While it’s always cool to say you’re into digital marketing, no matter how much time you spend in digital, nothing’s going to be credible work unless you get your marketing basics right. Copywriting, writing good headlines, and having excellent CTAs are crucial to start with.

According to Neil Patel’s Blog, Quicksprout, “Copywriting is the art and science of writing copy (words used on web pages, ads, promotional materials, etc.) that sells your product or service and convinces prospective customers to take action. In many ways, it’s like hiring one salesman to reach all of your customers”. You initially need 2 things to grab attention awesome visual content and awesome texts and whether it’s for an article for your blog or for graphic content that will go out on social media throughout the month, you need to have awesome headlines, copies, and CTAs (calls to action) to support your images and text.

Headlines That Move People

Before you write your headlines, think about what kind of headline you are aiming at. The type of your headline should resonate with the overall feel and strategy of your article. For example, if you are launching a new product, you can go for News Headlines – they typically look like the content that you see in the news for example, “Amit Richard Joins WebAble Digital”. If you’re trying to convince your audience about something from an expert point of view, perhaps a Command Headline is what you need to write for example, “5 Questions Brands Forget to Answer“. If you’re trying to endorse the benefits of a product from a customer perspective, maybe writing a Testimonial Headline is the key, for example, “Why I love Working with WebAble Team”. My personal favorite is the Reasons Why Headline, this is something you can quantify, and it direct value to the consumer if it’s done right. Example: “10 Reasons Your Business Should be on Twitter”.

Copywriting That Connects Hearts & Minds 

You’ve covered the basics of headlines for the articles. Now let’s focus on how to get your copywriting sorted out. Depending on the type of your product or service, you need to get the ‘feel’ you want to give out to your potential customers and existing customers. For high tech products that are constantly getting launching better versions, Plain Copy is the key. Plain Copies are basic presentations of facts and benefits of products without a lot of gimmicks or style, such copies don’t stress trying to convince customers into anything. Rather, they take it pretty much for granted that you already know about the product and that you will be excited to learn about new features that are added. Brands like Google, or Apple, in my opinion, would use plain copies. For example “Google Drive Just Got Better, Find Out How”.

Another angle of writing good copies is by writing Storytelling Copies. In such cases, the moral of the story of pain and suffering is that your product or service was the cure to it. Storytelling is crucial for the highly informed audience we have in this day and age. People don’t care about your products, they care about themselves, and storytelling gives you a chance to get their attention in a way they like it.

Finally, you can take the John Lenon angle. John Lenon Copies are basically more aesthetic, they attempt to give directions to the way you are thinking. “Imagine, Close Your Eyes, Picture this…” — basically your product or service and the message you want to give needs to be brilliant for you to come up with a good John Lenon Copy, if you’re trying to guide your readers’ imagination with an ordinary product and message, it could backfire.

Whatever type of copy you choose to write, a few things are needed to make it brilliant. Lyrical Word is a trick you must know about. People are more likely to believe words that rhyme. For example “Quick and fun, one download and you’re done”. You also need to add a bit of humor sometimes but more important than humor, your copy needs to have a clear message and a Call to Action (CTA). The following section stresses what CTAs are and how they are best written.

CTAs That Work 

CTAs drive your audience to take any action, which the goal of any content. There are many kinds of CTAs, like those that show some degree of urgency, like “Buy Now, Order Now or Call us Today!”, and others that are effective for social sharing CTAs like Share, Follow, and Don’t Miss CTAs. You really need to research your CTAs so that you’re not being repetitive while maintaining consistency broadly in pursing your customers to take regular actions.

Bottom Line: Getting these basics right is important not only for marketers but for anyone who’s publishing out there. Not only will your content look great, but you’ll also get better conversions, and in the end, sales conversions matter most.

Planning your next digital campaign? Get in touch

Rizwan Shamim is a Digital Account Executive at Webable where he manages several top local and multinational brands. He is also passionate about startups & entrepreneurship. Before Webable, he worked at Startup Dhaka, HSBC, and the University of Lugano, Switzerland. Follow him on Twitter: @MDRIZS or check out his LinkedIn profile.