SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO COPYWRITING

What is copywriting?

 Any kind of writing that convinces you to perform a specific action

 3 broad components
1. Art - appeal to the emotion
2. Science - pratical and testable
3. Persuasion - elicits action from the reader

Know your product

 You have to know the following:

1. Feature - describes the product’s design or capability
2. Benefit - how is it useful to the customer?
 To know the difference between a feature and a benefit, ask the question “so what?”
 The answer to “so what?” is the benefit
 If you can’t see immediately the benefit of your product, ask the following questions:
1. Why does this feature exist?
2. How does this connect to human desire?
3. What is in it for the customer?
 Never lie about the product

Know your competitors

 Research Competitors
 List inferior elements of competitor’s products
 How can you be different from the competitors?
 Create a specific product or service that targets people with a unique need
 Create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
 John Carlton’s USP approach
1. We hope (target audience)
2. Do (what you help them accomplish)
3. Even if (worst case scenario)
 USP is not your tagline. This is your elevator pitch.
 Creating USP
1. Clear and concise
2. Focus on benefits
3. Diffirentiate self
4. Build trust

Competitive Copywriting

 This mentions your competition

 Be careful about the tone
 What if the competition attacks you?
 Defensive
 Refute claim
 Divert attention
 Offensive
 Highlight negative feature