If you have just recently started working as a copywriter or maybe you are just planning to learn copywriting and you don't know where to start - read five tips for beginners. 

1. Motivation is more important than a degree

Don't worry about learning to write copy, even if you didn't excel with grades in school.

Many copywriters are unsure at first, asking themselves: “Can I do that?” and doubt themselves, especially if they don't have a college degree.

A degree in journalism certainly has its advantages, but it is not necessary to become a quality copywriter. 

A lot of the things you learn in school aren't really applicable to copywriting.

Academic writing aims to teach you something, but as such it is usually full of technical terms, scientific style, and sometimes even dry and boring. 

Copywriting is different.

It is a form of writing whose sales goal, turning potential clients into real customers. For that you need "street smarts" rather than a book.

Clients will almost never ask you what degree you have. They don't care about that. What is important to them is that Your writing gets results for their sale.

2. First, perfect writing short texts

Start from email, automated email sequences, posts on Facebook or Instagram, ads on social networks, Google ads...

This is usually just a few lines of text, a short paragraph or headings. What is important here is that by the way you learn how people react to that, how they respond.

When you start to develop a sense of "hey, this works" or "ugh, this isn't going to work," that way you improve your writing skills and build self-confidence.

It can be intimidating to go straight from writing 10, 20 sales pages for websites - it can take weeks.

It is better to start from something that takes an hour or two, which you can do soon test it on your customers and a lot easier to understand how things work in the world of copywriting.

3. Spend 80% researching and only 20% writing

Many copywriters can't wait to sit down at the computer, grab a pen, grab a piece of paper and start writing right away. This is not really recommended, because it will not bring good enough results.

Spend time researching your customers, get to know them well - what are their frustrations, what bothers them, what are their goals and what do they need?

When get to know your customers well, it will be much easier for you to compose a message that you address to them, with which they will identify.

Do not rush to write. If you do the work well, if you do the research well, when you get down to the actual writing, it will work much faster and easier. 

Spend a lot of time thinking, researching, thinking it through what message you need to deliver.

What attracts them, what repels them - think about all this before you write a single word.

4. Write like you speak

Vuk is right, but that's not what we mean here 🙂 Write as you would talk to family, friends, acquaintances.

Treat your readers like any normal person you would interact with. The goal is to connect with them.

So write understandable, accessible, in simple language. 

This is another reason why formal education is not a crucial factor in writing good copy.

Sometimes in your sales pitch, you'll write paragraphs that contain only one sentence or even just one word. It's different from the writing you were taught in school, but for copywriting, it works great.

Why?

Because it's easy to read.

The idea is that when a person reads your text, they have an experience as if you were talking to her. It's great when the text is such that he can almost hear your voice.

She should not get lost in the text, get confused, or find it difficult to understand. Academic writers sometimes write in such a way that they sound smart, but it is incomprehensible to their readers.

Also, when you write, imagine that you are writing to one person, not to a group of people. Make it sound like 1-on-1 communication. Make it personal.

I'm talking to you, not our company blah blah... 

Here's an example. 

Professional communication helps us face the challenges of today's digital world, where communication is more important than ever before.

Lots of buzzwords that don't seem to say anything and you probably thought, "Hmm.. what?"

It can be said much more simply:

Copy = money.

See the difference?

5. Keep good examples

Make a list of the so-called swipe files. Swipe files are actually like a kind of your copywriting safe.

Since you don't have much experience as a beginner, you need to first study other people's work.

Look at other people's landing pages, emails, catalogs, advertisements... Everything that could serve as inspiration. 

If you read many different examples, you will pick up certain patterns in the writing. You will understand certain principles which you can be guided by and then write yourself with greater ease.

The last thing you want is to turn on your computer and stare at a blank document, trying to come up with something on your own. It is very difficult.

Also, that's not what professionals do.

Copywriting experts have their own swipe file archive i.e. useful examples that they rely on regularly.

If you need to write a campaign for a product, instead of thinking "it could be this way, it could be that way..." better consult other people's examples.

What kind of commercials for that type of product have been made in the last few years? What were the offers there? Is there a similar product that can give you an idea? 

Consider what titles did better, what kind of stories, and go from there. Customize to your product, make a few necessary changes and there you go.

Don't waste time trying to invent hot water. Feel free to rely on what tested works. 

The client is not interested in how you came up with your idea. He also doesn't care how long you've been writing, whether you did well or struggled.

They will not pay you a different amount if you needed one day or one month.

So feel free collect examples in the archive and look up to them. It's not a shame - that's what the learning process looks like.

Our team is oriented towards creating sales-oriented websites, which of course also includes copywriting services.

If you want a website where you can write the texts yourself, we are here to help with the technical parts and jointly create the best strategy for you.

More about our way of working look here.

Source: youtube.com/DanLok