Copywriting Is Your Silent Sales Team

You’ve spent a small fortune on graphic design, but now you need more than pretty pictures to make your website or brochure effective. You need words!

An amazing design is not enough. You need words to deliver your message with conviction.

The Right Words Stimulate Action

What is copywriting? It’s the text you use in your marketing materials, the writing for your website, ads, brochures, catalogs, press releases and sales letters. But really, copywriting is so much more.

It’s actually your silent sales team because it’s often your prospect’s first introduction to your company or your product.

The text in your promotions and on your website tells customers and prospects what you’re all about. And, when done right, copywriting compels them to take a particular action such as:

• Request more information
• Schedule an appointment
• Place an order
• Sign up for your mailing list
• Refer someone to your business

Use Copywriting to Persuade the Reader

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can just throw your copywriting together. Your words matter.  They will either persuade the reader to go forward or to click off your website, never to be heard from again.

Consider this: When people visit your website or read your brochure, you aren’t there to answer their questions or convince them of the merits of your product. Your words need to do that for you. Copywriting takes the place of an in-person sales pitch.

Focus on Benefits

One of the cornerstones of good copywriting is to convey benefits. Benefits are the advantages your customer receives from using your product. And benefits will sell your products better than features do. Although successful copy combines both, the best copy for most products focuses on the benefits.

An example: You sell a pair of pantyhose.

The features are that it is made of quality fabric and has a built-in panty with a control top.

The benefits are that this pair of pantyhose will make your legs look spectacular – silky and smooth as a supermodel’s. The built-in panty means you don’t have to wear underwear, so they’re more comfortable and you never have to worry about visible panty lines. Best of all, the control top will make you look 10 pounds lighter, instantly!

Notice how when we talked about the features of the pantyhose, the product isn’t terribly impressive. In fact, these pantyhose sound pretty much like any other pair of pantyhose. But when we talk about benefits, the product sounds much more interesting and appealing. Benefits help sell your product.

Build Your Brand

Your words can help build or or harm your brand.  What words fit your brand?  What makes you different and better?  How can you articulate your unique qualities?  The language you use matters.

Think of your brand as your company’s “personality.”  It needs to be distinct and successfully communicate who you are.  It’s the promise on which you build your business.

The words you choose to describe your products or services will put an image in your prospect’s mind.  Make sure they correctly target your prospective customer and accurately reflect your brand.

Quality Copywriting Sells

Composing benefit-laden copy that’s consistent with your brand is just one of the techniques professional copywriters use to make your marketing tools effective. Be sure you’re putting your best foot forward on your website and in your brochures, press releases and ads by using quality copywriting as your silent sales team.

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