As a content writer or business owner, knowing how to write content that immediately connects with your readers is a big deal. Whether it is social media content, email copies, blog posts, video copy or others, the ability of your content to build trust and inspire action can make or break your content marketing effort.
When you know how to write content that people instantly relate with and consume, the goal of getting them to take any action, which can be signing up as email subscribers, joining a waitlist or registering for a course becomes achievable.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through 3 surefire ways to write content that will drive positive business results for you.
Step #1 Know and connect with the content’s target audience
The first step is to determine who you are writing to. Crafting content for your audience is like getting ready to propose to someone. You have to know that person; what they like; how old they are; what their pain points are; if the value that you offer is something which interests them, among others.
When it comes to business, all of the questions above are answered in the buyer persona or customer profile. This is where the creative process of content writing starts for the content developer.
However, the sad reality is that most small businesses do not have a customer profile. Even worse, some businesses do but do not feel it is something that their copywriter should have.
Imagine your client and you have this conversation
You – Great! so can you narrow down the target audience for me? Is there a buyer persona you can share to guide me?
Client – The buyer persona is a well-kept secret. Just target people who like to wear clothes and shiny shoes, duh
If you’ve had this sort of conversation with clients, you can take the questions route as an alternative. The picture below is a condensed form of what a customer profile looks like for businesses.
The only way to avoid this is to get a comprehensive description of the target audience/buyer persona from the client. Otherwise, you’ll be flying blind with your content.
Hack: While crafting a copy, keep things in perspective by going over the customer profile again.
Step #2 Be clear about the content’s objectives and benefits
We can’t say this enough because it’s happened too many times to count. Be clear about the objectives plus unique features and benefits before you start writing content about something. Picture this scenario between Amy and the small business owner who is her client.
Client – Hello, Amy, I would like an Ad copy to sell our new product.
Amy the writer – You got it. Can we have a chat right now to go over further details?
Client – I can just share some links with you about similar products and what I think the Ad copy should look like.
Amy the writer – Oh, all right then. (Goes away)
What usually happens after this sort of conversation is that Amy has insufficient information about the subject, she also has little to no grasp of the background story, unique features and benefits that make a copy shine.
So, she struggles to write and minutes turn into hours, and hours into days, yet no show. Finally, she buckles down (because she’s been paid) and writes a copy that is in truth, a shadow of what it could have been.
I know this firsthand because I have fallen into this trap over and over until I finally learnt the lesson. Whether you are the business owner or a content writer for the product, ask as many questions as are needed, or you’ll struggle to get the job done because you don’t know enough.
Here are 5 questions to get you started
- What is the objective of this copy?
- What problems are we solving?
- What are the unique features of what I am writing about?
- What are the benefits that people will get?
- What guarantees/assurances can I give people about this?
To get people interested in the copy enough to take any action, they need to see at first glance why it is important.
Step #3 Use Power Words – Don’t write bland
It is true what they say that good is the enemy of great.
After completing steps 1 and 2, you are finally set to write. But slow your roll, as copywriters, business owners or someone totally new to writing, a surefire way to kill conversion is to write blandly. Look at the two copies below, which of them best catches your attention? Tell us in the comments.
Which of them really connects with you?
The difference between a copy that will immediately attract and secure attention is in the power of the words that you use. See where I’m going with this? Yea, power words.
 Your copies will have more impact, evoke stronger emotions and get more response from people when you use words that immediately stirs up and can get them to feel.
So, ready to start writing exceptional copies that convert for your clients? Remember to not fly blind or write bland. Those are conversion killers.
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