Effective copywriting is about having a good mix of SEO copywriting skills, online writing skills, and a solid understanding of your target audience and your overall marketing objectives.

Good copywriting can help your content get found, convince people to buy your product or service, and convert readers into fans. In other words, good copywriting is essential to successful marketing.

Here are some of our favourite tips for effective copywriting.

Know your audience. Having an understanding of your target market will help ensure that your message is accurate. Ask yourself, who is your audience? What do they need? What is your competitive advantage or benefit to your audience? Make sure to direct your copy at your readers with personal statements and pronouns, like “you” or “we”.

Do keyword research. Get your content found by usng keywords to increase your SEO ranking. To start, look at your site’s analytics and see what keyword phrases visitors are using to come to your site. Think about your audience, what keywords would they use to find your content?

Use tools like Google Insights for Search and Google’s External Keyword Tool to view trends in search terms and get keyword suggestions for similar terms that you may not have thought of.

Optimize headlines, subheads and summaries with keyword phrases. Once you have your keywords, use them in your headings, subheads and summaries. Read over your copy and see if you’ve included your keywords and find ways to incorporate them without changing the meaning of your copy.

Optimize meta data (meta titles, meta descriptions & URL tags) with keyword phrases. Include your keywords in the following:

• Meta titles: This is the text that appears above the URL in the browser window. It is also the text used by search engines to display links on a search results page. Users are more likely to click on a page title that includes their search phrase or keywords.
• Meta descriptions: These are the tags that appear in the head section of website code. The meta description of each page should include a keyword-rich description of the content on that page. Search engines often use this description as the text blurb in search results.
• URLs: You want to have keywords in your URLs that match a possible search phrase. This is because users are more likely to click on a link that contains their search phrase. 
• Heading tags: It is important to use keywords in your heading tags, because these tells search engines whether the content on the page is relevant to a user’s search. .

Tell a story. Identify the story within your product or service – what is compelling or remarkable about what you are trying to sell? Create something worth talking about, tell the people who want to hear it, and they will spread the word. 

Pinpoint a problem, then solve it. What problem is your audience experiencing? What difficultly are they having? Position your product or service as a solution to this problem.

Provide authority and social proof. Your content needs to be credible. Use success stories and testimonials to provide proof to what you are saying. Include credentials, experience, authority statements, degrees, rank and/or fame.

Another tactic is to make readers feel like they are missing out. “Don’t be left behind…” or “Have you heard? Everybody is talking about…”

Use numbers. Numbers catch readers’ eyes, particularly when they’re scanning copy on the web. As Ken Beaulieu from FuelNet points out, using numbers to evoke emotion can be very effective.  “Harry and David, the fruit growers in Oregon, talk about their pears by saying, ‘Not one person in a thousand has tasted one,’” says Robert Bly, author of The Copywriter’s Handbook. “Putting it that way makes it sound exclusive.”

Make your copy rational.List the reasons why your audience should buy your product or service. People need justification for their purchasing decisions.

Create a sense of urgency. Create a sense of urgency around your copy. Stress uniqueness, limited quantities or deadlines for taking action.

Urge commitment and consistency. Appeal to a reader’s previous actions. “Since you’ve read this, than you may be interested in…” Urge readers to be consistent in their behaviours. “In the past, you’ve enjoyed the Boxcar Marketing blog so I know that you’ll be interested in our whitepaper…”

Be a Friend. Write your copy as a trusted friend. Be likeable and position yourself as a peer of your reader.

Use logical organization. Can readers easily scan the copy to see if it is relevant to them? Do you have a clear call to action? What do you want your reader to do? Have you made things easy by offering limited choices, a clear benefit statement and clear paths through the content?

Once you’ve followed these tips, Mequoda’s Housekeeping Checklist is useful for finalizing your copy:

• Check spelling.
• Check for consistent style. Example: email vs. e-mail, etc.
• Check all hypertext links and button copy for benefit-laden call to action. Example: [link]Yes, I want prize-winning azaleas.[/link]
• Read aloud. Does the copy sound as though it is being spoken by a real person? Is it warm? Friendly? Reassuring? Remove or rewrite any commands that sound threatening or scolding.
• Put aside for at least an hour—overnight is better.
• Reread. Rewrite. Re-edit.