Mmmmmm, rich, sticky, gooey chocolate cake. 😋

Don’t you want your website, email and social media copy to be like that? Totally tempting and irresistible?

Then, think of your copy like a cake.

When you’re writing, you have to juggle a lot of balls in the air, so I find it helps to think of the different elements like ingredients in a cake.

You need all of them to create a real showstopper, and when you practice you’ll get better and better at bringing them all together.

Here are my top copywriting tips to help you bake a really tasty content cake.

Here’s my foolproof recipe for writing great content and copy that will help you achieve your business goals.

Copywriting cake ingredients:

đŸ„Ł Hook

Think a nice juicy cherry on top, or a liberal sprinkling of colourful smarties. The Hook is more essential than ever before to grab the attention of your reader. You can do this by making a bold statement, stating something surprising, or out of the ordinary, or maybe just a single word. The Hook’s job is to stop the reader in their tracks and get them to pay attention to what you have to say. 

In fact, I did it in this blog post. By writing, “Mmmm, rich, sticky, gooey chocolate cake,” I’ve written something unexpected. You don’t expect to see that on a marketing coach’s website, do you? I could have written, “Great content tips you need to know
but that, well. I bet you’ve already glazed over.

đŸ„Ł Brand messaging

If there was a part of the copy that was more important than any other, I’d have to single out the brand messaging. Don’t let the fancy marketing term put you off.  It simply means the things your customer needs to know and believe before they will buy from you. If you’re a shop selling sustainable products, your brand messages might be things like, “Buying responsibly is important,” and, “We have the best range of sustainable products in the Midlands.”  This is the stodgy flour content of the copy, the real substance. Without the messaging there actually is no point in writing the content in the first place. You need to be clear on this before you even get started. It needs to be the focus of a piece of content or copy. The brand messaging is derived from your mission and purpose, and once you’ve got it down it makes all your copy and content so much more effective (and so much easier to write).

đŸ„Ł SEO

This is mainly for web copy, but if your copy and content doesn’t get any eyeballs, it won’t get you any sales. Simple. Using SEO techniques to make sure your content is high quality and approved by Google will make you far more searchable. Which means your lovely delicious content is more likely to be enjoyed by a wider audience. If you’re looking for SEO support, I can thoroughly recommend the lovely Aime of Studio Cotton and Andrew of Yeseo.

đŸ„Ł Tone of voice

Your tone of voice. It’s your flavour, your personality. Are you a traditional lemon drizzle or a more flamboyant and edgy macha, raspberry and white chocolate frangipani? Generally speaking, a conversational writing tone always connects best – but how relaxed you want the writing to feel, depends on your brand feel and/or your personality.  Which words are you known for using in everyday speech? What themes would you like to run through your copy and how would you like it to feel: happy, upbeat, irreverent, fun, energetic, laid-back? Anything goes, as long as it resonates with your customer and feels authentic to your brand. And if you can make your tone of voice distinctive, that will help you stand out.

đŸ„Ł Audience

You wouldn’t talk to your Granny the same way you’d talk to your BFF, would you? There’s an old saying, “Speak to everyone, speak to no-one,” and that’s true here. You can’t be all things to all people, so get specific on who you’re talking to. Your customers want to feel like you’re talking to them. So use the kind of language that they’d use, talk about things that would interest them and explain things in a way they’d understand. When a potential customer feels like you’re talking directly to them, now that’s powerful.

đŸ„Ł User experience/flow

We’re all time-poor. In fact, congratulations if you’ve got this far down the blog post. Most people won’t. So think about the user experience throughout the piece. Is all the information the customer needs to make a decision at the top of the copy? Make sure the copy/content makes sense and flows well from a customer perspective. Makes sure it’s clear. And make sure you’re signposting where you want the customer to go next. It’s rude to keep someone hanging. So gently suggest where they could go next for more information. Confused customers don’t buy, so make it really simple
and if in doubt, ask a friend or colleague to read it to make sure. (It’s often hard to see the yourself, if you’ve written it).

đŸ„Ł Conversion copywriting

Conversion copywriting is a whole other subject, but it’s something you might want to think about to make your copy convert more effectively. What do I mean by ‘convert’? Well, simply the ability of your copy or content (whether it’s a sales page, Facebook ad, blog post, Instagram story or web page) to sell your product or service effectively. Using techniques such as using ‘voice of customer’ and using the language your customer actually uses, as well as using the word ‘you’ can all help with this. Testing different styles of copy to see what works best can also be useful.  Conversion copywriting is something to look into once you know you’re already getting eyeballs on your copy and everything else is as it should be and it should help drive up your sales conversion rate.

Copywriting method

When you blend these different elements together, in a way that works for you, magic will happen – just like the way the ingredients of a cake come together to create a showstopping gateau. Who knows, you might even get a Hollywood handshake.

Each one of these copywriting tips has a different part to play, and each can add a different dimension to your copy and content.

When I’m writing, I’ll run through all these elements in my head, to make sure I’ve covered every angle. You could use this as a checklist for when you write your own copy.

This helps me to write great, memorable copy that my customers want to engage with, and most importantly, gets results (i.e. helps my customers to like, know and trust me, and feel they would benefit from working with me).

I hope these copywriting tips help you. Why not see if it helps you with improving your own copy and content for your business? Do you have any other great copywriting tips? Why not share them in the comments below.

Because nobody wants copy like a stodgy, old, mouldy, out-of-date teacake đŸ„Ž

And if you’d like my help to develop your copywriting skills (and get you writing some showstoppers), you can check out my mentoring services here to learn more of my copywriting tips.