Effective copywriting is essential for any business, whether it’s an SME or a global enterprise in B2B or B2C. Every business needs to attract potential customers, build brand trust, and stand out in a sea of sameness and AI dross.
But while the biggest companies will have an in-house marketing team with copywriters to cover all their marketing comms, smaller businesses won’t have this luxury. This is where a trusted freelance copywriter can help you (nudge, nudge).
But if you need to write your marketing comms yourself and think it’s a daunting prospect, there are plenty of copywriting tips and tricks to help you. Whether you’re writing for your website, emails, or social media, well-written content can make a big difference in how your business comes across to potential customers.
Good copy is a direct conversation with your customer. So here are ten copywriting tips that you can do immediately to improve your content and make it engaging, clear, and helpful for your audience.
1. Know your audience
Before you write anything, make sure you understand who your target audience is. As a business, you’ll know this better than anyone and be able to tap into their pain points, wants, needs, and motivations. Use any customer research, data, and feedback to write content that resonates with them. The more you know about your audience, the more effective your copy will be.
2. Write clearly and simply
It can be tempting to use big, long words or technical jargon to make you sound clever. The reality is it won’t – it will just annoy people. Your copy should be conversational and easy to read and understand. Always keep your content simple by using clear, everyday language that tells people what they want to know without complex wording. If you’re a Microsoft user, you can use the in-built readability tool to help you.
3. Focus on benefits, not just features
Businesses can often get distracted in their marketing by focusing on the wrong thing. Early in the buying journey, potential customers don’t really care about what you do (features) so much as whether you can help them solve their problem (benefits). Make the focus of your writing on how your product or service will improve their life.
4. Use clear calls to action (CTAs)
Using a CTA is a super-effective way to encourage your reader to take the next step. Whether it’s ‘shop now’, ‘sign up for our newsletter’, ‘download your free guide’, or ‘book your free consultation’, make sure your CTA is clear, compelling, and tells them what you want them to do. And avoid vague, boring, and weak phrases like ‘click here’ and use strong, benefit-driven CTAs.
5. Make your website customer-focused
If a prospect lands on your website, you need to do all you can to make them stay there. If they’re there for the first time, your site needs to make a good – no, a great – first impression. Your homepage, product/service pages, and about page should focus on what your audience needs and what’s in it for them rather than just talking about you. Use clear H1 and H2 headings, short sentences and paragraphs, and bullet points to make all your information easy to scan.
6. Make your copy SEO-friendly
To help you rise up the Google search rankings and get more organic traffic to your site, use keywords and search terms relevant to your topic in your copy naturally. But while using SEO-friendly headings, meta descriptions, and alt text for images, make sure you write for humans first and search engines second. And avoid keyword stuffing (using the same keyword over and over).
7. Keep your emails short and engaging
People are flooded with emails every day, so to cut through the noise, you need to keep yours short and helpful. Use compelling subject lines to grab attention, get personal with your content (think more “Hi [first name]” and less “Dear valued customer”), and include a strong CTA. A winning email should feel like a conversation with one person, not a sales pitch to thousands.
8. Use a consistent tone of voice
Your brand tone of voice is important and should reflect your business’s personality. Whether it’s friendly and professional with a dollop of humour or outright playful and laced with energy, you need consistency across your website, blogs, emails, and social media – especially if different people write that content. This ‘one voice’ style helps build trust and makes you more recognisable.
9. Use storytelling
We all love a good story, and they can be a powerful business tool. But I’m not talking about ‘Once upon a time…’ stuff here. Instead of just listing features or saying, “We can do this” or “We can do that”, tell a story about how your product or service has helped a customer. Use case studies, reviews, and real-life examples to make your copy more engaging, relatable, and full of social proof.
10. Edit and proofread carefully
Wrong punctuation, grammatical errors, and typos can make your business look unprofessional. Usual spellcheckers might pick up typos, but only in the right context. So if you write ‘there’ when you mean ‘their’, it might get missed because it’s spelt correctly, just used incorrectly.
Before emailing or posting any copy – especially if you’re about to send 10,000 brochures to print – use tools like Grammarly to check for spelling, grammar, and conciseness suggestions. When you’re happy with it, print out your final copy and read it out loud so you can spot awkward phrasing or repetition.
Why good copy matters for your business
The written word is a powerful tool. It’s also the quickest and smartest marketing tool you have to engage and connect with your customers and convince them to take action (downloading, buying, calling, or whatever).
By following some or all of these copywriting tips, as a small business owner, you can start creating content for your website, emails, blogs, and socials that’s compelling, engaging, and can boost conversions and sales. Write copy that helps you be so good, they can’t ignore you!
Hire me as your freelance copywriter
But some of these copywriting tips might not be practical for everyone. If you’re still struggling to get your point across clearly, can’t get what’s in your head down on paper, or need a fresh perspective on your content, stop spending your valuable time trying to create content that isn’t working.
As a freelance copywriter with a decade of experience under my belt, you can take advantage of my six core copywriting services that deliver high-quality, natural, and conversational copy that builds trust and authority for your business.
If you need help writing your website and brochure or blogs, case studies, and product descriptions, even proofreading and copyediting what you’ve written, email me today at write@dropcapcopy.com and let’s have a chat about what I can do to help you.
Photo by Mohammad Mardani on Unsplash
