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A Sneak Peek at the Episode

[03:15] If you’ve got a client who maybe doesn’t understand their target audience, as in they think they know their target audience, but they don’t understand their motivations, how do you deal with that?

[04:05] It’s about being as tactful as you possibly can as you guide your client and really make suggestions. It could be something you lead for them and all it takes is asking questions.

[05:44] Testing is always a great way to say, “Hey, I see where you’re coming from, but I think it’d be really great to test this because this could really change the direction and we could get more hard and fast data to make these decisions.”

[06:20] The fundamentals of copywriting: don’t forget to mention the benefit. If we really lean into this audience and understand what they’re thinking, that’s only going to lead to more sales in the long run.

[06:47] You need to do market research with the client. You need to have the client on board with that—and don’t want to spend your time doing it if they’re not onboard.

[09:09] Clients are humans and sometimes they have to learn hard lessons and they have to learn those hard lessons the hard way. Definitely guide and make suggestions, but at the end of the day, it’s their final decision.

[09:44] If you follow up a month after a project and, if the results aren’t what they wanted, it’s a perfect time to re-pitch them. It’s a great way to continue working with them.

[11:53]  With websites, you can do small tests so it’s less dramatic. For example, “what if we test this headline versus this headline?” After that, maybe we’re testing the call to action copy. Test piece by piece so you can really tell which things are influencing the actions people are taking on the page.

[13:06] Microsoft has a tool Clarity where you can enter whatever URL you want to look at, and it shows a heat map. This can show you what people are and aren’t spending time reading or otherwise looking at when looking at a page.

[13:40] You can just start to have some information and data that you can recommend very pinpointed tests that might move things in the right direction.

Must-Hear Takeaways

“When’s the last time we had the opportunity to get on the call with some of our clients and really hear what they have to say.” -Nicki

“Asking questions about what they want, what they need, what they fear, what’s gotten their way, what’s been frustrating, what would life look like if everything were fixed in whatever this arena is. But certainly if you see an opportunity, don’t hesitate to say something.” – Nicki

“When in doubt, suggest testing, depending what copy you’re writing. ” – Kate

“If you wanna do market research, I would absolutely do it with the client’s buy-in because you’re gonna wanna talk to people who have purchased from the client. You’re gonna wanna talk to people who have opted not to purchase from the client.”

“People who are aware of the client but haven’t even yet had the opportunity to purchase from the client, that can be a little bit trickier. ” – Nicki

” At the end of the day, I think you’re putting your best foot forward, right? You’re kind of trying to gently nudge them in the right direction if they ultimately are like, we don’t wanna go in that direction.”

“You can bring it up again certainly as new projects come up and what not and still continue to try to kind of fight the good fight, but at the end of the day, clients are gonna do what they wanna do.” – Kate

Mentioned on This Episode

• What’s a Copy Test?
• Ep. 56: What is a Copywriting Test and Should You Do One?

Related Links

• Why You Need to A/B Testing
• The Most Important Piece of Email Copy
• Top 3 Biggest Email Mistakes Copywriters Make

Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it! 

Get all the details on how to get your recording here »

About the Build Your Business Podcast

Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?

Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.

See Previous Episode

The post Episode BONUS – Laser Coaching: How to (Respectfully) Disagree with a Copywriting Client appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Copywriting is *so* much more than just words on a page. At its core, it’s about connecting people with the right solutions for their needs and wants, using messaging that truly resonates with them. (You’re basically playing Cupid—but with words instead of arrows!)

And sure, there’s no denying that writing killer copy takes skill. But remember that no one is born knowing how to write copy—even the highest-paid copywriting maestros had to start somewhere. We all learned how to do it, and with these expert tips from working copywriters, you can, too! 

1. Know Your Audience

When people think about what copywriting is, they often have this perception that it’s all about creating catchy taglines and witty wordplay. But if your words don’t speak to your target audience, then it really doesn’t matter how clever your copy is. To master effective copywriting, you have to tap into what makes a specific audience tick before you even consider sitting down to write.

Why would the reader be interested in this piece? What problems are you helping them solve? And how are you going to creatively present a solution to that daily headache they’re grappling with? 

Spending some serious time putting yourself in your customer’s shoes will help you tailor your message to speak directly to them. It will help you use the same language that they use and highlight the benefits that are most significant to them. 

With a good grasp of their pain points and motivations, you increase the chances that they will take the action you want them to take, whether that’s making a purchase, scheduling a call, or something else entirely.

2. Write with a Clear Purpose in Mind

We just touched on the importance of inciting readers to take the next step (whatever that may be)—but let’s not forget that is the essence of all copywriting.

So, before you even think about crafting your first sentence, make sure you are clear about what action you want your readers to take as a result of reading your copy. Do you want them to subscribe to a newsletter? Download a podcast episode? Whatever it is, your writing should be focused around that single goal. 

For example, say your client has asked you to write a social media post. Is your goal to boost engagement by getting more comments on the post? Is it to increase reach by getting more shares? There are many types of social posts and each type has a specific goal. 

Once you are clear on the objective, make sure you write to achieve that objective, leaving out any potential distractions.

3. Focus on the End Benefit

When it comes down to it, consumers are, by nature, pretty egotistical. They don’t really care about a certain business or brand—they care about how it benefits them. The moment a business stops providing value, customers won’t hesitate to leave. Pretty brutal, huh?

That’s why it is so crucial for any copywriter to understand the difference between features and benefits. One of the rookie mistakes when it comes to writing copy, is focusing too much on the “what” and the “how” (think lists of product features, technical specifications, etc.). But the key to creating persuasive copy is actually in the “why”.

And to effectively dig into the “why”, you have to get inside your customer’s head. What’s really keeping them up at night? What would make their life easier, happier, and more fulfilling?

For example, I highly doubt someone would be fretting at night about the ins and outs of a money management tool. But they *are* going to be kept awake by anxieties around debts, money troubles, or not being able to save for the future. 

Writing about the benefit is *the* most important tactic for crafting copy that converts. So once you’ve identified the key benefits for a particular audience, strive to always highlight them where you can—put them in your subject lines, headlines, and make them the first thing the reader sees. 

4. Imperfect Action is Better than Perfect Inaction

When you’re just starting out, it can sometimes feel like every other copywriter has it all together. That can often make your inner critic rear its head, causing a lot of resistance when it comes to actually sitting down to write.

Our brains don’t need much of an excuse to procrastinate, especially when we’re faced with a challenge. And with a whole world of distractions waiting at your fingertips, it’s easy to get sucked in. But if you want to set yourself up for success, one of our top pieces of advice for copywriters is to just get that first draft down!

And let’s be clear here: the first draft is by no means going to be the polished masterpiece you send off to the client (more on that in tip 7). Think of it more as a brain dump, where you get the chance to get all your thoughts out of your head and onto a document—just like chatting with a friend to brainstorm ideas. 

Embracing this mindset can help you dive into the writing process without getting bogged down by perfectionism (aka staring at a blank screen for hours).

It’s always a good idea to schedule out a time in your calendar (ideally at the time you feel most productive) to make sure you actually do this important first step. Because remember, getting started is often the hardest part—once you’re in the flow, the magic will follow!

5. Keep it Simple

It’s crazy how much information our poor little brains are expected to process. The average American is exposed to something like 4,000 and 10,000 marketing messages every single day. 

That’s why, for the majority of copy, you’ll want to aim for easy and simple language.  We don’t want to make our readers work too hard when they’re sifting through that much information on a daily basis!

When you first start out copywriting, there’s certainly a temptation to jazz up a piece of writing with long, fancy words. But in reality, that could be a surefire way to lose your audience’s interest, or—even worse—make them look for the information elsewhere. Our job isn’t to add unnecessary fluff, it’s to maximize the number of people who will read, absorb, and act on your words.

If you’re worried you’re overcomplicating things a bit too much, the Hemingway App is a great tool also great to make sure you’re writing as fluently, precisely and concisely as possible. It’s great for checking passive and active voice, the use of adverbs, and it also offers ‘simpler’ forms of phrases and words.

6. Break the Rules!

This one is definitely the most fun tip…mainly because it appeals to my rebellious side. But yes, as copywriters, we get to break the rules!! (Woohoo!)

Remember all those rules that were drilled into you in English class? All those things you were told that constitutes “good” writing? Well, I hate to break it to you but when it comes to copywriting, they’re usually not that helpful.

Good copywriting is like good driving—you shouldn’t notice it. When your writing draws attention to itself, it takes attention away from the message underlying the words. And the whole point of copywriting is to communicate a message. 

Of course, it’s still writing, so the usual rules of writing apply. But it’s also about having a conversation with the reader, which means communicating in a way that reflects how people speak and makes it effortless to read.

To keep the conversation flowing, sometimes that means breaking the rules a little. So yes, you *can* start sentences with “and”, ‘but”, or “because”. (Seriously, someone even made a website to end this debate for good!)

7. Self-Editing is a Must

Remember we told you copywriting was not just about throwing words onto a page? Well, part of that is also because a large chunk of copywriting is actually editing. And we don’t just mean looking for typos and grammatical errors (although that’s still important, of course). When you self-edit your copywriting, you also need to focus on making sure the actual copy is as strong as possible. 

Every word should convey something important—duplicating a word misses an opportunity to convey something new. Read through your work carefully to make sure you’re not wasting precious space and opportunity by repeating words or using unnecessary words (planning in advance is a personal favorite). 

Bonus tip: Reading your work out loud can make it a LOT easier to catch these things and de-jargon your work!

8. Be Open to Feedback

We get that receiving feedback can feel uncomfortable when all you really want to hear is, “Wow, it’s absolutely perfect!” But as copywriters, it’s part of our job to embrace feedback so that we can get the project to the best possible place.

Getting feedback or requests for revisions doesn’t mean that you’ve “failed”; instead, see it as just a normal part of the process. And if you don’t receive any feedback, don’t hesitate to ask for it—it’s only going to improve your work and allow you to deliver more value to your clients.

9. Keep Learning

One of the most important things to remember when you’re learning a new skill is that it’s supposed to be hard. This is a brand new career, after all! If it doesn’t come easily to you when you first start out, that’s perfectly okay (performing heart surgery for the first time probably didn’t come that easily to a surgeon, either!).

It all comes down to practice. And one of the ways we always encourage our Comprehensive Copywriting Academy students to improve their copy, is to look out for copy in the wild. Read the ads you see around you and analyze how they’re written. Is the benefit to consumer clear? Is it obvious what the next step is? Would this resonate with their target audience? Not all of them will be great—and when they’re not, that’s your opportunity to have a go at rewriting the copy to improve it!

10. Avoid the Niche Trap

At the start of your copywriting career, you can’t possibly know what kind of copywriting you’ll enjoy. Even if you *think* you’d like writing for a particular industry or in a certain medium, it could turn out that a different industry or medium is just as fun. Plus, most clients want a copywriter they can work with on multiple types of projects—not just one!

Limiting yourself to just writing email copy when you’ve never written copy for an ad or a sales page, is only going to limit your career and prospects. And now is not the time in your career to limit what you’ll be working on. Give yourself a chance to explore lots of different projects before deciding if you want to choose a niche. 

11. Never. Stop. Pitching.

OK, I’ll admit it…when I was first starting out as a copywriter, I made some (ahem, a lot) of mistakes. And one of those was certainly when I stopped regularly prospecting for new clients.

As soon as I had work coming in, I was a little…distracted from sending out pitches.

The inevitable result? Dry spells and financial worries. Not recommended and definitely something YOU can avoid.

You can easily have an entire freelance career as a copywriter without any dry spells. But that means you always need to be pitching, even when you have a steady client roster.

Continuously prospecting puts the control back in your hands and ensures that work never dries up.

In case you’ve forgotten that important nugget from the start of this blog, we’ll remind you again: No one is born knowing how to copywrite. And that includes all of the wonderful students in our Comprehensive Copywriting Academy who have gone on to achieve remarkable success.

Remember, they started right where you are, armed with determination, a willingness to learn, and the right training. And that’s exactly why we created the Comprehensive Copywriting Course (CCA)—to give you everything you need to get started as a copywriter, whether you want to work on staff at an agency or company, or build a thriving freelance copywriting business of your own. 

Want to follow in their footsteps? Get started with our free, on-demand copywriting training, “How to Land Freelance Copywriting Clients … Without Wasting Time on Frustrating Job-Bidding Sites or Cold-Calling Strangers.” Even if you’re not ready to land clients, you will still get tons of useful information to help you dig deeper into the tips we’ve mentioned today and get you on the right track to becoming a successful copywriter!

Watch More

When you’re just starting out as a copywriter—or even just learning if you want to become a copywriter!—there are a lot of questions like is this even possible for me?

Hear from working copywriters who were once in your shoes—many just a few short months ago—on what they wish they knew when they started. They’re offering up their best-of-the-best advice so you, too, can reach your career and income goals!

Your turn!

How do you plan to implement these tips into your copywriting practice? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Top Advice for New Copywriters (From Working Copywriters) appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it a million more times: giving and receiving feedback is a skill. And, it’s a skill not enough professionals, copywriters or otherwise, workout enough. So, while it can sometimes be hard to receive feedback on our copywriting, we can take what we learn from how we receive feedback and incorporate it into how we give copywriting feedback.

If you take away nothing else from this, remember that it all comes down to communication. And we only get better at communication if we practice! So, with that, here are our top tips for giving feedback, both to clients and other writers.

How to Give Feedback to Clients

Ideally, your relationship with your clients is a partnership.

It’s all too easy to gripe about clients and say, “they just don’t get it!” Or shake our heads and say, “Oh clients.” But the truth is, it’s on us as professional copywriters to communicate our needs to our clients. They’re not mind readers!

They also don’t know how to give copywriting feedback.

Going in with this mindset—you and your client wants what’s best for the project and have a positive intent—will help you

How Do You Best Communicate and Process Feedback?

Before you start any project with a client, you need to get clear on how you best receive feedback

Does it work well if you hop on a video call with your client and you walk through the copy together? Does it work better if they include comments on your copy doc explaining what they like and what they don’t like and (here’s the key) why they like or don’t like it?

You need to get clear on what you need to best receive and process feedback. And then you need to ask for it.

Tips for Giving Clients Feedback

• Be timely. If you need to communicate something to your clients, positive or negative, do it as close to the event as possible. For example, if a client is sending you feedback in five different emails over five different days instead of providing consolidated feedback, you may say something after the second email to say, “I noticed I have a couple of different emails with feedback. In the future, is it possible to get all feedback in one consolidated email? That way I can ensure I address all your feedback and no messages get lost in my inbox!”
• Choose your medium wisely. If you want to thank your client for something, email or a group meeting is totally fine if that makes sense. However, for something like working through how your process aligns with the clients’ internal processes, you may not want to try and communicate it via email—or call out their clunky processes in front of an entire group.
• Give the why and the benefit. If you’re asking your client to provide feedback a certain way, focus on the benefit to them! For example, “In an effort to save you any time on word smithing, please provide any feedback via comments versus track changes—I’m happy to take it from there!” Or “In order for me to turn V2 around to you as fast as possible, I appreciate having consolidated feedback from all stakeholders by [insert deadline].”
• Schedule regular check-ins. It’s easy to get in to send-receive mode in our inboxes, especially with clients we’ve worked with for awhile. Don’t underestimate the power of a quick 15-minute check-in with your client every now and then. Particularly for large projects, say a 30-page website rewrite, you may recommend getting a weekly check-in on the books for the length of the project. That way if something is starting to go off the rails, you can get it back on track before it’s too late (and a much bigger headache).

Watch More

Clients don’t know how to be clients. Nicki digs into the secret to managing edits and explains why it’s beneficial for you to guide your clients through this process.

How Give Copywriting Feedback to Junior Copywriters

As you grow in your copywriting career you may hire junior copywriters. As our CCA Next Level members know, this is one of the best ways to scale your copywriting business beyond six figures into the multiple six-figure—and yes, even seven-figure—range.

But hiring a junior copywriter means you need to know how to give feedback to

Show Them the What Not the How

Much like in a pitch where you tell clients what you can do to help their business, you want to do the same for junior writers. The how is what you hired them for! (And what your clients hired you for!)

Inevitably, they’re going to need a few assignments to get used to the client’s style and how best to work with you. But they’re only going to get there—and grow as a writer—if you explain to them what they’re doing well and why it’s done well, as well as where they can improve and why.

For example, let’s say the junior copywriter wrote something like this for a headline: “This 8-ounce mug keeps your coffee extra warm!”

Your instinct may be to say, “Great start, but we need something that focuses more on the benefit. Something like, ‘Power through your entire to-do list before your coffee even goes lukewarm.'”

But…if you’re writing for them—even examples—what’s the point of having hired them? That doesn’t tell them why their headline is off.

Instead you could say something like, “Great start! You’re getting somewhere with the coffee staying warm. Why does that matter? What is that ultimately going to help this customer do? (Small note: I’d recommend losing the 8-ounce piece since that’s a feature!)”

Consider Your Tone

If your writer missed something on the creative brief, it’d be easy to say, “Hey, you completely missed this!”

It’s direct, but not necessarily very effective when it comes to morale.

Instead, consider saying, “The client mentioned x, y, and z in the brief. Can we weave that in here?”

Anytime you see don’t, can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t … basically any contraction with “not,” see if you can reframe in the positive. Pro tip: do a “control F” before you send through any feedback to see if you’re using any “nots” or negative contractions.

Think About How You Like to Receive Feedback

If you absolutely hate certain ways clients give you feedback, consider that when giving your own feedback. It’s all too easy to realize we don’t like certain things clients do, and then turn around and realize we’re doing the same thing to our own team!

When it doubt, have a conversation with your writer. You can even say, “This is how I typically give feedback [tell them how you give feedback]. I want to make sure this works for your process.”

Having the conversation sooner rather than later will ensure a stronger relationship from the get-go.

Your Turn

What are your best practices for giving copywriting feedback? How do you like to receive feedback–and how don’t you like to receive it? Tell us in the comments below!

The post How to Give Copywriting Feedback appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

First things first: copywriters are not copy editors. Copywriters…well…write copy! Copy editors make sure any writing adheres to the client’s style guide in addition to paying very close attention to grammar and punctuation. (It’s why copy editors are crucial for content—there are simply more words on the page with content writing!) But you still need to self-edit your copywriting—hitting “send” without taking a second look is one of the marks of a lazy copywriter.

In fact, 50% (or more!) of copywriting is editing—but it’s more substantive editing. Sure, we want to keep our copy as free of typos and grammatical errors as humanly possible. (Read: we’re still human.) But our job is to focus on making sure the actual copy is as strong as possible.

Running a spelling and grammar check is the bare minimum. When you self-edit your copywriting, you need to go beyond using free apps like Grammarly.

Substantive editing is looking at the entire piece (email, sales page, homepage, brochure—whatever the medium!) for what is being said, how it’s being said, the organization of the piece, and more. So, how do you make self-editing your copywriting part of your copywriting project process? Read on!

1. Build in Sleep-on-It Time

You may see some copywriters touting the benefits of offering day rates. This is when a client can book you for an entire day and you write and deliver copy for them based on their needs. But writing copy same-day almost never produces your best work.

As creatives, we need time to concept ideas for a project and let them marinate. That may mean taking a walk, but even better is building in what we like to call sleep-on-it time into your project schedule. It helps to build it into both the concepting phase of a project and the writing phase.

To sit down at your computer and say “I’m going to write this sales page in one go” is a recipe for disaster for even the best writers. You may be able to write a rough first draft, but remember it’s just that: a draft. This is not the work you want your clients to see!

Give yourself as much time as possible based on the project. One email may not require as much sleep-on-it time as say a five-page website.

2. Use a “Clean” Copy Doc and a Messy Copy Doc

As you’re editing your copy, it’s easier to visualize how it’s all coming together by having a “clean” copy doc. The doc that, eventually, you’ll be sending along to your client.

But you also may be chopping a lot of words, sentences, headlines, subheads, and more. The last thing you want to do is delete a line and then, a little while later, wonder if it was actually something you could use. (And even version control in Google Docs wastes a lot of precious time.)

Instead, consider having two copy docs open at once. You have your “clean” doc that you’re laying everything out as you’ll eventually present it. (For example, your email will have a subject line, preheader text, headline, body copy, etc.) And you’ll have a “messy” document—one that has all the lines, words, or other thoughts and ideas that you’re still working with and don’t want to forget just yet.

3. Move Pieces Around Like a Puzzle

One of the first things to do when self-editing your copywriting is to look at the piece holistically. Take a full read through the piece and consider the following:

• Are you leading with the strongest benefit?
• Is there a clear next step for the user to take?
• Do your word choices match the company’s brand voice? Is it the right tone for this particular piece?

As you go, think of each section, each sentence, and each word as pieces of your copywriting puzzle. Sometimes you need to move a word, sometimes you need to move an entire section to another area.

Does a subhead further down the page actually make a better headline? Or maybe one of your sentences within a paragraph of text makes a better headline. Or where you’re talking about a feature you actually need to talk about a benefit and shift around the features that lead to that benefit.

Don’t be afraid to move chunks of text around the page!

Listen for more tips on what to check before submitting copy to clients >>

4. Read Your Copy Out Loud

Reading your copy to yourself is not the same as reading it out loud. By reading it out loud, you’ll hear any spots that feel clunky as well as hear any missing words that your mind automatically filled in for you when you were reading it to yourself. You may also hear places where you can:

• Eliminate unnecessary words
• Remove any unintentional echoes of repeated words and phrases
• Vary up sentence structure
• Add consistency with tense and tone

Highlight these areas in your document as you read it out loud. This will allow you to continue reading and hearing the whole piece versus trying to write copy as you go. Then, once you’ve finished reading, you can go back through your highlighted sections to streamline the copy.

And then you know what’s next: re-read those sections out loud.

5. Review the Overall Format

As you review your copy, consider the structure of it: headlines, subheads, paragraph text, calls to action, etc. Is there a section of text with a lot of copy that could benefit from a subhead to break up the text? What would someone skimming the piece takeaway? Does each section focus on one main idea? If not, do you need to break up a section into two separate sections? Is there a call to action in each place a user would expect one?

Look at your piece as if you were a member of your target audience. What information would you want?

Lastly, ensure that you are writing as succinctly as possible. Don’t use excess words to get to the point.

Finally, a little bonus tip: Does your piece meet the goals of the creative brief? You should always review the brief part of your self-editing process.

Your Turn

What are your tips for effective self-editing? Share in the comments below!

The post Self-Edit Your Copywriting: Why It’s a Must & How To Do It appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Every copywriter wants their ideas to resonate with the intended audience. But what makes some ideas resonate and leave a lasting impression? And what makes other ideas completely ineffective?

As brothers Chip and Dan Heath say in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, “you want to invent new ideas, not new rules.” So, they’ve created a playbook that offers a framework for creating ideas that are more likely to, well, stick.

Chip, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, and Dan, a former researcher at Harvard, shaped the framework around six key areas: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and stories.

As a copywriter, all of these sections are highly relevant to writing effective copy.

But the first, simple, is a critical one that many would-be copywriters overlook. Keeping things “simple” doesn’t mean talking down to someone. It means getting to the core of an idea.

That is a crucial first step for any copywriting project. It’s easy to look at a brief and feel like you need to pack in a ton of information into an email, a landing page, or any other deliverable. But without identifying the core message? You’re going to have a hodgepodge of copy that your target audience may not give a first glance, never mind a second.

You’ll also want to pay close attention to the “Emotional” section. In this part of the book, Chip and Dan show you how to get to the benefit of the benefit for a deeper emotional connection (e.g., someone may not care about a 1/4″ drill bit, but they need the 1/4″ drill bit to hang their children’s photos on their walls).

Chip and Dan take you through examples that bring the concepts to life, like filmmakers who want to make their project seem viable so they pitch the storyline to the execs using successful films the execs already know. (As in, “This movie is like Jaws meets When Harry Met Sally.” That is not an actual example in the book, but it gives you a good visual, right?)

No matter where you are in your copywriting journey, Made to Stick will give you inspiration for taking a fresh approach to your copywriting projects.

And, it may just help you write copy that’s extra sticky.

Your Turn

What are your tips and tactics for creating ideas that resonate with your target audience? Share in the comments below!

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

The post Copywriting Tips for Creating Ideas and Concepts That Stick appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Whether you’re brand-new to copywriting or have been at it for some time, you likely know that writing clear, concise copy is hard. It’s why copywriters are paid so well!

But how do you ultimately distill your message down (especially when you can think of five different benefits)?

Our Book Club Pick

This Filthy Rich Writer Book Club pick offers up some tips for improving your communication. Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less by Joseph McCormack is aimed at professionals looking to tighten up their communication so messages are received and heard.

The author is founder and CEO of Sheffield Marketing Partners, which specializes in message and narrative development. He is also a recognized expert in narrative mapping, a technique that helps clients achieve a clearer and more concise message.

Think about how many emails, texts, and other messages you receive in a day. And, just as an experiment, count how many times you check your smartphone today while you’re doing other things.

The B.R.I.E.F. Approach

Now think about your clients or prospective and how much they have competing for their attention. You need to be brief.

McCormack’s B.R.I.E.F. approach (background, relevance, information, ending, and follow-up) gives you a framework for simplifying even your most complex messages and eliminating the fluff.

The book has an important message that is critical to all copywriters: Eliminate wasteful words and stand out from the rest. Remember: Brief is better.

While much of the information is written in the context of distilling information for presentations and other internal communications, you can apply the tips and tactics to your own communication with clients as well as to your copywriting process.

After all, the challenge of capturing someone’s limited attention is the same with internal colleagues and managers as it is with customers.

Your Turn

What are your tips for communicating clearly? And, if you’ve read the book, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

The post How to Write Clear, Concise Copy appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

As a copywriter, the pieces you write will almost always include a call to action, or CTA.

A CTA is the action you want a user to take. So, if you’re writing an email and the goal is to get them to buy a certain product, it may mean linking the text “shop now,” or even working with the designer to put copy on a button or include small arrows/carrots (>>) next to the text so users know it’s clickable. Or, if you’re writing a newspaper ad, it may be “Visit us at nameofwebsitehere.com.”

It’s a crucial part of direct response copywriting (right up there with leading with benefits versus features).

To determine what your CTA is, it’s critical to fill out the creative brief with your client (or with your designer if you’re working on a spec ad).  

Read More: The One Thing Every Successful Copywriting Project Starts With

Here are several factors to consider to help you write a clear, compelling call to action every time!

How the User Journey Impacts the Call to Action

Knowing what you want users to ultimately do is only one piece of information you need to write a clear, compelling CTA. You also need to know where your audience is in the user journey so you can determine what kind of CTA you’ll use.

If users are at the top of the funnel—they are just learning about the brand and the problem it solves—then you may use a soft call to action.

For example, if you’re writing for a brand that is selling a $5,000/month service, sending an email to users who have just subscribed for a free eBook, you may use a soft call to action like “Learn more” or “Read more.”

If a user is at the bottom of the funnel—they’re familiar with the brand, other marketing touch points have built trust and explained why the brand offers the best solution—you may use a more direct call to action, such as “get started,” “buy now,” or “sign up.”

You’ll want to understand where any piece of copy you’re writing fits into the bigger marketing picture so you know if you’re targeting users at the top, middle, or bottom of the funnel.

A Call to Action Needs to Include the Action

Because a CTA is a call to action, you’ll want to use strong verbs to tell the user exactly what you want them to do. You want to make it as specific and relevant to your users. Consider not only what you want them to do, but what’s in it for them if they take the action. What’s going to happen?

The CTA is also a piece of copy that is worth testing.

For example, if you want users to a website to sign up for a free trial, you could test “Try it free” against “get started.” Remember: when testing copy, you’ll want to keep the design the same for a true A/B test. You could also test “try it free” on a red button versus a blue button and see if the color changes the outcome; but you’ll want the copy to remain the same on both buttons so you’re not left guessing whether color or copy was the reason users clicked.

Other elements of the CTA that you may want to test when applicable include:

• Urgency: Using words like “now” or “today”
• Length: For example, “Subscribe” versus “Subscribe for instant updates”
• Point of view: Using second person, speaking directly to your users (“Get your free copy”) versus first person, speaking as if you are the user (“Yes, I want my free copy”)

How the Medium Impacts the Call to Action

Another factor to consider when writing CTAs is whether you’re writing digital or print copy. When you’re writing digital copy, you can link text or have a button that is linked. So, there’s no need to say “Visit websitenamehere.com.” You can simply say, “Visit Us.”

In fact, research shows that buttons can significantly increase click-through rates in emails. That’s because as people skim, the button stands out more than a text link does. However, as with anything, you’ll want to make sure the brand you’re writing for tests this. They may find that linking text is just as, if not more effective with their audience.

Of course, while users can click or swipe online and there’s no need to spell out the URL, that’s not the case for print pieces. You need to spell out your URL if the goal is for users to visit a website.

Often, if the website you want to send users to has a long URL, you’ll want to create a short, memorable URL so it increases the likelihood someone will take the time to type the URL into their phone or computer.

Using “Click Here” as a CTA

Let me preface this by saying if the brand you’re writing for has tested “click here” and it performs well, then it’s copy worth considering. It’s also worth considering if your audience may not know that certain pieces of text are actually links. “Click here” may provide that guidance they need.

But in general, “click here” is a bit antiquated. Nowadays, users are tapping, swiping, or using voice recognition—they’re not necessarily clicking. Plus, it’s making “click” the action versus speaking to what you want the user to really do. For example, “To start your membership, click here” becomes simply “Start Your Membership.”

CTAs, like any other piece of copy, are definitely worth testing. So, when in doubt, ask your client about previous CTA tests and whether they have any information to provide. If not, and if it makes sense, you can recommend a test!

Make Sure the Call to Action Stands Out

Finally, it’s good practice to let the CTA shine outside the body copy. While your designer will likely make the CTA clear within the design, you want to include it as its own line within your copy doc versus burying it within your body copy.

Your Turn!

What are some of your tips for writing a compelling CTA?

The post What Makes a Good Call to Action (CTA)? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

I probably don’t need to say it, but there’s more opportunity than ever to work with remote clients. (I guess that’s one small bright side to a pandemic, though the trend was definitely on the upswing before 2020.)

Not only can you write for clients on the other side of your country, you can also write for clients on the other side of the world. This post explains how to do just that.

One quick thing before I dive in, though. We don’t generally recommend trying to write in languages other than your native language. Why? There are so many nuances, idiosyncrasies, and constantly evolving slang terms in each language that even some native speakers have a hard time keeping up.

You are in charge of your own career and if you feel that you utterly and completely mastered another language then we’ll leave it to you to decide.

Writing for International Clients

Writing for international clients could mean writing for a company in another country that wants copy in English. Alternatively, it could mean writing for a company in a country that uses an alternate version of the language you speak. (Think: U.S. versus U.K. English.)

In the case of U.K. versus U.S. English, it’s good to know some of the differences between the two (favourite versus favorite, etc.). But you don’t need to know every difference. The company you write for will be able to help with that.

Best Practices

But there are a few things that you do want to keep in mind.

First, especially since there may be a slight language barrier and a cultural barrier, you want to be extra thorough in your input call.

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions about the company, the project, the target audience, or any key elements. You should record any input call, but this is an instance when it will be especially helpful.

If your client uses certain terms, ask if they’re company terms or terms that would be used by the target audience. Ask about any and all terms and phrases in general that the target audience is likely to use in relation to the project.

Be sure to get any other materials (in your language) that the company has used and is happy with. You need to allow ample time for research and input.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions throughout the project, too. You could even set up “progress calls” to review pieces of copy and make sure you’re on the right track.

As you’re writing, be sure to keep the language straightforward—especially if your copy is going to be translated to other languages after the fact! Even though, presumably, you’re writing in your language for other speakers of your language, the culture and word usage may be different. Be careful to use turns of phrase that are common for you but may not be common in other countries that speak your language.

And finally, this isn’t a copy tip but still an important one. Be aware of your time zones! Many global freelancers have been tripped up by time zone confusion and ended up missing a call or inadvertently scheduling them for the middle of the night.

Writing for international clients is a big opportunity that’s only getting bigger as people get more used to working remotely and as the world develops even more of a global economy. Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be starting out on the right foot.

Your Turn

Would you be interested in writing for international clients? Or are you more interested in writing for your native country but living internationally? (Or both!) Let us know in the comments below.

The post How To Write Copy for International Clients appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

There are a lot of “genres” of copywriting that really aren’t genres at all; they’re just buzz-y marketing terms. “Conversion copywriting” is a good example. Any copywriter worth their salt is focused on helping their clients increase conversions.

After all, the goal of copywriting is to connect a person who has a specific need with the best possible solution to that need. Within your copy, you’ll have an effective call to action that gets that person to take the action you want them to take. (This should also be the action the person needs to take to solve their challenge!) So, fundamentally, all copywriting is conversion copywriting.

Calling oneself a conversion copywriter is just marketing, like calling yourself a health doctor.

But UX copywriting is one of the few copywriting types that actually is a distinguishable type of copywriting. However, you’ll still use the foundation tools and tactics of copywriting to do it.

What Does UX Copywriting Mean?

UX stands for “user experience.” UX copywriting is copy that’s designed to make the user’s experience clear and intuitive.

You may be thinking, “Wait, shouldn’t all copy make a user’s experience clear and intuitive?” Yes, but when we’re talking about UX copywriting, we’re specifically talking about one subset of copy: The directional and instructional copy on websites, apps, software, and other digital platforms.

Think about a user experience you’ve had that hasn’t been good. Have you ever been on a website, logged into something, or interacted with software and thought, “Wait, where am I?” “How do I get to where I want to go?” or “Where do I go or what happens if I click here?”

UX copywriting is copy that’s designed to be the clear, easy-to-understand guideposts as you’re interacting in a digital environment. You shouldn’t feel lost or wonder how you access specific information. It should be clear to you how you take the action(s) you want to take.

UX Copywriting Examples

In practice, UX copywriting is doing things like naming links and menus so that people will have a good understanding of what they’re likely to find in them. It’s creating error messages that are actually HELPFUL to the person seeing the error. It’s guiding people through an unfamiliar process as concisely and easily as possible.

Here are a few examples:

Solar Calculator

In this example, you get clear instructions on how to use the digital tool (in this case, a solar calculator). But notice the copy within the form field (“enter a location”), the radio buttons (residential, commercial, non-profit), and the average monthly electricity bill note (“your best estimate is fine”).

You know exactly what to input in each area. (And you know you don’t have to look up your electricity bills for the entire past year, but can roughly guess.) You also have a clear call to action (calculate).

Amazon Account Page

This account page makes it easy to understand where to click based on what action you want to take. The bold headers, combined with the icons, help you narrow down which area you’re looking for, while the copy below it gives you even further information to ensure you know what you’re going to get when you click through.

Toast Navigation Menu

Much like Amazon’s account page, Toast’s main navigation (products, solutions, restaurant types, pricing, learn, and company) helps you narrow down on the area you’re interested in. When you click on a particular menu item, you get what’s called a mega menu with further options that fall in the “learn” category.

These options have additional text that makes it clear what you’re going to get when you click. This increases the chances you’ll head to the right place and find what you’re looking for on first click. In doing so, you decrease the chances that a user will leave your website because it’s too much of a pain to find what they need.

Adding UX Copywriting to Your Skillset

As with many things, UX copywriting is a lot more challenging than it seems. What might seem like straightforward, clear copy to one group of people might totally confuse another group. Putting a link in one menu might make sense to some people but might make it next-to-impossible to find for others.

So, how does a copywriter write UX copy well? As I mentioned earlier, even though it’s a specific type of copywriting, it’s still a matter of relying on the key tenets of copywriting as a whole.

1. Put Yourself in the User’s Shoes

When you’re writing UX copy, you need to put yourself in the user’s shoes. How are they most typically arriving on a particular page? What do they want to do when they get to that page? Keep the user journey in mind and identify where the user would most likely want to go. It’s your job to help them get there!

2. Have a Purpose for Every Single Word You Use

You need to keep UX copy concise. As with the examples above, you don’t often have a lot of space for copy. With UX you’re dealing with characters not words!

All copywriting requires you to self edit. But in the case of UX copywriting, you’re going to find yourself writing copy and then asking, “How can I say this in 20 less characters?” And then your next version you may say, “OK how can I say this in 5 less characters?” And so on and so forth.

3. Identify the Client’s Goals for the User

What does your client hope to accomplish with this project? Based on that, how can you help guide the user to that result in a way that makes sense for the user? Revisit point number 1: Put yourself in the user’s shoes.

If a client’s goal makes no sense for the user, you need to have a conversation with your client and find how you can balance both their goals with user expectations.

Remember to Test

Testing is going to be incredibly helpful. As a client tests out its digital products before launch, they’re also testing out the copy to figure out where people are getting tripped up and where people are moving through smoothly.

And, since UX copywriting is so closely tied to the layout of the page or screen, expect to work with wireframes (bare-bones mockups) or the fully designed layout to ensure that your copy works on the page.

You could specialize in UX copywriting, of course, but you could also just make it a part of your overall copywriting offerings. Personally, I like to sprinkle in UX copywriting projects for work variety. After all, isn’t variety one of the best things about what we do?

Your turn! Does UX copywriting sound like something you’d like to try? Would you want to add it to your toolbox of copywriting skills? Let me know in the comments below.

The post Should You Add UX Copywriting to Your Copywriting Services? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Freelancers have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. We love them because there is nothing that will get your rear in a chair and your fingers typing like a looming copywriting deadline.

And we also hate them because what gets our rear in the chair are twinges of panic at the idea of not getting the work done in time.

Deadlines are essential because they ensure that we finish the work and the client has a clear understanding of what they’re going to receive and when. (A client who understands the process and the timeline is a happy client.)

But how do we ensure that the deadlines will actually work for the projects? That we won’t be sitting at our desks writing copy and thinking, “Holy sh*t: There might not be enough time to do this?”

1. Work With Your Client to Set Copywriting Deadline

First, I want to get clear on how deadlines work. Deadlines aren’t dates that are imposed on us by clients. They are mutually agreed upon dates between you and the client at the beginning of the project.

You and your client will talk about when they’d like the work done, you’ll think about your schedule, and you’ll agree on a date that works for the both of you—and, again, all that will happen at the outset.

There will never be an occasion when you promise to do the work and a client then demands an unreasonable deadline. When you send out your proposal, it includes a detailed scope of work, the cost, and the date you’ll deliver the work. (Sometimes a client might request that you turn around work a little faster in the middle of a project, but you’ll only do that if you’re able to.)

You are partially in control of a project’s deadline.

2. Think In Terms of Days, Not Hours

Being partially in control of a project’s deadline freaks some new copywriters out.

After all, how can you know how long it will take you to write something if you’ve never written it before? Or if you’re working with a new client? Or how long it will take them to review the work and send feedback?

The good news is that this is a lot easier to figure out—and has a lot more wiggle room—than you might initially think.

Remember that when you’re planning out a copywriting deadline, you’re planning in terms of days, not hours. There are a lot of places to steal away some time to write copy throughout the course of a day. Yes, even if you also have a full-time job. And a significant other. And kids.

When you and your client are talking about a deadline, you need to move backward from when your client needs the finished (finalized and approved) copy in hand. And this doesn’t mean, for example, that they need the finalized copy the day the website goes live—it means they need it in time to give it to their web developer so they have time to get it on the site before it goes live.

This isn’t your responsibility, of course, but it can help to think it through and point it out to clients—sometimes they forget other service providers’ timelines when they’re thinking through yours.

3. Set a Realistic Project Timeline

So, you know when your client needs final copy. Before that, you’re going to want to leave at least three or four full days for revisions—maybe even longer if you’re a newer copywriter. Remember, what has to happen is that you deliver your first draft of copy, your client reviews it and sends you feedback, and you revise it and then send through another version. And then maybe your client will have a few more tweaks you have to incorporate to get it finalized.

From there, you’ve got your potential first draft date. (This will go into your proposal.) Now, look at your schedule: Is this possible for you?

Bear in mind all of the steps that your project has to go through once the proposal is approved:

• Input call with your client
• Writing your creative brief
• Concepting
• Outline your messages
• Write the project (of course)
• Edit your work (editing should take at least half as long as writing it does!)

The length of time for writing each type of project will be different—and the client, topic, industry, and a host of other things will affect that. But, of course, do your best to err on the side of giving yourself more time than you need to avoid ending up with too much copywriting work on your plate. (Here’s what to do if you find yourself in that situation.)

(Check out the “The Creative Project Process” episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast for more insight into typical elements of a project.)

4. Factor in “Sleep-on-It” Time

Also, try to give yourself a night to sleep on your copy before you begin editing it. Giving your brain that “off” time to figure things out can net you better copy in the end.

And here’s another quick tip. End-of-day Friday is, for all intents and purposes, the same as first thing Monday for the vast majority of clients…but it’s a huge difference for you. Giving yourself the weekend gives you a little extra bit of breathing room.

5. Give Your Client Deadlines

It can help to remind your client that revisions are a normal part of the process—little tweaks to get it just right. But the faster they give you the feedback, the faster you can make the changes. If it’s absolutely crucial that they hit that finalized date, then it’s absolutely crucial that they give you feedback in a timely manner.

If a client seems to be taking their time to give feedback, you can send a polite email. Use the following as an example:

“Hi, I just wanted to check in on the feedback. Keeping our timeline in mind, in order for me to make the changes and get you the finalized copy by [DATE] I’ll need your requested changes by [DATE OR TIME].”

It’s not your fault if they’re not getting you feedback on time.

6. Schedule Mini Deadlines for Bigger Projects

For most people, a copywriting deadline is a one-time thing. It’s the date on which the project is due to be entirely complete. A deadline is an end-of-project date.

But relying on a single deadline to help pace you through a large project is like relying on a brick wall to stop your car. It’ll work, but boy is it going to hurt.

So, what do you do instead? You put in speed bumps.

You need to build in smaller deadlines to help pace yourself ahead of your big deadline. And, just as importantly, they need to be enforceable deadlines.

For example, many people promise themselves, “I will definitely, definitely have this done tomorrow” and then blow right through that deadline because there are no consequences.

If you’re the kind of person who can truly stick with internal deadlines, then great. But if you’re not, you need to create consequences by promising things to your client.

For example, if you owe the entire copy for a site on May 1st, you could propose the following schedule:

• April 5: About page
• April 15: Homepage
• April 20: Product page
• May 1: Careers page

You can’t let your client down, so you’ll hit these shorter/smaller copywriting deadlines. And hitting your smaller deadlines will keep you on track to hit your overall deadline. By the time your overall deadline comes up, you won’t be struggling—you’ll be sprinting over the finish line.

What Happens When Life *Still* Gets in the Way?

Of course, even when you plan out a client project carefully and give yourself plenty of time, life can get in the way. When that happens, you just have to make the time to get the work done. Maybe that involves skipping your normal downtime, or maybe it even involves late nights or pre-dawn writing sessions. The point is that you get it done and, with any luck, learn a lesson or two for next time.

(That’s also why it helps to have a few copywriters who you can turn to in a pinch! Of course, you need to trust them. And you’ll still need to review their work.)

There’s no perfect formula for setting a deadline. And (like most things) you’ll get better at it the more you do it. The key is to give yourself enough time—even more than enough, if you can swing it—while still delivering the work in a timeframe your client is happy with.

Your Turn

What tactics do you use to keep your copywriting deadlines in check? Let us know in the comments below!

The post How Can You Know if a Copywriting Deadline is Doable? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.