3 tips to help operators write copy that attracts readers

Regarding copywriting , as an operator , I come into contact with it almost every day at work, and anyone can say a few words.

Many people have a misunderstanding about copywriting, such as:

• The product said, just these few lines, write them to me right away;
• The technical staff said that operations were too idle, and they considered a job completed by writing dozens or hundreds of words;
• The leader said, it’s just a few sentences, and you wrote it in a whole day…

The above scenes are what I imagined in order to better introduce the theme. Any similarity is purely coincidental.

With the development of the Internet economy, users have more and more choices for products. As needs become more diverse, users' requirements are also constantly increasing. When users choose a product, they will not only consider whether the product meets their actual needs, but also whether it can meet their potential psychological needs. Faced with the pressure that users may be recruited by competitors at any time, companies try every possible means, such as advertising bombardment and discount promotions, just to attract users' attention and ultimately choose their products. Among them, advertising copy is an indispensable part of all marketing methods.

In advertisements, in addition to the graphics and colors that people pay attention to first, copywriting can also bring users closer to products. For example, excellent advertising copywriting such as "Diamonds are forever" and "Give Melatonin as a gift" not only increased the sales of the advertised brands, but also successfully promoted a brand or an industry to an unprecedented height.

Currently in the advertising industry, there is a distinction between narrow and broad definitions of advertising copy. The broad definition of advertising copy refers to the entire advertising work, including graphics, colors, and language and text. In a narrow sense, advertising copy refers only to the language and text part of the advertising work. The advertising copy discussed in this article refers specifically to the language and text part.

For operations, good copywriting is a direct factor affecting traffic diversion and a prerequisite for successful product promotion . If the copy cannot catch the user's attention in the first place, it is very likely to face failure and even affect the success or failure of the product promotion. So, how can we write copy that attracts readers?

1. What is the role of copywriting?

In order to write good copy, we must first understand what the role of good copy is? What are the criteria for good copywriting?

1. Express the core of advertising creativity

First, no matter what kind of creativity it is, it is to convey information, or to serve the communication of information. The message conveyed by the copy is the most important information in the entire marketing promotion .

Second, if the purpose of any advertisement is to highlight a theme, then the copy is the most important part to cleverly strengthen this theme.

Third, copywriting governs the entire marketing promotion. If an advertisement lacks copywriting, it will not be able to demonstrate its value and meaning. For example, if you only look at the advertisement on the left below, users may have various guesses about the advertisement information: What product activity is this? What does the button represent? With so many prizes, how can I participate... and other similar questions. However, when there is copywriting, such as the advertisement on the right, users can get the information that the company wants to convey in a short time.

2. Communicate advertising intentions, appeals and promises

First, by providing users with valuable or useful information, especially in advertisements for similar products, the copy conveys the uniqueness of the product, the advertiser’s sales proposition - USP (Unique Selling Proposition) or unique selling point.

Second, gain attention by providing new information to update readers' cognition. Such titles often contain words such as "new", "launched", and "major discovery". For example: Newly launched - one bottle of magic amino acid.

Third, it can mobilize users’ emotions and resonate with them. For example, Xin Shixiang’s “ Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in four hours”.

3. Shaping corporate image and brand image

Advertising guru David Ogilvy pointed out: "Advertising communication is an important part of brand image building. Every advertisement is a long-term investment in brand image." This view reveals the role of advertising in brand image building. The copy, as the "eyes" of advertising, reflects the positioning of the company and brand through different languages ​​and words. For example, the advertising copy of Ctrip Travel is “With Ctrip in hand, you can go whenever you want.”

Joseph Sugarman said in "Copywriting Training Manual": All elements in an advertisement exist first for one purpose: to make readers read the first sentence of the copy - that's all. ”

In fact, if an advertisement cannot attract users to read your copy and understand your product information, it will be even more difficult to convince users to choose your product through advertising information.

If understanding the role of copywriting is to lay a theoretical foundation for writing better copywriting, then understanding users' shopping psychology is to write copywriting that is more attractive to users.

2. Five psychological factors for users to choose products

Users have great differences in their requirements for products due to age, gender, occupation, income, education level, nationality, etc. Moreover, with the development of the Internet era, users' product usage habits and psychology are constantly changing, resulting in great differences in the final product choices.

1. Herd mentality

Herd mentality refers to the situation where an individual is influenced by a group and behaves in a way that is consistent with the majority in terms of perception, judgment, and cognition. At present, many promotion methods are to take advantage of people's herd mentality to hype up their products and thus achieve their goals. For example, Honor of Kings uses gaming celebrities and KOLs to conduct topic marketing on Weibo, which takes advantage of users’ herd mentality. When overwhelming promotions continue to stimulate users' senses, idols, relatives and friends are all playing the game, which naturally attracts a large number of users with a herd mentality to use the product.

2. Realistic mentality

For most users, the psychological motivation for using products is to be practical. First of all, the product must have practical use value and whether there is a need for this product. Users with this motivation pay special attention to the practicality of products when choosing them, pursue durability, and do not overemphasize the appearance, color, lines and "personality" characteristics of products. They often compare products from different stores and choose them carefully.

3. Profit-seeking psychology

When choosing products, this type of users often make careful comparisons of the price differences between similar products. They also like to buy "discounted" or "free gifts" products. In short, they require products to be good in quality and low in price. Promotion methods that emphasize interest points can better attract this group of users. Supermarket discount promotions and Taobao’s free shipping for purchases over 2 items all take advantage of users’ profit-seeking mentality.

4. Comparative psychology

Sociologists call users with a comparison mentality "comparison group behavior", which can also be understood as a psychological behavior of "I have what others don't, and I must have what others have", without considering whether they need it or whether it is cost-effective. In the eyes of this type of users, well-known products represent standards, high quality, identity and social status. Even if they use the same product, they will rank it higher than others, spend more money, and so on. The scenario of showing bills on Alipay takes advantage of users' psychology of comparison.

5. Seeking difference

This is a psychological phenomenon that is opposite to the herd mentality, pursuing a consumption tendency that is different from social trends. Simply put, it means to be different, to be original, and to innovate. Users who seek novelty are mostly young people. Among similar products, products that emphasize uniqueness and have distinct personality are more likely to attract this type of users; copywriting that is different from similar products, or the use of "limited edition" slogans, etc., can also often impress this type of users.

By understanding the user’s psychological state when choosing a product, you can write copy based on the characteristics of the target audience in marketing promotion. So, let’s take a look at how to write copy that can attract user groups?

3. 8 ways to write copy

1. Questions

This is the most commonly used copywriting method in new media operations . We often see articles such as “How to make 100,000 yuan a month” and “What work does an operator with a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan do?” Such copywriting combines questions and interest points to directly hit the user's touchpoints.

2. Induction

At the beginning of this chapter, the inductive method is used - 8 writing techniques of copywriting. Several methods, several suggestions, and how many people are involved. What attracts users to these copywritings is that the accumulation of numbers gives people a sense of impact and fullness, which often prompts users to make immediate choices. We often see some activity pages showing "The number of participants has reached XXX people", which uses this writing technique.

3. Freshness

"New release", "Heavy launch"... Taking advantage of people's curiosity and desire to try new things, the copy is full of freshness and is also a call to action. This writing method is generally used when launching new products.

4. Sense of urgency

"Countdown 5 days", "3 days until the start"... When users see text like "countdown", they will think that if they don't participate, they may lose the opportunity to participate, which makes users feel a sense of urgency; while text like "distance to start" will give users expectations, thereby prompting users to participate quickly.

5. Benefits

The copy indicates the benefits that can be obtained by choosing this product/participating in this activity/reading this article. One way is to directly state the benefits, such as "The Golden Rooster Brings Good News, You Can Win Up to 100 Yuan in Phone Call Credits"; another way is metaphor, using words like "strategy," "cheats," and "guides" to emphasize the benefits that can be obtained. This writing method is often seen on recruitment websites, such as Lagou.com's "360° Full Reveal of the Secrets to Career Promotion and Salary Increase."

6. Professional vocabulary

Professional vocabulary can demonstrate professional value and attract precise audiences. Although professional vocabulary may lead to a decrease in clicks due to its obscurity, if the product is aimed at a specific audience, you may consider embedding professional vocabulary to screen the audience at the copywriting level. After all, one high-quality audience is more meaningful than thousands of passers-by.

7. Take advantage of the hot spots

Hot spots refer to news or information that is of great interest or popularity to the general public, or places or issues that attract attention during a certain period of time. It can be seen that "hot spots" have the characteristics of "attracting attention", "popular" or "eye-catching", which fully demonstrates that "hot spots" can attract the attention of passers-by and have wide dissemination and attention. The basic method of riding on hot topics is to use similar elements, or to have a dialogue with hot copy, or to do the opposite, to connect with one's own products, leverage the power to reach consumers, and leave product information in their minds. Durex is trying every possible means to take advantage of the popularity of products.

8. Negative words

The so-called negative words do not mean spreading negative energy in the copy, but using some words with warning meanings, such as "common mistakes" and "avoid happening", which often make people alert and want to find out what caused such a situation and gain inspiration from some negative examples. "Emergency notice! Your SMS verification code has been hijacked" uses negative words as copy to attract further attention from users.

If you can implement the copywriting techniques mentioned above, you will definitely be able to write interesting and vivid copy. To write good copy, in addition to some theoretical method summaries, the most important thing is to study more, train more, and summarize more often. Pay more attention to some good copy written by peers, conduct more practical training in copywriting, and summarize the advantages and disadvantages of each copywriting.

I believe that one day, you will write copy that your readers can't stop reading, just like sliding down a slide.