How To Write Great Copy Fast To Achieve Results For Your Business

As an experienced copy writer, I can assure you that everyone suffers from writer’s block and procrastination when a deadline is looming. To get over these difficulties you need some simple techniques that will get you writing fast, effective, and good copy. If you are new to writing copy, I can assure you that these hints will give you the confidence to write more often.
The outline.
To make sure that your copy gets to the point quickly and is relevant to the people reading it, you will need to create an outline. This is very easy and will get you thinking clearly about what you must say to your readers and in which order. Write dot points of no more than 10 words that summarize what you want to say. Once you’ve written these, look at them and decide whether they should be in a different order to tell a better story to your readers.
The Benefits.
All good copy comes down to one simple rule. You must demonstrate to your reader the true benefits of what you are selling. If you list the features of your product it can be helpful, but it won’t deliver you sale after sale. Look at the points you have created for your outline. Do more than half of them offer your reader a benefit to buying your product? If not, look at your product through the eyes of your reader. What do they want it to deliver? How will it improve their lives? One example of a benefit might be “when you wear this little black dress, men won’t be able to take their eyes off you.” If you were to write “this little black dress is made of 100% cotton”, it doesn’t have the same effect, does it? Write down a number of one sentence benefits and add them to your list of points.
The Headline.
The headline can make or break copy. To get the best headline, you need to again consider your reader. Most of us have similar things that drive us to buy products. We want to look good, we want to have more friends, we want to have more money and we want to have happy kids, just to name a few. Why is your reader here right now? Why are they reading about your product? What is the one thing that they really want? As an example, “Discover how I made $120,000 last year selling e-books part-time.” It is a great hook and it encourages your reader to stay with you and read through your copy. Write down a number of headlines based on this benefit. Don’t get too picky as you will probably change the wording later on.
The Story.
You must remember that your readers have short attention spans. We all do. We are overwhelmed by the amount of information that hits us everyday. Television advertising, radio advertising, emails, newspapers and sales catalogues have forced us to skim through information and not take the content in. Your job is to cut through to your reader by providing them with a compelling story. If I use the little black dress as an example again, I might tell the reader about the first time I wore this amazing dress, how it made me feel and the benefits that I got from wearing the dress. I might share with them why I am so passionate about the dress and how I want to share my passion with the world. Engage with your audience and tell them the ways in which the product has improved your life.
Now that you’ve got these core elements mapped out, all you need to do is to put it together. Use your story as the introduction then use each of the benefit-driven dot points to expand on the reasons why these benefits are so great. Further down you can use your feature-driven dot points to give your readers any practical and more detailed information that they might want to know. Finally, ask your readers for the sale. Don’t be shy. They know that you’ve got something to sell, so sell it. Be very clear about what the price is and make sure that you demonstrate your generous guarantee and refund policy.
Remember that writing is not hard, we just make it hard on ourselves through procrastination.