Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.
In this exercise, you’ll be writing product descriptions with different goals.
Just pick a product or service for which you’re the ideal customer. Be sure it’s something you’re really familiar with and that you can easily describe. Now write a short 100 to 300-word description for it.
You’ll write five versions of this, with each one focusing on a different aspect.
~Feature-based: Describe the main features of the product or service (color, material, dimensions, what it does).
~ Benefit-based: Focus on how the product will improve the customer’s life (“This canvas shopping bag has eight inside pockets of various widths to hold bottles, tall cans, wine…)
~ Urgency-based: Use time-sensitive language like “last chance” or “limited offer.”
~ Scarcity-based: Create a feel of scarcity. (“Only 3 left in stock!”)
~ Emotion-based: Arouse a strong emotional response. (“Feel more secure when you use this lock.”)
Remember, you’re not putting all of these aspects into one description; but 5 different descriptions.
When you’ve finished, read each description and ask yourself:
Which one expresses the most value and persuades you to buy? Why? How does changing the focus between emotion vs features alter the feel of the copy?
Emotion and desire drive customers to act. Both are necessary for good copy and you need to know how to balance them—to move beyond boring dry facts.
This exercise sharpens your ability to move beyond dry, boring facts and focus on what truly drives customers to act—emotion and desire.
5. CTA Variations
Review your emails and find one that promotes an offer. Check the CTA that’s used.
Practice different variations of this CTA. You’re going to write 10 variations.
Don’t just change out a word or two.
Test different tones, swap out the action verb, try out different urgency levels, etc.
Remember, the focus is on simplicity and getting the reader to take fast action.
Some can be more urgent while others are more subtle and benefit-focused.
For example:
Urgency – “Claim your spot before they’re all gone.”
benefits – “Buy now and unlock two free bonuses.”
When you’ve completed the CTA variations, analyze what you’ve come up with.
Which one do you think would work better in that email, and why?
Remember, simplicity and clarity are key with all CTAs.
6. Turn boring features into benefits
Of course, features are important when it comes to selling anything, but it’s not the matter-of-fact plain ones that make the sale. It’s the EMOTIONAL reaction a person has to these features.
You need to make those features sound appealing.
For example:
Instead of cotton dishcloths for your kitchen, “12-inch multi-colored dishcloths to match your kitchen.”
Open something like Amazon in your browser and pick one of the top 5 products that pop up.
It doesn’t matter what it is – shoes, coat, water pitcher, or whatever.
Write out ten features about that product.
Take these features and turn them into a BENEFIT while asking yourself:
“What does the customer gain?”
For example:
~ Feature: “Has a detachable lining”
~ Benefit: “Remove lining whenever you want”
To help you spice up your copy, ask yourself why the customer would care. A trick to use for help in answering this question and for making your copy more relatable and persuasive is to finish your sentence with “so you can…”
The above coat example now becomes:
“Has a detachable lining that you can remove for those warmer days and NOT have to spend MONEY for another coat.
7. Write for different times of the customer journey
This exercise, for customers at different stages of their journey, is a little more advanced.
Choose a product to write about, but don’t overthink it.
Picture a customer at three different stages of the purchasing process.
Write for each of these stages. Your copy will be DIFFERENT because at each stage the goal is different.
First stage:
In the first stage, the customer realizes there’s a problem.
Write an Ad or headline that addresses the difficulty and introduces your product or service as a possible solution.
This copy will be the customer’s FIRST contact.
In the Second stage, the customers are seeking solutions.
They’re comparing options and deciding which one is best for them.
Compose an email that educates the reader about how your product or service UNIQUELY solves their problem. Detail WHY you’re the right person/product/service and the reason they should choose you.
The email SHOULD NOT be SELLING but delivering information and value.
In the third stage, the customer is ready to buy. Write a landing page or a sales page encouraging them to take the next step and buy the product.
Although this exercise takes some time, it will help you to understand how to “meet” your customers where they are in the buying process. This is essential in all great marketing.
These are not all the levels of customer awareness, but they are more than enough for this exercise.
Effective copywriting is tailored to resonate with a particular target audience.
Understanding who you’re trying to reach is vital when creating copy that grabs attention and encourages further engagement.
It’s not all or nothing when it comes to great copy.
Now you have a variety of exercises on how to get better at copywriting, from which to choose and to reference again and again.
How to Get Better at Copywriting (Part 2)
By Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.
The first three exercises were covered in part 1. The rest are covered here.
4. Product Descriptions
In this exercise, you’ll be writing product descriptions with different goals.
Just pick a product or service for which you’re the ideal customer. Be sure it’s something you’re really familiar with and that you can easily describe. Now write a short 100 to 300-word description for it.
You’ll write five versions of this, with each one focusing on a different aspect.
~ Feature-based: Describe the main features of the product or service (color, material, dimensions, what it does).
~ Benefit-based: Focus on how the product will improve the customer’s life (“This canvas shopping bag has eight inside pockets of various widths to hold bottles, tall cans, wine…)
~ Urgency-based: Use time-sensitive language like “last chance” or “limited offer.”
~ Scarcity-based: Create a feel of scarcity. (“Only 3 left in stock!”)
~ Emotion-based: Arouse a strong emotional response. (“Feel more secure when you use this lock.”)
Remember, you’re not putting all of these aspects into one description; but 5 different descriptions.
When you’ve finished, read each description and ask yourself:
Which one expresses the most value and persuades you to buy? Why? How does changing the focus between emotion vs features alter the feel of the copy?
Emotion and desire drive customers to act. Both are necessary for good copy and you need to know how to balance them—to move beyond boring dry facts.
This exercise sharpens your ability to move beyond dry, boring facts and focus on what truly drives customers to act—emotion and desire.
5. CTA Variations
Review your emails and find one that promotes an offer. Check the CTA that’s used.
Practice different variations of this CTA. You’re going to write 10 variations.
Don’t just change out a word or two.
Test different tones, swap out the action verb, try out different urgency levels, etc.
Remember, the focus is on simplicity and getting the reader to take fast action.
Some can be more urgent while others are more subtle and benefit-focused.
For example:
Urgency – “Claim your spot before they’re all gone.”
benefits – “Buy now and unlock two free bonuses.”
When you’ve completed the CTA variations, analyze what you’ve come up with.
Which one do you think would work better in that email, and why?
Remember, simplicity and clarity are key with all CTAs.
6. Turn boring features into benefits
Of course, features are important when it comes to selling anything, but it’s not the matter-of-fact plain ones that make the sale. It’s the EMOTIONAL reaction a person has to these features.
You need to make those features sound appealing.
For example:
Instead of cotton dishcloths for your kitchen, “12-inch multi-colored dishcloths to match your kitchen.”
Open something like Amazon in your browser and pick one of the top 5 products that pop up.
It doesn’t matter what it is – shoes, coat, water pitcher, or whatever.
Write out ten features about that product.
Take these features and turn them into a BENEFIT while asking yourself:
“What does the customer gain?”
For example:
~ Feature: “Has a detachable lining”
~ Benefit: “Remove lining whenever you want”
To help you spice up your copy, ask yourself why the customer would care.
A trick to use for help in answering this question and for making your copy more relatable and persuasive is to finish your sentence with “so you can…”
The above coat example now becomes:
“Has a detachable lining that you can remove for those warmer days and NOT have to spend MONEY for another coat.
7. Write for different times of the customer journey
This exercise, for customers at different stages of their journey, is a little more advanced.
Choose a product to write about, but don’t overthink it.
Picture a customer at three different stages of the purchasing process.
Write for each of these stages. Your copy will be DIFFERENT because at each stage the goal is different.
First stage:
In the first stage, the customer realizes there’s a problem.
Write an Ad or headline that addresses the difficulty and introduces your product or service as a possible solution.
This copy will be the customer’s FIRST contact.
In the Second stage, the customers are seeking solutions.
They’re comparing options and deciding which one is best for them.
Compose an email that educates the reader about how your product or service UNIQUELY solves their problem. Detail WHY you’re the right person/product/service and the reason they should choose you.
The email SHOULD NOT be SELLING but delivering information and value.
In the third stage, the customer is ready to buy. Write a landing page or a sales page encouraging them to take the next step and buy the product.
Although this exercise takes some time, it will help you to understand how to “meet” your customers where they are in the buying process. This is essential in all great marketing.
These are not all the levels of customer awareness, but they are more than enough for this exercise.
Effective copywriting is tailored to resonate with a particular target audience.
Understanding who you’re trying to reach is vital when creating copy that grabs attention and encourages further engagement.
It’s not all or nothing when it comes to great copy.
Now you have a variety of exercises on how to get better at copywriting, from which to choose and to reference again and again.
Try this viral mailer that pays