Four steps to master the magic of copywriting
🚀 Originally published in “Economic Daily”
I have taught copywriting and digital marketing for many years. I have found that the most common problem that companies encounter is not that their products are not good, but that they cannot clearly explain their features and advantages. You may roast coffee beans to be very flavorful, but lose to the advertising bombardment of chain brands; you may make a practical app, but fail to attract the attention of users. Copywriting is not an essay competition. It requires a set of conversion projects that can be copied and verified, that is, using limited resources to convey value to the other party’s heart, so that words can directly bring sales.
The first step in copywriting is never to write about the product, but to write about the people first. Rather than piling up specifications, what is more important is to answer: What situation are your customers in at the moment, what emotions are they carrying, and what trouble do they want to save? Busy office workers don’t need to understand the roasting curve of roasted beans, but can take away a cup of fragrant latte in three minutes; new parents don’t care about the complicated functions of the bottle warmer, but they finally don’t have to count the milk volume while putting them to sleep in the middle of the night. In other words, the better you can describe the other person’s daily life, the more the other person will feel that you understand him or her.
Therefore, the truly effective observation is not to take a glance at the audience profile, but to walk into their environment: where do they shop, how do they compare, what do they complain about most, and which sentence will they stop when they see it? Next, translate what you have into what is of use to him.
Have you heard of the FAB framework? That is, Feature → Advantage → Benefit. It’s like selling a hand-brewed coffee machine: it features ceramic filters and multiple brewing modes; its advantages are that it’s not easy to clog, saves time to clean, and is durable; efficiency is the key to the deal - it allows you to queue up less once a day, spend less on a cup of coffee, and has a stable morning ritual.
In order to implement FAB into the daily life of small and medium-sized enterprises, I suggest supplementing it with the AFA model: Audience × Features × Aim (target). First, write down the audience in detail: not women, but office workers who live in urban areas, care about health, have no time to go to the market, and are afraid of pesticide residues. Then write down the features so that you can believe them: such as direct delivery from the origin, inspection reports, and same-day harvesting. Don’t exaggerate or use empty adjectives.
Finally, remember to set goals: What does this text want people to do? Add to cart, fill out a form, send a private message or download?
I think the method of copywriting is “observation-description-speculation-action”. Observation: Point out the pain points that customers really care about; Description: Use scenarios, comparisons, and evidence to make the pain points tangible; Speculation: Give your proposition (why this is a better choice); Action: Use a clear instruction to push the other party to the next step. Let the entire copy be like a smooth slide, allowing people to close the deal instantly.
When you officially start writing, you can use four steps. First arouse resonance (make people think you are talking about him), then take over the trouble (prove that you really understand), then give specific plans and benefits (use FAB to explain the benefits), and finally wrap it up with a call to action (CTA) (let people know the next step immediately). For example, if you are selling yoga mats, you can write like this: “After sitting all day every day, your shoulders and neck are so hard that they feel like they are locked?” Then follow up: “Many yoga mats are slippery when you sweat, and careful practice can cause injuries.” Plans and benefits: “Eco-friendly rubber anti-slip + thickened support makes movements more stable and knees less painful.” CTA: “Free shipping for a limited time, start practicing yoga now.” You will find that closing a deal is not based on passion, but on logic.
Simply put, the title is the entrance and the CTA is the exit. If the entrance is not strong enough and the exit is not clear enough, no matter how well you write in the middle, it will be in vain. The task given to the title is not to finish it in one breath, but to make people want to stop.
The most stable approach is to write the audience’s pain points or desires into the title, then use questions to shorten the distance, use contrast to create tension, and use results to increase clicks. For example, “Why is your coffee always bitter?” or “It takes three minutes to make a latte that looks like a coffee shop.”
Further reading
- Copywriting power is your “cashability”: before turning ChatGPT into a godly teammate, you must first make yourself stronger
- Welcome to “Vista Copywriting Health Check Tool”
- “Digital Marketing Product Copywriting” course experience: Writing power is your superpower!
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