is one of the strongest. The urge to avoid loss is stronger than the urge to gain something.

The good thing for you as a copywriter is that you can leverage this. Show them how to fulfil these desires or even how someone else did it.

Create “mental movies” for your readers.

It’s one thing to read about a product, it’s another to actually imagine how you’re going to use it or how it will change your life.

Help your readers do this by painting vivid pictures. Sketch situations they are familiar with. Make it relatable. make them feel it.

In general, there are four forces that make people decide whether to stick with the status quo or make a change:

  • PUSH: People want to find a new solution due to current problems.
  • PULL: People are attracted by what could be achieved with this new product
  • ANXIETY: People are insecure about the risks of moving to a new product
  • INERTIA: People don’t like change.

Another way to touch those emotions is to use power words.

And remember: “words tell, emotions sell”

17 factors that motivate people. Here are they (in rank order of power):

Where to use social proof?

As we’ll see later on, social proof is a key element of landing pages. But you can use it anywhere: in ads, social media posts and other website pages.

It’s a great idea to put social proof around the call to action button and on the pricing page. In these sections, focus on time/money saved and improved performances.

The Call to Action

People need clear instructions. What’s obvious to you as the copywriter is seldom as obvious to the reader. Tell them what you expect of them. And tell them exactly what’s going to happen after they click the button. What will they get? Where will you take them?

“Click here”?

No more. Replace it with “Start your free trial”, “Receive your personalised plan”, “schedule a call” …

Use the VVU formula. Start with a verb, follow with a value and end with urgency.

You might even think of it as a call to value. What value will people get by clicking? Show it to them in the first person. For example: “Get MY free deal”. Or use this phrase: “With my help, the reader can …”. What you write in the gap is your CTA. A short line like this is a great reminder to the reader why he visited your page. He didn’t come to “click here” but to “Get their free deal”.

Did you notice I used the word “my” instead of “your”? It makes your copy feel more personal and leads to higher conversion.

Of course, the call to action on a page is often more than a button. To increase conversion further, surround it with more elements like social proof and risk minimization.

Some examples of risk minimization are: try for free, no credit card required, cancel anytime, get started in one minute.

Here’s another formula to surround your CTA button with: verb + outcome + without + painpoint. For example, “Get a copy without paying”.

Don’t be afraid to use multiple CTA’s that lead to the same thing. It’s like placing your eggs in different baskets.

Even the most obvious things work to direct people’s attention to the CTA button. Use the design to your advantage. Encourage them with arrows or other natural design flow. You can also use visuals to make the button stand out. Use a shopping cart, for example.

PS: Did you know people are more likely to click a CTA button if the people in the background image look towards it?

How to improve your writing style?

  • Use short and medium sentences.
  • Write like you talk (read out loud).
  • Vary sentence length.
  • Write to one person.
  • Use contractions.
  • Ask questions.
  • Make it rhyme.*
  • Use lliteration.
  • Add transition words.
  • Write active sentences.
  • Keep your paragraphs short.
  • Use clever but clear analogies.
  • Know the (grammar) rules so you can break them like an artist.

And when finished, read out loud. Always read out loud.

*Did you know that more people believe your message when you make it rhyme? For example, “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away”.

Choose better words for your copy

  • Use simple words.
  • No words that increase doubt (may, could, can, perhaps …)
  • Use power words not buzzwords.
  • Use presuppositions such as “everybody knows…”

Some copywriters prefer “your”, others prefer “my” in their copy. As we saw in the CTA, “my” has a more personal feel. Here’s a quick tip to choose between the two: “Your” makes the page look like a personal assistant; “my” gives more ownership and security.

How to create landing pages?

The single goal of landing pages is to make your reader do something: buy a product, request more information, leave their email.

And the biggest reason they don’t is bad copy. The next big reason is a mismatch between what they expect to find on the page and what they actually find. So before you start writing, you need to know where your reader is coming from. That can be Google Search, Facebook Ads, Instagram etc.

The next step is to plan well. Be clear about what you want to achieve, which pain-point you need to address and who you’re talking to.

Now comes the writing and design part:

Your landing page needs at least four of these elements above the fold.

  • A Title to explain the value you’re offering.
  • A subtitle to show you how.
  • A CTA to make the next step easy.
  • One ore more visuals so they can see the product or service at work.
  • Social proof to make it believable.

And don’t forget about these below the fold elements:

  • A “how it works” section with step by step explanation of the process.
  • Some more videos, images or even GIFs to spice things up.
  • Show you features. You’ve already caught attention with your benefits before.
  • Don’t be afraid to repeat your main benefit a few more times.
  • Repeat important links in the footer.

And a few design tricks to bear in mind:

  • Make sure there’s enough contrast.
  • Highlight benefits or keywords to make them stand out.
  • Test responsiveness and mobile usability.
  • Optimise your page loading speed.
  • Allow plenty of whitespaces to make your page easy to browse.
  • Left-align your body copy. People read in F-patterns.
  • Use narrow columns to make reading less tiring.
  • Add images, preferably of people. We identify best with people of the same sex.
  • Mind the font size. Not all readers are young with perfect eyes. For email, go with font size 16, for example.

And how long should it be?

Landing pages can not be too long, only too boring.

The optimal length depends on the value of your product. You won’t buy an expensive product after reading 100 words of information. And you won’t read 10 minutes before buying a $10 product. The higher the price, the longer the copy.

More tips from the Twitter community

How to write email copy?

Marketing and sales emails

Email copy is a different game. The headline is all or nothing. If you can’t convince them in less than 10 words, they won’t even open your mail.

But email is still very important. It’s where most sales happen for many companies. And email is how you stay top of mind. It’s often easier to make sales too, since people on your email list already have a certain interest in your company. Maybe they have already bought products from you before.

Some email tactics:

  • Make it personal.
  • Don’t appear too salesy.
  • Stick to the point.
  • One message per email.

Make an “email bank account” to keep track of your emails. Are you putting money in or taking money out? Are you giving or taking? Make sure you stay in the plus. Not all emails need to sell. Some just give information and warm the reader up for future sales.

To improve conversion with your email copy, link straight to the checkout basket or make sure the reader is as few clicks away from buying as possible.

Do not send F.A.Q. Emails. They are boring and emails need to be entertaining. Besides, if you need to answer too many questions about your product, you failed to communicate well in your other emails or copy.

P.S: Use a P.S. It’s the perfect place to sum up your offer and hide another call to action in pain sight.Email copy is a different game. The headline is all or nothing. If you can’t convince them in less than 10 words, they won’t even open your mail.

 

 

But email is still very important. It’s where most sales happen for many companies. And email is how you stay top of mind. It’s often easier to make sales too, since people on your email list already have a certain interest in your company. Maybe they have already bought products from you before.

 

Some email tactics:

 

  • Make it personal.
  • Don’t appear too salesy.
  • Stick to the point.
  • One message per email.

 

Make an “email bank account” to keep track of your emails. Are you putting money in or taking money out? Are you giving or taking? Make sure you stay in the plus. Not all emails need to sell. Some just give information and warm the reader up for future sales.

 

To improve conversion with your email copy, link straight to the checkout basket or make sure the reader is as few clicks away from buying as possible.

 

Do not send F.A.Q. Emails. They are boring and emails need to be entertaining. Besides, if you need to answer too many questions about your product, you failed to communicate well in your other emails or copy.

 

P.S: Use a P.S. It’s the perfect place to sum up your offer and hide another call to action in pain sight.

How to write cold emails?

  • Don’t make it look like spam. Personalise it. Show interest.

    But first, you need to get them to open. Make your headlines short, casual and trustworthy. It’s a good idea to mention someone you both know. Whoever you’re writing to and wherever you’re writing from, remember that it’s not Business X talking to Business Y but person A to Person B.

    Once they open it, there seem to be two good ways to start. Either you start with some flattering comments or you get straight to the point.
    For the first strategy, you could mention an email or blog post you read from them. For the second one, say who you are and what you want from the start but show authority.

    You may be asking for something in the first mail, but you could also reach out to establish a connection. Offer something and don’t ask anything in return. The benefit is that you’re now in their inbox and reaching out will be easier in the future.

    When you approach the end of your request, make it easy to schedule a call or take action.

    Did I say you should personalise each email?

    Final tip: track everything you do. What is the best time to get the best pen rate? What type of headlines works best? Which email template got the most response? 

Steal these email templates

The offer lead

  • Go straight to the point. Keep it short. Show your product early on in your copy and focus on discounts, guarantees or premiums rather than benefits and other sales tactics.

    The Promise lead is similar. It starts with a big, bold promise. Promise something they want, a positive outcome or feeling. Remember it’s hard to create desire, so you need to promise to fix something that already exists.

    Put the offer a bit lower on the page.

    Use these templates when the reader already knows about your product and maybe even its pricing. 

The Problem-Solution Lead

This one isn’t hard to figure out. You start with the big problem your reader faces. Once that grabs his attention. WABAM: here’s the solution, buddy.

These leads work best when the reader isn’t as aware of your solution but struggles with a problem. Show your understanding. Acknowledge the problem and the related emotions it may cause. 

The Big secret lead

  •  In this type of lead, you promise to share a secret. How to get rich, how to find better clients, how to lose weight. You’ll give them a secret formula. Who doesn’t want to know those secrets, right?

    The trick is to keep the secret, a secret. Give away clues but makes sure the secret stays hidden in the product. 

The story lead

love stories. You love stories. Everybody loves stories. Besides, stories are the perfect tool for indirect sales copy. Your story can make the reader aware of a problem they didn’t have, of a solution they didn’t know existed, of a desire they now want to fulfil.

The power of a story lies in its ability to transfer an idea to the mind of your reader and make it easy to remember.

The basics of SEO copy

This is a bit more technical, but make sure your page is mobile-friendly.

Here are other SEO tips that have worked for me:

  • Your keyword should be around 2% of the total words and never more than 3%.
  • Don’t mention your keyword too often in the table of contents, it doesn’t matter much.
  • Mention your keyword where it does matter: headline, alt tags, meta description, subtitles.
  • Use relevant related keywords and long-tail keywords.
  • Mention them in the subtitles.
  • Repeat your related keyword in the first sentece of your paragraph. If it’s not possible, do it at least once further on.
  • Readable copy is more important that the exact word combination.

Reviewing your copy

Think you’re finished with your copy?

Read it again. Out loud.

With every statement, you need to ask this question: So what? Because your reader will. They always want to know what’s in it for them.

And does your copy stick to the rule of one?

  • One clear idea
  • One strong emotion
  • One thrilling story
  • One desirable benefit/outcome
  • One call to action

And a final tip if you’re not working for yourself: ask for approval, not feedback. It will save you a lot of work.

Sources of this guide: