Great copy is purpose-driven copy! Find out how you can write content that engages and sells! [Tuesdays: Return Driven Strategy]
Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
One of the frameworks I truly find effective in managing MBO Partners is Return Driven Strategy (RDS).
Discussed in the book, “Driven,” this pyramid-shaped framework has 11 tenets and 3 foundations. When applied properly in your own business strategy, these principles help you achieve true wealth and value creation.
Did you know you can also use RDS in the context of your career? Just apply its tenets and foundations to the microlevel and you have Career Driven Strategy (CDS).
Today, we’ll talk about CDS in the lens of copywriting.
Keep reading and check out some purpose-driven copywriting tips to engage your target audience.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Return Driven Strategy
Selling or promoting your brand’s offerings online can be tricky. Your target market can’t touch, taste, smell, or see your products or services in the flesh.
Instead, consumers rely on your copy—the written message used to describe an item’s features and benefits, the problems it solves, and how it makes readers feel—to help them decide whether or not they should act on your call-to-action (CTA).
That’s why as a business owner or marketer, you need to have strong copywriting skills. This will give you the power to convince your target market to click, sign up, or buy your offerings.
What does good copywriting look like?
Good copywriting helps your brand achieve 2 things: Fulfill your customers’ needs and generate profits.
However, the problem comes when some businesses hyper-focus on features and value props they “think” lead to profit when in reality, the key to unlocking their target market’s trust (and wallets) is PURPOSE, or the reason WHY your brand exists.
Photo from Growth Rocket
Purpose-driven copywriting answers 2 important questions about your brand:
- Why does your solution matter?
Do you…
… help other business owners overcome a certain problem?
… enable customers to fulfill their potential?
… exist to educate, inform, inspire, entertain, etc.?
- What are you truly selling?
Are you selling…
… time?
… convenience?
… opportunity?
… peace of mind?
… security?
Answering these questions will enable you to craft suitable copies for your offerings and create an emotional hook. It will give your target market something to connect and align themselves with.
Once your clients and customers feel connected with your brand, they will more likely book, buy, register for, or click whatever goods or services you’re putting out in the market.
The result?
You’ll not only fulfill your target market’s needs but also generate profits through your copies!
Here’s how you can use purpose-driven copywriting to engage your target market:
- Write as if you’re having a casual conversation with your customers.
Writing using words that make you sound smart is good, but that’s not the goal of effective copywriting.
When writing copies, remember that your goal is not just to deliver your message, but also to make sure your readers understand what you’re saying. So, avoid complex words and keep your sentences and paragraphs simple.
Also, write in your target market’s language! This will keep them hooked on your copies and give them an impression that your brand can relate with them.
As David Ogilvy said:
“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.”
- Use unbiased copies.
Imagine you’re browsing 2 websites. The first website’s copy is written by a copywriter who simply raves about how great a product is. Meanwhile, the second website’s copy does the same, only some of the text is from happy customers who can vouch for what the copywriter wrote.
Between these two, which one are you more likely to engage with—the first or second?
We bet you’ll choose the second website! Why?
It uses social proof—reviews from happy customers—to make you trust the product more!
According to an article from e-commerce company Shopify, social proof makes copies look less biased. Additionally, testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content (UGC) help improve a sales page’s conversion rates by 34%.
- Limit adjectives.
Adjectives help you explain what your products look like, what they do, and how they make your readers feel upon reading your copy.
In moderation, adjectives are useful in copywriting. However, an overdose of these words gives your readers a headache because they make your content hard to understand.
So, follow these best practices:
- As much as possible, use only 1 adjective before a noun.
- Avoid using adjectives to state the obvious.
- Choose sensory or emotional adjectives to appeal to your target market.
Doing these tips will help you write simple and captivating copies… and the simpler and more captivating your copies are, the higher the chance of getting your readers hooked on your written content!
Purpose-Driven Copywriting and Career Driven Strategy (CDS)
Creating copies that are driven by your brand’s purpose not only fulfills Tenet 11 of CDS—Communicate Holistically. It also fulfills Tenet 9, which is Engage Yourself and Others.
Think about this: Purpose-driven copywriting helps spark positive emotions out of your target market. These emotions compel consumers to interact with you and your brand, either by:
- Subscribing to your email newsletters
- Reading your blogs
- Signing up for your event
- Sharing your social media posts
- Buying your products or services
… or others.
Besides, there’s more that goes into the copywriting process than simply listing your offerings’ best features. As a business owner, marketer, or copywriter, you have to keep in mind that one of the secrets to high-performing copies is to listen to your target market.
Apply these tips to create purpose-driven copywriting that engages your customers and prospects!
Remember: It’s only when you connect with your readers and provoke positive emotions in your copy that you can create words that sell.
Stay tuned for the next “Return Driven Strategy” article!
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Tuesdays: Return Driven Strategy”
In the book, “Driven,” authors Professor Joel Litman and Dr. Mark L. Frigo said that the goal of every long-term successful business strategy should incorporate the combined necessity of “making the world a better place” and “getting wealthy.”
That is why they created Return Driven Strategy and Career Driven Strategy―frameworks that were built to help leaders and professionals plan and evaluate businesses so they can also help others achieve their organizational goals and career goals.
The frameworks describe the plans and actions that drive returns for anyone in an organization such as independent contractors, marketers, brand managers, communicators, and other people in any field. These actions lead to the creation of wealth and value for customers, employees, shareholders, and the society.
Every Tuesday, we’ll highlight case studies, business strategies, tips, and insights related to Return Driven Strategy and Career Driven Strategy.
In planning, building, or managing brands and businesses, these strategies, case studies, and guidelines will help you choose what specific actions to take and when to take them.
Hope you found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Tuesday’s “Return Driven Strategy!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
Powered by Valens Research
www.valens-research.com
