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5 things to know about copywriting for direct response marketing

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5 things to know about direct response marketing copywriting

Direct response marketing is the sales technique that invokes on-the-spot response.

It is different from lead nurturing which can take a long time.

Direct response marketing gives measurable results almost instantly.

Therefore, copywriting for direct response marketing is quite different from copywriting for content marketing.

Whereas content marketing is a sustained effort, direct response marketing elicits a response instantly.

Performance can be measured the moment the campaign is launched.

The call to action of a direct response marketing campaign isn’t always buying something or subscribing to something.

It can be downloading a white paper. It can be subscribing to a mailing list. It can be opting for a free offer.

In that sense, you can nurture long-term leads even through a direct response marketing campaign. It is just that, more than focusing on making the readers aware, your copywriting must focus on eliciting a response.

How is copywriting for direct response marketing different from content marketing?

Content marketing is all about building a long-term readership or an audience.

You inform them. You educate them. You engage them.

The primary purpose of content marketing is to remain in front of your audience in a meaningful manner and keep them engaged through informative and useful content.

In direct response marketing on the other hand, you want people to act immediately.

Through your copywriting you make a compelling case for taking an immediate action.

You create a sense of urgency.

You make an irresistible offer.

You make it clear that not acting would be a great error of judgement.

Here is a good example of direct response marketing that elicits immediate response.

Direct response marketing example Scrib

As you can see, this advertisement doesn’t inform people about what Scribd is. It is assumed that people are aware of its content.

They are simply offering people an irresistible offer.

Readers can access all the content of the service for two months just for $ 0.99.

You either take the offer or you don’t take it.

The result is immediate.

Content marketing is a sustained effort.

It involves publishing blog posts, social media updates, and broadcasting infomercials on TV and radio.

There is no need to ask people to do something.

They can passively consume your content and if they want, they can interact with you.

In direct response marketing, people are asked to sit up straight and act immediately.

There is less of education and information, and more of action-taking.

The return on investment in content marketing comes somewhere in the future.

The ROI in direct response marketing comes immediately, during the current campaign itself.

Hence, you write the copy accordingly.

Listed below are 5 things you must know about doing copywriting for direct response marketing.

1. Immediate action is required

When copywriting for direct response advertisements and marketing materials, keep in your mind that immediate action is required.

What does that mean?

You use lots of action words like download (if you want them to download an e-book), or download immediately, or download for free, or no-obligation download, and such.

If you want them to subscribe, use expressions like subscribe now, subscribe immediately, subscribe for free, or submit your email to download our free e-book, and such.

Right now, immediately, urgently, and now, are some powerful words when writing copy in direct response marketing.

2. Invoke a sense of urgency

You often come across expressions like

Buy before it’s too late
You are running out of time
Only two seats left
Final call
It may be your last chance
Your last chance to save 50%

No matter how often these expressions are used, advertisers and marketers vouch for them. They always work.

You must have heard the expression FOMO when reading about content writing and copywriting.

It stands for “Fear of Missing out”.

A good example:

You just booked a flight to your favorite vacation destination, and you are wondering which hotel rooms to book.

Suddenly a message pops up on the website where you are booking your flight:

“Hurry! 2 premium rooms available at regular rates for these dates.”

Isn’t this an irresistible offer you wouldn’t like to miss?

Urgency here is important because advertising research has shown that the longer someone ponders over an offer, the greater is the chance that he or she will talk himself or herself out of it.

There is a psychological term called “Loss aversion”. It comes from the concept of “risk aversion”.

We have a primal fear for risks because in the olden days when humans lived in wilderness, risks could be deadly.

Various studies have shown we are more averse to losses than we are eager for gains.

In direct response marketing copywriting sense of urgency is invoked keeping this human tendency in mind.

Your offer needs to be time sensitive or quantity sensitive.

You need to invoke a strong take-it-or-leave-it situation.

Other expressions that raise a sense of urgency

Prices going up soon
Only 3 copies of the book left
We are accepting just 2 more members
Buy now or the offer expires
This offer expires in 2 hours
Valid only today
Delaying will cost you money
Your last chance

Direct response marketing copywriting example of shirts

3. Come to the point immediately

People have a short attention span.

It is even shorter when one is reading direct response marketing copy.

People are anyway averse to receiving offers that ask them to spend money.

Therefore, whenever you make a strong point, come to the point immediately.

There is a nagging habit among many copywriters to keep beating around the bush (creating the atmosphere) and by the time they come to the meat of the offer people are bored or distracted.

What is their most vexing problem?

What solution do you offer?

Why your solution is the best (in case there are multiple solutions available in the market)?

Some copywriters ask multiple questions before offering a solution.

Something like

Are you facing this?

Are you in this type of situation?

Are you suffering?

Are you facing problem with your current infrastructure?

This goes on until they have asked 10-15 questions and by that time, the reader is bored.

I’m not saying this type of copywriting is bad.

You just need to be very sure that these questions are highly important to the readers.

Even if you need to ask a question, make sure they are relevant.

Otherwise, get on with making your point.

Take for example this banner advertisement from Fizzle that provides productivity tools to content creators who want to make a living doing what they love.

Direct response marketing banner copywriting example

Most of the content creators love doing what they do but their biggest problem is that they don’t make money, and to make money, they often must ignore what they love doing.

This banner represents and provides a solution for their biggest problem – they can continue doing what they love, and they can also make a living doing the same.

4. Understand your readers

Before one of the greatest copywriters Claude C. Hopkins launched the Pepsodent campaign in America most of the people didn’t brush.

This was the late 19th or the early 20th century.

Their teeth were dirty and there was a discolored film over everybody’s teeth.

People didn’t even know that they wanted to get rid of that annoying yellowish film.

When he started working on the Pepsodent campaign he did extensive reading to know what would get the prospective customers of the toothpaste interested.

Going through different dental textbooks he came across a reference of mucin plaque that gets deposited over your teeth when you don’t brush for a few days.

It makes your teeth look yellowish or grayish.

He decided to call it “the film”.

He knew that everybody wanted beautiful teeth.

His campaign was

Just run your tongue across your teeth. You’ll feel a film – that’s what makes your teeth look ‘off color’ and invites decay.

The campaign was a huge success and within three years almost 50% of America was brushing its teeth.

If he hadn’t read all those dental textbooks, he wouldn’t have come across the concept of “the film” and then use it in his campaign.

In direct response marketing copywriting, it is very important to understand the needs of your readers.

The more you understand the needs of your readers, the better will be your copywriting, and the more effective will be the response.

5. Carefully choose between long form and short form copywriting

Advertising legends like David Ogilvy were big proponents of longform copywriting for marketing.

Consider this example:

Direct response marketing copywriting example – long form

I remember when we used to actively read newspapers and magazines and they often published advertisements that look like articles.

Even these days such articles are called “advertorials”.

Direct response marketing isn’t something like you throw dirt at a wall and then see what sticks and what falls.

You need to test with various formats and various lengths of your copy.

Some people don’t like long form copywriting, and some people do.

You need to see how much information your prospective customers need before they can make a decision.

I neither support nor oppose long form content when it comes to copywriting because it differs from situation to situation.

Just focus on how much you need to communicate, and then communicate with full sincerity.

The key elements of direct response copywriting are

Customer centricity
A clearly defined CTA
A sense of genuine urgency
The ability to hook your readers
Personalization and targeting
A complete understanding of the needs of your readers.

Stop committing these 5 copywriting mistakes immediately

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5 copywriting mistakes to avoid

There was a time when copywriting used to be in the realm of advertising and marketing.

These days, when you are writing for websites and blog posts, in many instances you are copywriting.

This is because if your content is being used for content marketing, it is meant to generate leads and sales.

Copywriting is slightly different from content writing. In copywriting, you don’t just inform and engage, you also prompt your readers to take an action (CTA – Call to Action).

This is a necessity whether you are writing a blog post, a landing page, an email marketing message, or one of the main pages of a website.

After reading your copy people must act. Even if they leave your website or blog without taking an action, enough impact must be made so that they remember the website, remember what the website stands for, and when the time comes to seek more information, or even to do business, they come back to the website.

Therefore, copywriting mistakes can be costly.

Copywriting mistakes can adversely impact the way people react when they read your copy.

Mistakes can negatively affect your search engine rankings.

They can deteriorate your conversion rate.

Your CTA gets affected if you commit copywriting mistakes.

Frankly, there can be hundreds of mistakes that you can commit when writing copy for a website, or a landing page, or a blog post, but there are at least some common, and significant mistakes that you can avoid making your copy effective and profitable.

Below I am writing 5 common copywriting mistakes that you can avoid when writing copy for your own website or for your clients.

1. Writing unnecessarily long expressions

Copywriting needs to be crisp.

People should be able to read your sentences effortlessly and fast.

If they have to make an effort, they lose concentration and after a while, they lose interest.

For example, there is no need to write “It has been brought to our notice”, when you can simply write “we have noticed”.

Further, there is no need to write “Ask me a question” because when you ask, you are anyway asking a question, so you can use “ask me”.

Why is this an important copywriting mistake that you must avoid?

Why do you write your copy? You write so that people respond favorably to your copywriting.

Every small thing matters. You don’t want to distract them. You don’t want to bore them.

Do you know that sometimes people get bored even when they don’t realize it and then leave your page?

Although on the Internet there can be zillions of reasons why people get distracted and leave your page, one of the biggest reasons is that long sentences and words with multiple syllables bore them, even unknowingly.

Write short sentences. Get rid of as many unnecessary words as possible. Avoid using words with more than two or three syllables.

2. Using unnecessary or meaningless expression

You must have come across expressions such as “#1 software” or “the best app development service”.

Do your readers really get impressed that you’re calling yourself “the best app development service” without backing it up with a believable proof?

Instead of using such hyperbolic language address the core problems of the people reading your copy.

How do you intend to solve their problem? Not by being “the best app development service” but by your ability to understand their problems and offering them the right solutions.

Some copywriters also use expressions that are called “intensifiers” such as

“Really exceptional”

“Totally free” (what is partially free?)

“Absolutely stunning”

Really, totally, and absolutely are completely unnecessary. In fact, I shouldn’t have used completely unnecessary myself but I wanted to make a point.

3. Not understanding the reader’s perspective

There must be a direct connection between

What you say as a copywriter.
What your reader wants to read as someone who is dealing with the problem and is looking for a solution.

You may think that it’s obvious, but many copywriters make this mistake: there is no connection between what is being written and what the copy is required to achieve.

It always helps to prepare a persona. Make a list of all the problems and solutions your prospective reader has in mind when he or she comes to your web page.

Don’t hold yourself back. Make as many points as you can think of.

Since your copy needs to be focused you don’t need to tackle all the points, but whatever you want to tackle, underline.

Keep the list in front of you when you are writing your copy so that there is a direct match between what you are writing and what your reader wants to read.

4. Ignoring the importance of headlines

When you are writing for the web, headlines solve multiple purposes.

They are good for your search engine rankings.

They make your copy easily readable.

When people come to your website or web page they first see your headlines.

Most of the people skim through your content so write your headlines keeping such tendencies in mind.

When your headlines fail to make an impact, most of the people skip reading your remaining copy.

Don’t just create headlines for the sake of creating them.

Using the product name or the service name as your headline doesn’t make much sense.

Instead of saying

“The cloud hosted accounting solution”

you can maybe opt for

“Anywhere access to your accounting system, from any device, through any browser”

In just one headline you have captured almost all the benefits of using your cloud hosted accounting solution.

The headlines must represent the gist of what you are talking beneath them.

For example, the headline

“Ignoring the importance of headlines”

tells you that not taking your headlines seriously is a grave copywriting mistake.

5. Having multiple CTAs on a single page

CTA stands for call to action. This is especially important when you are writing copy for a landing page or an email campaign.

Every landing page or email campaign has a central purpose.

Whenever you construct a landing page or send out an email campaign, it is intended to achieve a singular task.

The task might be selling clothes.

Maybe you want to build a mailing list and for that you are inviting subscribers to submit their email IDs.

Or maybe you want them to download your case study or white paper.

Maybe you are an architect, and you want people to fill up your contact form for an appointment or an online consultation.

These are different focuses.

Sometimes on the same landing page or in the same email campaign, people are asked to download the brochure, or contact or fix up a consultation appointment.

Multiple choices confuse the readers and recipients.

On every landing page or in every email campaign, use a single expression for your call to action.

If you want them to download your white paper, whenever you use the CTA button, prompt them to download the white paper and exclusively talk about the white paper.

If you want them to contact you, then for every CTA button prompt them to contact you.

Don’t club multiple calls to action in a single campaign.

In case you have multiple calls to action, use multiple campaigns.

How to make your copywriting effective after avoiding these mistakes?

Write for the reader.

Keep search engine optimization in your thoughts but don’t get overwhelmed – remember eventually it’s the humans who read your copy.

Write according to search intent.

Search intent, on the Internet, is the intention with which people use queries on Google.

My personal approach is always writing from the reader’s perspective.

What is the reader going to get out of my copy?

What information am I providing?

How is that information helping the reader?

Take for example this blog post.

What was the primary purpose of this blog post?

It was highlighting the 5 main copywriting mistakes that you should avoid.

There may be scores of other mistakes, but these are the important mistakes I want you to avoid.

This was the purpose of this blog post.

4 Ps of persuasive copywriting

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4 Ps of persuasive copywriting

Copywriting is all about persuasion. You need to convince and convert people.

Easier said than done, right?

If just writing words on paper (or web page) could persuade people, everybody would be a successful copywriter.

Your readers are cynical, especially when you are asking them to part with their money.

In fact, there is so much content to consume on the Internet that even if you offer them something for free, they are going to take their attention somewhere else if you don’t offer them something convincing, in a highly persuasive manner.

4 Ps of persuasive copywriting can help you convince and convert people.

What are 4 Ps of persuasive copywriting?

Frankly, what these 4 Ps stand for depends on who is explaining them, but they can be expanded as

Problem
Promise
Proof
Proposal

Problem

Mention in the beginning what problem the reader is facing.
Current content is not improving search engine rankings?
Website copy is not converting?
No response on social media?
Website design is uninspiring?
No response from emails?

I am listing these problems from the perspective of my content writing and copywriting services.

Your target audience may have its own set of problems.

When you mention the problem at the beginning the reader can immediately relate and is drawn to what you want to say next.

Everybody wants a solution to their problem.

I mean, if you don’t have good search engine rankings, don’t you want to improve them?

Promise

After mentioning the problem, you promise to solve it.

Through your copywriting, you can improve conversion rate.

Through optimized content writing, you can improve search engine rankings.

Through convincing writing for email, you can improve email marketing response rate.

You can write persuasively.

You can use power words.

You can write compelling headlines.

You can hook readers.

You can lead them from casual interest to being paying customers and clients.

Proof

Proof comes through testimonials and recommendations.

You can mention websites (again, I’m writing from the perspective of someone who offers content writing and copywriting services) you have written content for.

You can use your portfolio.

You can tell the reader how much experience you have.

You can mention your methodology.

Proposal

By now your readers are ready to receive your proposal.

What do you intend to deliver?

How are you going to solve their problem?

What is the guarantee that you will solve the problem?

Do you offer some protection against your promise (I offer them a no obligation free sample).

These 4 Ps of persuasive copywriting can be used as a standard template and in most of the cases, this template will serve you well.

6 tips to help you write better

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Tips to help you write better

What exactly is better writing?

It is engaging. It reads fluently. It sticks to the narrative. It is easier to understand. It is captivating. It is free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Ultimately, it emotionally moves the readers, and in terms of business writing, turns them from readers to customers and clients.

The way you write reflects on your attitude towards your readers. You don’t have to write like a classical novelist but when people are reading your writing, they should get the feeling that you take your writing seriously. You don’t take your readers for granted.

Everyone writes these days. People are posting updates on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You write when you send messages on instant messaging apps – in fact, many instant messaging apps have their own lingo that is quite different from the way you write.

There is writing for relatives and friends and there is writing for customers and clients. Your relatives and friends don’t mind how you write as long as you can convey your message.

Your customers and clients mind if you don’t write better. If you are not careful with your writing, how can you be careful with delivering your business?

Your writing style matters when you write for your business blog. If you have business accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking platforms then too the way you write matters.

I often get queries from people who want me to write their business emails. It means they understand the importance of writing well-formed email messages.

When you write better, you make a good impression. People take you seriously. You are more convincing. People are not distracted, and they can focus on your core message.

Listed below are 6 tips to help you write better

1. Create an outline

You must have learned this in school and by now forgotten. Your English teacher used to make you create an outline for essay writing assignments.

Creating an outline is a very simple process. You can use bulleted points. You can simply use one-line paragraphs to jot down the main points you want to convey.

Creating an outline helps you collect all your ideas on a single page. At this stage, you can also do some research if you want to find credible information.

The main parts of an outline cab be

An introduction and the main headline.
What is the gist of the article, or the blog post you are going to write?
What is the most compelling point that will be represented by your article or blog post?
What is the objective of what you are writing?
Main points – headings and subheadings that you would like to expand further.

When creating an outline don’t worry about your writing style or grammar or spelling mistakes. You can create your outline in monosyllables.

The basic idea is to get as much information as possible out there.

2. Write short sentences

Short sentences are powerful than long sentences. The ability to express complete ideas with fewer words allows you to be succinct and direct.

Shorter sentences improve readability. They are less distracting. They make a stronger impact. There is a reason why famous axioms and traditional folklore sayings are expressed in short and crisp sentences.

Longer and verbose sentences on the other hand distract your readers. Remove the unnecessary words. Don’t use adverbs and adjectives needlessly. Say what you want to say directly, and simply.

3. Write shorter paragraphs

This is also good for your SEO, especially when you are writing articles and blog posts to improve your search engine rankings.

Don’t have more than two or three sentences in a paragraph.

Many people these days prefer to read on their mobile phones or smaller devices. Reading very long paragraphs can tire them and distract them away from what you have published.

Short paragraphs maintain the attention span. They are easier to grasp and digest. They create more white space and hence, make your page visually appealing.

Also, short paragraphs help you develop the habit of expressing one thought in one paragraph, making it easier for you to articulate complex ideas in simple language.

4. Use active voice as much as possible

Here is an example of active voice:

Scientists believe that there are multiple universes.

In passive voice, the same sentence becomes

It is believed by scientists that there are multiple universes.

Passive voice certainly has its uses but when you are explaining something or when you are having a conversation with your readers, use active voice.

Hence, when writing sentences, always write “The dog is chasing the ball” instead of “the ball is being chased by the dog”.

It is always easier to read a sentence when a subject is directly performing an action on an object.

5. Find your unique writing voice

Your writing voice is the way you form sentences and use certain words. It gives you an identity. It helps you develop a perspective. When you have written extensively, it also helps your readers easily identify you through your writing.

In the beginning of our writing careers, we tend to get influenced by the writers we read and admire. In my early years I read classical writers like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy and tried to adopt their writing styles.

When I began to admire Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I tried to write the way they wrote.

There is nothing wrong in emulating writers you admire and in fact, emulating them is a good way to start writing until you develop your own voice.

You are not born with an innate writing voice. You cannot even force-develop it. It needs to come into being on its own.

Write regularly. Develop your own vocabulary. Write sentences in your own way. Develop a conviction.

6. Write regularly without waiting for inspiration or muse

Successful and established writers write every day. It is not a choice for them, it is a necessity.

As a professional content writer, I cannot wait for “inspiration”. My clients give me topics. Sometimes they give me research data. Based on this information, I must start writing immediately.

The same goes for my content writing and copywriting blog. I am not as regular as I should be because I sometimes get busy with my professional commitments, but whenever I get time, I don’t wait for ideas and inspirations. I simply come up with a topic and start writing on it.

The benefit of writing every day is that you get used to expressing yourself without making an extra effort. You are learning and using new words and phrases. You are forming new sentences. You are constantly figuring out how to express different thoughts and ideas.

Practice your writing muscle regularly. The best way of learning to write is when you don’t want to write.

Learn every day. Memorize new words. Take notes whenever you come across sentences you can use in your own writing. Read to learn and absorb than simply for entertainment and education.

Call-to-action tips for your day-to-day content writing and copywriting

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Call-to-action tips

Call-to-action is a statement that you make to prompt people to take an action when they are reading your blog post, web page, landing page, or an email. It is also called CTA.

Think it in this manner: why do people come to your website? Why do you want them to come to your website?

If you run a business website (provide app development services) you obviously want people to contact you if they want to develop a mobile app. Almost every page has a Call-to-action button such as “Call us” or “Contact now”.

But simply telling people to contact you isn’t going to make them contact you. Your entire copy must fuel your Call-to-action statement.

Call-to-action can be straightforward (buy my book right now), or it can be subtle – the narrative of your writing moving in such a manner that people want to take an action.

Content Marketing Institute has compiled a list of call-to-action tips to help you supercharge your writing. Some of these tips include

Clearly define your call-to-action goal

You’re CTA isn’t always about making a sale, although, that would be the ultimate goal. Before a sale happens, you need to generate leads. You generate leads by establishing communication channels. How do you establish those channels?

You can ask your visitors to download your white paper or case study. You can ask them to download your e-book. You can encourage them to subscribe to your updates. You can also ask them to visit other portions of your website for further action.

If you define your CTA, it helps you write your content accordingly.

Make contextually relevant offers

Call-to-action must be relevant to the document or the visual your viewer is currently viewing. Suppose I’m writing a blog post on how to write compelling copy and then in the middle of the copy I ask them to download an SEO book. Vaguely they are connected, but directly they are not. Instead, if I ask them to download a small PDF on how to write a compelling copy with more details and data, they will be more eager to download it.

You also need to keep in your mind the intent, both for the content and for the reader/viewer. Is the reader looking for information or is she ready to buy? If she is looking for more information it is better to direct her to the relevant document and if she wants to buy, then it is better to prompt her to buy.

Keep your CTA straightforward

Call-to-action must be an active verb. Use expressions like “Download our White Paper” or “Subscribe to our newsletter” or “Download our mobile app”. These are very clear actions. Avoid using something like “Learn more” because it is very vague and doesn’t tell much what it leads to.

Create a sense of urgency and importance

Instead of saying “Download our mobile app” it is better to say “Download our mobile app now”. Also, use “Call us today” instead of simply “Call us”. Also, something like “Download our custom catalogue specifically for you”. This makes the reader feel unique and special. There is also a sense of urgency.

Avoid using multiple Call-to-action prompts

If you choose too many call-to-action prompts readers begin to ignore them or their eyes get used to them. Use CTA only where you think now is the right time for them to click and do the needful.

Also, keep your CTA brief if you are using a button, because people prefer clicking buttons that are of small size.

Be transparent in your CTA prompts

Don’t needlessly send people to other locations of your website because you want them to stick around. The Call-to-action must be transparent. If it prompts them to download an e-book, they should be able to download it without much fuss. If they need to fill up a form, no matter how small it is, quickly mention that. Avoid using words like “Sign up” or “register” if they need to fill up a form before downloading.

Why should people click?

Can they get a 25% discount – “Avail 25% discount instantly”? Are they going to generate ideas for their blog posts? Is the software going to help them generate quality content? Is it a toolkit they can use to manage their customers and clients? There needs to be a great benefit that your call-to-action offers. Solve a problem. Help them get unstuck. Help them save money.