4 Tried and Tested Ways to Take your Copywriting to the Next Level

Great content doesn’t happen by accident. That’s one of the most pertinent lessons I’ve learned during my time as a copywriter. Here are four invaluable copywriting tips to give your copy a boost and stay in the mind of your readers.

Mind map your way to success!

I know, I know, you probably had this drilled into your brain when you were at college or university, but planning well really can be the difference between an ‘okay’ article and a piece of copy that really speaks to the reader.

Mind maps are a great way to get some ideas down on paper, and are a good opportunity to spend a bit of time away from your computer screen. Actually putting pen to paper is beneficial to getting your mind’s creative juices flowing, meaning that the ideas you produce during your mind mapping session are often more unique and creative – two qualities of fantastic copy.

As a copywriter, you’ll most likely have to work to tight deadlines. This means that spending hours colouring in a beautiful mind map is more than a bit counterproductive. Here are some tips for using a mind map to unleash your brain’s full potential, whilst still using your time effectively.

• Have a dedicated A4 pad for your mind maps. A4 is a better size than A5 for mind maps as it gives you more space on the page to think of ideas, and you won’t feel as constricted. Mind mapping is all about freeing your brain of creative restraints, and it’s beneficial to have a larger space to do this effectively.
• When it comes to mind mapping, many experts say that using different coloured pens is better. While this is a good idea, you can still reap the benefits of a mind map using just a biro and a head full of thoughts!

Perform keyword research

Once upon a time, it was enough to just crack out a bit of an article in ten minutes, upload it to your site and feel proud of yourself. Nowadays, SEO and copywriting go hand-in-hand, and performing keyword research is a bit of a no brainer if you want to help your content rank higher.

The Moz Keyword Planner is really easy to use for keyword research, simply type in your search query and you’ll get a plethora of search queries, ordered in relevancy. Here are two sentences, each containing keywords:

“Looking for Manchester gigs 2017? Check out our calendar.”

“Looking for upcoming concerts in Manchester? Check out our Manchester gig listings.”

Notice how the first one, even though it contains a keyword, doesn’t read very well? The keyword has just been plonked in there and it doesn’t flow very well. Once you’ve performed keyword research, it’s important to place the keywords, but it’s essential that your copy still reads naturally.

Don’t forget about meta descriptions!

Many marketers spend ages perfecting their copy, but you’d be surprised at how often meta descriptions are overlooked. However, writing good meta descriptions is actually really beneficial to your copy, here’s why:

Increase click through rates from organic search

Imagine – you’ve just searched for something online and amassed a variety of results. Chances are, you’re more likely to be drawn to link with a meta description that’s eye catching and has been well thought out. Writing a stand-out-from-the-crowd meta description means that you’re more likely to see better organic click through rates to your page.

Looks better on social

Social media sites like Facebook are a great way to share your content, but did you know that these sites commonly use a page’s meta description as the text snippet they show on the page? Without a pre-written meta description you run the risk of not getting the most from your social shares.

It’s an opportunity to get more keywords in there

The more keywords you can fit naturally into your copy, the better. Placing one or two of these into your meta description is a great way to squeeze in some of the trickier keywords!

Don’t bite the bullet – use bullet points!

Copy that contains bullet points often performs better than a big block of text. Why? Because it’s easier to read and more interesting to the eye. Bullet points are a fantastic way of listing some important points or instructions, as well as making the copy accessible to the writer’s mortal enemy – the skim reader!

Here are some tips about bullet points, in bullet point form (of course!):

• Place items in order of importance.
• Keep it brief and to the point. The purpose of bullet points is to deliver information quickly and efficiently, so having ten lines under each bullet defeats the object somewhat.
• Try to avoid using more than six bullet points, any more than this and you run the risk of the points losing significance.

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