How Do You Prep Your Web Copy? Effective Copywriting For Your Business.
Copywriting isn't just a service, it is a detail-oriented process that anyone with a firm grasp of their chosen language can accomplish. However, knowing how to write is not enough. Anyone can put two sentences together but will the work be effective?
Effective copywriting requires prep time, write time, and ample review time. It takes time.
Over the years I have learned and honed my own process, however, I do have a few tips to help you create your own effective copywriting. After all, being effective means better copy for your own business or even the ability to write web copy for a living. As a matter of fact, you could apply these ideas to any of your written works- web, blog, article, or any of your other copywriting needs!
Let's start with:
1. Effective copywriting prep time.
Prepping for the work you are about to write is the most important step. It dramatically decreases the amount of time you will spend writing and editing later. Seriously, this will save you. In school, I learned that some serious prep prior to writing and reviewing your work can take an average writer and make them great. I want to be great. You want to be great. We need to prepare our content!
How exactly do we prep? Where it all starts is an idea. I'm sure you have an idea. I have an idea right here. However, an idea will not get you all that far. You need facts and statistics to back up that idea. You'll see here that I did not back up my work with any facts or statistics that I could quote. I am writing a simple blog piece on my own experience, though. If you need some hard-hitting information to stand up against argument, though, you need those bits of proven information to back up your writing.
Once you have your idea and the information to back all that up, outline the heck out of your work.
I have always hated creating outlines. Please listen closely because I would not recommend it if I felt you could get by without one.
Your outline does not need to be detailed. Think of it like note-taking. You have a header, subcategories, and a conclusion. Isn't that what most broken-down articles look like? Rather than create notes of a completed work, you create an outline to see what your piece will convey before it can become notes again. It is a bit of reverse engineering. What do you want your takeaway to look like when someone reads your work? Their notes should resemble your content outline.
2. Effective copywriting write time.
This part just got easier. You have all the work done in prep, now you just need to fill in the gaps.
Creating the content is easy. If you are writing for a group that will only scan your work, without reading it as a whole, consider stating your main thought in the first sentence. Elaborate in the following sentences. Your thought will grab their attention, and they will read the supporting lines of that initial thought in that paragraph if it did the expected job of attracting their attention.
Throw each punch in your outline. Bam! 1/3rd of people care about this statement right now. This is why they care about that statement. You should care too. Now end point one and move on.
Do you get the gist of what I am saying here? Make your points and make them stand out at the beginning of every paragraph. Simple, right?
3. Effective copywriting review time.
Never publish your work without a good review of what you wrote (unlike what I did on Sunday, oops). Depending on the piece you wrote, that review process can look a little differently to everyone.
Client work will often go to the client for final review, for example. If I am writing an important piece for my own needs, I'll ask my own resources for their thoughts on my piece. I also like to throw my work through a simple plagiarism and grammar check to make sure everything is kosher with my writing and content formation.
The plagiarism check is especially important as most people want search engines to recognize their content as original. You don't have to plagiarize directly for something to come across as such. It is better safe than sorry.
These are the essentials for a good piece of copy. They not only improve my quality but they make me a more effective copywriter.
I love what I do. I want you to love it too. If you don't have the time or experience to write your own web copy, contact me and we can work out the details to create an eye-catching piece of copy for you!