Are you struggling to engage readers with your content? You’re not alone. Writing great copy can be challenging for even the most experienced of writers. The good news is that with practice you can improve your writing skills and write content that your readers will love.

Here are five copywriting tips to help you to improve your content, engage more readers, and be more persuasive.

1. Establish your objective

Establishing your objective early on will give you focus and help you to write more clearly and persuasively.  Ask yourself:

• What’s
  the purpose of your content?

Set a goal and be as specific as you can. For example, do you want a brochure that motivates potential clients to sign up to your services, an email that encourages financial advisers to register for an upcoming event, or a guide that helps your sales team to explain a new product?

• What
  action do you want your reader to take?

Communicate what it is you want your reader to do (a.k.a. the Call to Action). E.g. do you want them to sign up to your newsletter, buy your new product or download a white paper?

2. Know your audience

Knowing your audience is an essential part of writing and the better you know your readers, the more persuasive your copy can be.

Consider what their relationship is to your business (e.g. a client, a potential client or a past client) and define your readers by answering questions such as:

• How
  old are they?
• Are
  they male, female?
• What’s
  their occupation?
• What
  are their likes and dislikes?
• What’s
  important to them?
• What
  problems do they need solving?

This will help you to create content that is relevant to your audience. The more detailed you can be, the more you can tailor your writing to their needs. You can use this information to create a persona of your typical reader and talk directly to them in your writing. If it helps, you could even find an image or create a sketch to keep them in mind.

3. Do your research

As well as getting to know your audience, learn as much as you can about the product, service or topic you’re writing about. What is it? How does it work? How would your clients view the product or service and what makes it different from its competitors?

Having a thorough knowledge of your topic will help you to build trust with your audience and make your writing more credible.

4. Sell benefits, not features

Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.”

David Ogilvy (aka the “Father of Advertising”)

A feature is a description of your product or service and what it does. A benefit is the advantage your product or service brings to your customer.

A common copywriting mistake is to lead with the features. You may be really excited about all the features attached to your service, but your readers are more interested in how it is going to improve their life in some way.

Leading with the benefits results in more persuasive copy because your reader will become emotionally involved. Focus your writing on the reader by addressing the problems they want to solve and showing them how your product or service will do that. Always remember to ask: what’s in it for your reader?

5. Use plain language and be concise

Keeping it simple is the best strategy to winning over your readers. Use plain language and avoid jargon. If you need to use a technical term, explain it simply and concisely.

Use short simple words instead of long or formal words and phrases, such as ‘plan’ instead of ‘formulate’ or ‘to’ instead of ‘in order to’. Text that is clear and to the point is easier for your readers to follow, whereas if you waffle you risk your message getting lost.

These are just some of the great tips I have learnt over the years as a copywriter. What are your best copywriting tips? Or what do you struggle with the most? Let me know in the comments below.