How to write engaging copy for your marketing

How you market your small business can make or break your ability to win over customers. 

When your copy, or the words you use in your marketing, is interesting and captivating, you can build a connection with your audience. It can also help you convert that audience into paying customers. 

But if you’re unsure where to start, you’ve come to the right place. 

This guide covers how to write engaging copy for your marketing, including:

• Know your audience
• Refine your tone
• Spend time on the title
• Tell a story
• Avoid fluff
• Keep it benefit-driven
• Make it featured-driven
• Include a call to action (CTA)

You can check your copy for a few things to ensure it connects with the reader. With these tips in mind, you’ll have a better chance at convincing your reader to buy from you. 

Let’s go over the main things to consider. 

The first step to writing strong copy is knowing who you write for. A clear idea of your target audience helps you understand what this group likes, needs, and reacts to. 

So, write your copy with your target in mind, as if you’re addressing them in a letter. With this approach, you can catch their attention more easily. 

For example, say you want to market a knit shop. You might focus on an experienced middle-aged knitting audience. 

In this case, you could use friendly language with somewhat complex knitting terms that they would understand. 

Your target audience impacts the language you use in your marketing. But you want this language to remain powerful and consistent. So, consider creating tone of voice guidelines for your business. 

With these guidelines, you’ll have a clear outline for how you want to sound and look. For example, you may want to stick to informal language and use contractions. 

Meanwhile, check your content for grammar and spelling errors that can distract the reader, lessening the effect of your words. 

Writing out your tone of voice helps you remain uniform to develop a reliable business brand. 

When writing your copy, focus on the title or beginning first. In fact, 8 out of 10 people only read the headline of a marketing copy. 

It’s up to you to catch the readers’ eye from the start so you can keep it. You could do this by asking a question, forming the title as a how-to, or making it into a list style.  

To check how strong your headline is, consider pasting it into the Headline Analyzer. 

Another key part of writing engaging copy is knowing how to transform it into a story. Consider how your marketing can showcase the narrative of your business or product, from beginning, middle, to end. 

You might include your mission statement or how you got here. Or you could focus on the buyer’s story and how your products or services can impact them. 

Each word in your marketing copy should matter. Extra words, or fluff, drag down your content without adding value. 

Today, research suggests people have just an eight-second attention span. So, if you cushion your content with words that don’t make an impact, you’ll likely lose your audience. 

How can you check for fluff? Try reading through your content a few times after writing it. 

Cut out a word or phrase here or there and see if you still get the same message across. Anything you can remove without hurting the meaning should go. 

Focusing on the benefits of your business can also help your marketing stand out. 

Consider your audience’s pain points or struggles and how your business solves those problems. Show why you’re worth choosing, so readers don’t have to figure it out for themselves. 

To do this, list 5-10 of the main benefits of your products or services. 

Try to be as specific as possible about what your business can do that others can’t, or it’s unique selling point. Then, think about including any facts or statistics that support these benefits. 

Incorporating benefits into your copy, including why they matter, can help you build more of a buzz. 

Listing and explaining the features of your business’s products or services enhances your marketing communications. Touching on the concrete elements of what you offer allows you to prove your benefits.  

For example, say you sell cameras. You might write about the different features of a new product, such as how it includes video and has twice the battery life as the previous version. 

The specifics of your products or services show people their value. You may even want to include visuals of the features alongside your copy to make it stick.   

As you finish up your copy, be sure to include a call to action (CTA). 

The CTA promotes immediate behaviour from the reader. They often include action words like ‘Read more’, ‘Learn more’, ‘Buy now’. Then, pair the CTA with a link to your website, product page, or email subscription page.  

CTAs are more than just a quick plug for your business. A study from HubSpot suggests that including a CTA increases marketing performance by 202%. That’s huge. 

If you leave out the CTA, you’ll be missing the chance to divert people directly to making a purchasing decision.  

See also: How to write a call to action email. 

Now that you know how to write engaging copy for your business’s marketing, you can reach your audience more effectively to increase your success. Just remember to: 

• Consider who you’re talking to
• Maintain a consistent tone
• Focus on the title first
• Include a beginning, middle, and end
• Share the benefits and specific features
• Finish off with a CTA

Once you’ve perfected this, you may want to enhance other elements of your marketing strategy. Why not check out our article on how to use FOMO in marketing?

And while you work on your marketing, you may want to consider tracking your finances with the business account that does your taxes: start your three-month free trial today.