Useful information collection | 4 principles to help you effectively improve the "communication ability" of copywriting

Copywriting is a job with a relatively low entry barrier. In theory, anyone who understands Chinese has the potential to become a copywriter. However, the threshold to become a good copywriter is not low. It not only requires practitioners to have a rational mind to understand business, but also an emotional heart to understand human nature. They also need to have enough skills and techniques to effectively communicate these cognitions to consumers in the form of words.

Therefore, "being able to communicate" becomes crucial, as it is directly related to the effect and experience of information transmission. The copywriting must be reasonable and well-written in order to penetrate into the minds of consumers and persuade them to make a purchase.

Communication is as important as it is difficult. Being able to "speak human language" can only provide a passing grade at best. If you don’t believe it, you can test yourself with the following example:

If you are a copywriter, when your girlfriend asks you, "What do you think of my best friend?", how should you answer to turn this fatal question into a point-getting one?

Copywriter A: It’s quite beautiful.

Copywriter B: Not very good, far worse than you.

C Copywriter: I didn’t pay much attention to her.

D copywriter: It can be seen that she is very sincere to you. You should cherish such friends.

It’s obvious from copywriter A’s answer that he has no understanding of women’s psychology. How dare he praise the women around him in front of his girlfriend? There is no doubt that he is destined to be alone, and anyone who chooses this answer probably won't become a good copywriter.

At first glance, copy B seems to have the intention of flattery, but in fact it implies the following subtext: you are already paying attention to your best friend and secretly comparing her with your girlfriend. Will my girlfriend be happy if she knows about this?

Copywriter C does seem to be determined to stop the conversation, but it sounds fake and perfunctory, and I'm sure the cunning girlfriend won't believe it.

The brilliance of D's copy lies in that it completely changes the thinking, avoids the trap set by the girlfriend, and gives a rational answer from the girl's perspective, making the girlfriend feel cared for and cherished. This way of communication is the standard answer.

Similar to trying to figure out a girl's psychology, copywriters also need to constantly figure out the user's psychology and needs. In the process of writing copy, we need to use some techniques to help us better understand people's hearts, sort out ideas and refine expressions. The following four principles may help you write copy with stronger "communication power".

SCQA rules: a universal framework for efficient communication

The SCQA structure is a logical thinking method proposed by McKinsey, which consists of four parts: situation, complication, question, and answer.

The advantage of the SCQA structure is that it actually guides you to consider issues from the consumer's perspective rather than talking to yourself. From a copywriting perspective, this structure can be used to increase consumers’ interest and willingness to accept.

In many classic copywriting works, a clear SCQA structure can be seen. Different types of copywriting will focus on a certain part of SCQA. For example, non-rigid practical products and brand- oriented copywriting will focus more on the description of the situation and conflict in order to fully mobilize consumers' resonance and emotions. Practical products may focus more on explaining the answer part, proposing detailed solutions and convincing consumers rationally.

In a set of copywriting written by Indian copywriting master Freddy Birdy with the theme of "If there is no one to accompany you, even the taste of tea will be different", the situation, conflict and problem are integrated into a short copywriting and thrown out without stopping, so as to resonate with the public and pay attention to the elderly:

If you want to wake up in someone else's arms,

Instead of an empty bed, what to do?

What if you're waiting for the doorbell to ring, but no one comes?

If you put on a new sari,

But what if only your mirror noticed?

If you cook a dish you just learned,

But what if you are always alone at the table?

If the days pass by so mercilessly,

What should we do while the world is still moving at a fast pace?

If you have a life story to tell,

But no one comes to listen, what should I do?

What if all of this happened to you suddenly?

All you need to do is spend a little time with the elderly.

In another group of copywriting with the theme "If the tears are wiped away by your own hands, then they are shed in vain", the SCQA structure is more obvious and clear:

You can sit in an upholstered and cushioned chair in your office.

Pull out your checkbook.

Unscrew the nib.

Mont Blanc fountain pen made of gold,

Make a significant donation to your favorite charity .

I feel comfortable inside.

But the old man doesn't need your money.

Can you donate a little of your time?

All you need to do is spend a little time with the elderly.

In a paragraph about Xiaomi's balancing car, when describing the benefit of "stronger road adaptability", the SCQA structure that focuses on describing the answer part is used:

The joy of setting off is not only the yearning for the flat road, but also the challenge of the rugged path. It is not easy to make a balance car go up a slope or pass through small obstacles smoothly. It is difficult to ensure balance and safety simply by relying on high-performance electric motors. To this end, engineers carefully designed a "dynamic power algorithm" that can automatically identify small obstacles or slopes and dynamically adjust instantaneous power according to current road conditions.

 

When you encounter a small obstacle, the electric motor will temporarily increase the power and enhance the stability of the entire vehicle, allowing you to pass comfortably. The 9cm high chassis is an ultra-high standard among balance cars, and the carefully designed "shock-absorbing foot pads" can significantly reduce bumps and vibrations. Stronger road adaptability allows us to go on an adventure at any time.

Lizard Brain Principle: It is easier to change behavior than attitude

James Crimmins, a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, once put forward a point of view in his book "The Lizard Brain Rule": If you want to persuade someone, don't talk to his cerebral cortex, but talk to his "lizard brain." He believed that the human brain has a three-layer structure, which is responsible for different functions. The cerebral cortex is responsible for rationality, the middle mammalian brain is responsible for emotions, and the innermost layer is the "lizard brain", which is responsible for human behavior.

Why is it so important to communicate with your “lizard brain”? James Crimmins' core point is that it is easier to change behavior than to change attitudes. For example, a novice in love will be anxious to get a clear statement from the woman at the beginning of a relationship, while a love expert will skip this step and directly guide the behavior: taking her to her favorite restaurant, giving her flowers, taking care of various tasks such as changing light bulbs and repairing computers...using intimate behavior between lovers to guide the woman to accept the fact that a romantic relationship has been established.

It’s like you love KFC , but the nearest KFC is 5 kilometers away from your home, and there is a McDonald’s downstairs, so you will often buy McDonald’s because of its convenience. But your attitude towards KFC will not change, but your behavior has changed.

For copywriters, the inspiration that the Lizard Brain Principle can provide is that there is no need to try hard to change users' attitudes. Even if you succeed, it is destined to be a difficult and long process. What copywriters need to do is to provide users with a solution that seems easier and provide benefits to encourage them to try and produce behavioral changes.

In the copy that William Bernbach wrote for the Beetle , he took Think Small as the theme. He did not try to change people's attitude towards spacious luxury cars (which is almost impossible to achieve), but did his best to describe the benefits of "small":

Our little car is no longer a novelty. No more hordes of people trying to squeeze in, no more gas station attendants asking where to get the gas, no more people thinking it's a weird shape.

In fact, many people who drive our "cheap car" have realized that its many advantages are no joke, such as 32 miles per gallon of gasoline, which saves half the gasoline; no antifreeze device is needed; and a pair of tires can run 40,000 miles.

Perhaps once you get used to the economy of the Beetle, you will no longer think that its small size is a disadvantage. Especially when you can't find a large parking space or are worried about a lot of insurance and repair bills or the thought of not being able to change to a satisfactory car, please consider the small Beetle.

Communication upgrade: from linear mode to communication mode

What many people call “communication” is actually linear. The linear communication model simply understands communication as the transmission behavior of information from the transmitter to the receiver, while ignoring factors that may produce "external noise", such as whether there are one or more transmitters and receivers in the communication process? Is communication affected by cultural, situational, or interpersonal context? Are the information reserves, language systems, and cognitive states of the sender and receiver at the same level?

The interference caused by these situations often greatly reduces the effectiveness of communication. The communicative communication model expands and upgrades the linear model. It believes that the transmission and reception of information are not separated. In many cases, we are receiving information while transmitting it, and communication has two dimensions: content and relationship .

The content dimension of communication refers to the exchange of objective information, such as driving routes, weather conditions outside the window, etc., but in addition to these clear contents, the information people communicate in daily life also has a relational dimension, that is, while you are describing a fact, you are also expressing your feelings about the other person.

Therefore, when writing copy, in addition to ensuring the accuracy of the information, you also need to fully understand the user's background and "set" the relationship between you and the user in advance: whether it is close or distant, serious or playful, side by side or from a bird's eye view, all must be set according to the attributes of the product and the user.

In the 2017 attitude poster recently launched by NetEase News , the copywriter adopted a communication method that is as close as that of friends with young people, as if a few old friends were sitting on the rooftop drinking carbonated drinks, enjoying the cool breeze, and complaining about life, venting out the frustration of life.

In the copywriting written by Xu Shunying for Zhongxing Department Store, a certain aggressive and distant tone was used, as if speaking the truth from a distance, creating the tone of a department store:

The principle of mental salience: creating memory retrieval codes

Mental availability is a concept proposed by Byron Sharp in "How Brands Grow". It refers to the ability of advertising information to be actively remembered in the mind. In other words, only when the advertising information is "salient" will it be more likely to be "extracted". Simply put, things that are easy to remember are always more pleasing . How can we create information retrieval codes to increase mental salience? There are three key points: first, the information should be concise enough; second, the information should be as vivid as possible. The purpose of both is to reduce the cost of memory and retrieval; and third is repetition, the purpose of which is to create memory anchor points.

Brevity is easy to understand. Information that can be clearly expressed in 5 words should not be expressed in 10 words. Information that can be classified and summarized should not be scattered. The copywriter must use his diligence to satisfy the user's laziness. This is a kind of energy conservation.

The same principle applies to making information as vivid as possible. Information that is too abstract is like "correct nonsense", while concrete information is more likely to attract users' attention and remain in their memory. For example, when a public account wrote an article about beer, the title was written as follows: "Why are there always 21 teeth on the beer bottle cap? 》A title full of specific details is obviously easier to attract users' attention than "Some little-known facts about beer", and users will easily think of this article when they see beer bottle caps in the future.

Repetition not only refers to increasing the number and frequency of information exposure, but also means that in the same length of copy, the most core information that you want to convey to users needs to be repeated as much as possible. Repetition does not mean the repeated appearance of the same words, but the repeated appearance of the same information. As for the expression of the copy, it can be adjusted.

For example, Xiaohongshu has a set of texts printed on the packaging boxes, such as "Today's mood is 30% determined by fate, and 70% depends on shopping", "If you want to make a living, you will have to change your bag sooner or later", "The shortest horror story? Sold out", etc. Different jokes can actually be translated into the same core message: buy, buy, buy, hurry up.

Conclusion

How many hills must a copywriter climb before he can reach the state where there are hills and valleys in his heart and lotus flowers come out of his mouth? Even the basic quality of "being able to communicate" needs constant polishing. The SCQA rule, the lizard brain rule, the communication model and mental salience can help you improve the communication ability of your copywriting and allow information to penetrate into the user's mind more smoothly and without loss.

The author of this article @乌玛小曼 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services Advertising platform Longyou Century