How to write copy that hits the user’s pain points?

Good copywriting needs to be revised. It is very rare that you can write a copy like "If you are afraid of getting a sore throat, drink Wanglaoji " right away. In most cases, many people's first instinct is to write self-indulgent copywriting - they are moved when reading the copy they wrote, but users don't feel anything after reading it.

For example, a Taobao article example I mentioned in my previous article:

"Stunning at first sight, still the same when we meet again"

(Taobao screenshot)

Suppose, if you see such an advertisement copy among many products on Taobao, can you immediately understand what the copy means? I believe that not many consumers can understand it.

Nowadays, there is too much information and users' attention is extremely limited. Except for things that are relevant to themselves or extremely interesting, most users rarely stay for more than 1 minute to understand some difficult-to-understand information (research shows that the average decision-making time for users on a product online is 19 seconds). With such self-indulgent copywriting, it is difficult to achieve the desired marketing effect, such as affecting conversion rate and dissemination, and may even cause losses in advertising costs.

1. Since this kind of self-indulgent copywriting style does not have much effect, why do many people still write like this?

The main reason is that most of us often make a cognitive trap - thinking that users know the product as well as we do. In fact, users do not have as deep an understanding of products as marketers do.

For example, in order to write a product copy about a smart electric toothbrush, you specifically learned a lot of information about the product. From this you will find that the design of this product subverts all electric toothbrushes on the market. Then thinking about these, you became very excited and finally wrote a sentence - "Enjoy life and create miracles." You immediately show it to your boss (or Party A), and he will feel the same way after reading it - "This is so well written, it really speaks out our thoughts!"

At this point, you are no longer a user. You and the product’s R&D personnel or boss have become “experts”. However, most of the target users are not experts, and few of them will spend a lot of time studying the product's R&D process and other information like you do. Therefore, it is easy for you to write copy that sounds self-indulgent.

2. How can we avoid writing self-congratulatory copy?

In order to prevent ourselves from getting certain diseases, we will get vaccinations in advance (I remember getting various vaccines when I was a child). Similarly, before publishing the copy, we also need to use some effective methods to prevent ourselves from writing self-indulgent copy.

Here are two methods I recommend to you that I often use and have been proven to be effective:

1. Make a bullet point list

I know many people who are good at writing copy and often use this method to prevent themselves from writing self-congratulatory copy.

The so-called list of key points is to list the main points of each type of copy we want to write (key points to prevent self-satisfaction), and then see whether the copy we have written complies with or meets the requirements of these key points. Each copy has different key points, but most product copywriting needs to pay attention to the following 8 key points:

(1) Can users understand the meaning of the copy in a short period of time?

After we write the copy, we need to check whether users can understand what the product copy is saying in a short period of time, that is, we need to make the copy speak in human language. Because the time users spend on each piece of information is extremely short, maybe just a few seconds. If your copy doesn’t make sense to users right away, they’ll give up on reading your message—after all, there are plenty of other things grabbing their attention.

If you cannot understand it in a short period of time, check whether your copy contains too much unfamiliar and difficult-to-understand information.

There are many ways to solve this problem, and the most commonly used one is "contacting the target audience with information that is familiar to them" - because the human brain is more receptive and understands familiar information more easily than unfamiliar and difficult to understand information.

For example, if you say “this house is like a dream,” not many people will understand what you mean; but if you say “this house is like the emperor’s palace,” perhaps many people will understand what kind of house you are talking about.

(2) Is it relevant to the user’s interests?

Displaying product features is not the same as selling points. Selling points need to be related to the interests of users in order to better impress them.

For example, if you say "smart rice cooker, put rice in before going to bed, and it will be cooked automatically the next day", this only expresses the characteristics of the product, but does not connect with the user's interests, so the user will not feel much after reading it.

For example, you can say "Cook rice before going to bed, eat hot porridge in the morning, and sleep for an extra hour" (connecting with the user's interest point of "being able to sleep in").

(3) Does the product reflect differentiated selling points?

Nowadays, there are more and more homogeneous products. When writing copy, you need to try your best to explore the unique highlights of the product and achieve differentiation, so as to stimulate users' interest and desire to buy.

For example, as a car tire product, compared with other similar tires, it has stronger grip, which is also what users need. This becomes one of the unique selling points of your product.

Differentiated selling points are not limited to how disruptive the product is. You can provide better after-sales service, faster logistics, more user popularity, etc., which can all become differentiated selling points for your products. This requires marketers to carefully explore and choose the most appropriate selling point based on actual conditions.

(4) Is there a suitable delivery scenario?

The copywriting is written differently when it is placed in different channels and scenarios.

For example, the copywriting of soft articles published on WeChat public accounts must require that the title should be stimulating enough to attract readers, and the readability of the content of the soft articles should be very good. Most of the information flow copywriting on Zhihu is in the form of questions, which is more attractive for clicks (Zhihu is a question-and-answer platform).

(Zhihu screenshot)

There are also scenarios such as Toutiao or WeChat Moments advertising , which all use different copywriting styles.

(5) Is the copy easy to remember?

If the copy is difficult for users to remember even after reading it many times, its dissemination effect will be greatly reduced. The best effect of advertising copy is to allow users to remember it immediately after reading it once or twice, which can reduce the cost of communication.

For example, if your small power bank has the product advantage of being very compact, if you directly say "10 cm long, 2 cm in diameter", it will be easier for people to remember than the copywriting of "as small as a lipstick" (using visual copywriting).

How do you know that your copy is easy for users to remember? You can tell the written copy to some users and see how many people can remember it after hearing it twice or less. It is important to note that you should not forget the product positioning for the sake of easy memorability.

(6) Fluency of the copy

Does the copy you wrote read smoothly?

Copywriting master Joseph Sugarman once mentioned that copywriting needs to be like a slide, allowing readers to read smoothly (slide effect).

This is vividly demonstrated in most movies or TV series. The viewing process is as smooth as a slide, which enhances the user's viewing experience.

Some revision tips to keep your copy fluent include: After writing, read it several times by yourself or read it to others . After writing the copy, take a break or do something else, and then come back to look at the copy you wrote and you will find many problems.

（7）Do users believe what I say?

Now is the Internet age where information is becoming increasingly transparent. If you find it difficult to determine whether what you say is true or false, it will have a negative impact on your brand image, conversion rate, and other aspects.

Therefore, at this time, you need to see whether some of the descriptions and statements in your copy provide sufficient proof to make users believe what you said, thereby dispelling the target users' concerns and so on.

（8）Have negative impacts been avoided?

Whether your copy will have a negative impact on the product or brand is also a point that needs attention.

Based on the points in this checklist, you can filter out many examples and copywriting methods that cannot be cited to ensure that your brand image is not damaged. Many eye-catching references need to be used after weighing the pros and cons. For example, the previous advertisement of Juewei Duck Neck offended vulgar tastes and affected the brand image.

Of course, the above is just a list of key points that most copywriters need to pay attention to. You can add or subtract them according to your actual situation. For example, you can add some points that you often make mistakes or forget to this list. After writing the copy, check them one by one to see if you have achieved these points. In this way, your copywriting can avoid most of the self-satisfaction.

2. Role switching method

After checking the copy using the bullet point checklist method, you can also use the "role switching" method to prevent the copywriter from being too self-satisfied.

When we are writing copy or revising it after writing it, we should assume that users are like product novices who know nothing about the product. We need to switch our roles from copywriters to target users who read the copy. “ If I were the target user, would I place an order after reading this copy?”

If you don’t know how to do it, refer to the “key points checklist” mentioned above to recheck the reasons and make modifications.

Why do we need to modify the copy in this way? As I mentioned earlier, users who read the copy will not take the time to understand the meaning of each sentence, study the product information, and appreciate the hard work of the copywriter like the copywriter does. Target users are faced with countless advertising copies and other information, and rarely have the same feelings about the various experiences of the people who write the copy.

However, we copywriters will have a very deep understanding of the copy or articles we have written. We can understand what we have written at a glance and we can easily be moved by it. At this time, it is easy to fall into the self-satisfaction "problem" of thinking that you have written very well but others cannot understand what you are writing after reading it.

Therefore, by switching yourself from the role of an "expert" to a user who is reading the copy for the first time, you can try to avoid writing self-indulgent copy.

Of course, if you can show the written copy to some of your target users and ask them to give you feedback, this is a better way to switch roles. (A reader also mentioned this in a message last night)

It should be noted that you need to let them simulate the actual delivery scenario. Instead of sitting in front of the computer like a copywriter, drinking a cup of coffee, and reading very attentively - this is not the real situation when users watch advertisements. Think about when you are browsing Taobao or WeChat , do you read every message carefully?

Summarize

Before writing copy, marketers will have an in-depth understanding of a product, but after understanding the product, they are most likely to fall into the "expert" trap - writing very self-indulgent copy that users find difficult to empathize with.

How to prevent yourself from writing self-congratulatory copy? Mr. Monster shares with you two methods that he personally uses and has proven to be effective: making a list of key points and switching roles .

It is normal for most of us to write copy that is self-congratulatory. The key is that we should effectively use some methods to prevent the occurrence of self-congratulation in copywriting and make the copywriting achieve better results.

The author of this article @Mr. Monster is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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