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What copywriting isThe goal of copywriting is to move people to take specific actions. It’s the kind of writing that appears in promotional media, including ads, billboards, brochures, websites, sales presentations, sales proposals, online videos, and other communication channels.
How copywriting is different from content marketingCopywriting suggests next steps on the path toward a sale. It's openly persuasive. It shows a prospect that the rewards of taking a next step outweigh the effort and risk.
Content marketing, in contrast, builds interaction and relationships with potential customers – even if they aren't interested in your sales messages.
It's designed to build trust and credibility with people who may not be shopping yet.
The goal is for them to think well of your brand and to put you on their shopping list when they're ready to buy.
How copywriting is different for B2BAll good copywriting aligns with the buyer's thought process. And a buyer's thought process is likely to be different for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) purchases.
The bigger and more complex the purchase, the greater the differences are likely to be. Big purchases are riskier than smaller ones. They involve more people. The process is likely to be more formal. It involves more steps.
For all of these reasons, B2B purchases often involve different buying motives and emotions.
Initially, B2B buyers are more interested in benefits to themself than to their company. They don't like to think this is true, but it makes sense:
If a decision goes badly, the buyer's risk is personal. She wastes time and may lose credibility. She may even lose her job.
In the backs of their minds, buyers look for enough personal gain to offset their personal risks.
Good B2B sales copy reduces the buyer's perception of risk at every stage in her thought process.
Many B2C copywriters don't understand these factors and their implications for effective B2B copy.
Why you need good copywritingYou need good copywriting because people almost always resist taking a next step.
They're busy. They're distracted. They procrastinate. The next step looks like too much effort. They're not ready yet.
They don't want to provide information about themselves. They don't want to talk to a sales person.
They're afraid someone will start bugging them. They already get too much junk mail or email.
Good copywriting seduces. It overcomes resistance. It shows your prospects what's in it for them.
Good copywriting can dramatically increase the number of leads you generate, and it can help move people faster through their buying decision process.
And with many forms of copywriting, the contribution of good writing is easy to measure.
The difference good copywriting can makeWhat you say and how you say it can make a huge difference.
Split tests have shown that changing a single word in a headline can increase responses by more than 80%. By changing the text of a download button, you can increase downloads by as much as 30%.
It's almost like magic. The wrong words may get no action, when the right words can get big results.
Great copywriting can be as important to your business as great sales people. And it's much less expensive.
Why your sales funnel is hard to keep fullYou know the metaphor of a sales funnel. At the top you have lots of people in the early stages of a buying process. At the bottom you have fewer leads that are closer to buying.
Something's wrong with this picture of sales funnels. It suggests that time and gravity are on your side: with time, the good leads naturally settle to the bottom of the funnel where you want them to go.
But time and gravity are your enemies. And sales funnels leak like sieves.
So to be more accurate, let's show a funnel that's full of holes. And let's turn it upside-down.
This new picture shows how eager your leads are to escape from your sales process.
To keep your leads moving toward a sale, you have to fight the strong natural resistance of most buyers to take a next step. And that's the challenge of copywriting.
Good sales copy has five traits:
In addition, it's got to be tailored to the interests of the target audience. It focuses on "what's in it for me" (the buyer) instead of on what's in it for you (the seller).
Finally, it's got to be right for the medium or the channel. Web copy is different from direct-mail copy.
Direct-mail copy is different from ad copy. Video scripts are different from audio scripts. And so on.
Why it's best to write your own copy if you canSome of the very best copywriters are business owners and senior executives who write for their own companies.
If you can write good sales copy, do it! No outsider can know your product, your services, and your target customers as well as you do. And no one else has your passion.
By writing your own copy you'll maintain control and save money.
But most executives and many marketers have never learned the techniques and mastered the skills to write good copy. Or they can't make time to do it well.
The truth is, most people – including marketers – are bad at copywriting unless they've invested the time and effort to learn to do it well.
And you don't know how much better their writing could be unless you test alternative approaches. Very few B2B companies do this.
That's why it often makes sense to hire outsiders to help.
How Redwell can helpRedwell provides four services related to copywriting:
Redwell works with diverse forms of copywriting, including these:
We provide design and production services, or we can work with designers of your choice.
See samples of Redwell's published work for clients
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