Writing Well: Copywriting Hacks & Tips
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This document provides essential copywriting tips, focusing on creating engaging content for blogs, headlines, and emails. It emphasizes using active voice, unique and concise headlines, and the importance of crafting effective email subject lines. The author highlights the significance of capturing attention in a brief time frame, alongside tools and processes for refining writing.
Writing Well: Copywriting Hacks & Tips
- 1. WRITING WELL: COPYWRITING HACKS & TIPS TOURISM ACADEMY 2019
- 4. YOU NAME IT. I’VE WRITTEN IT.
- 5. WHAT WE’LL COVER TODAY: 1. General Copywriting Tips 2. Tips for Blogs, Headlines & Emails 3. Tools & Writing Processes
- 6. 8 SECONDS LONG Average length of our attention spans. It was 12 seconds. Has fallen to 8 seconds.
- 7. 9 SECONDS LONG Goldfish have us beat by 1 second. They are believed to have an average attention span of 9 seconds.
- 8. IT IS A BIG CHALLENGE TO GET SOMEONE’S ATTENTION.
- 9. YOUR WRITING HAS A JOB TO DO - SO ASSIGN A JOB TO EVERY WORD.
- 10. IF A WORD CANNOT DO ITS JOB, FIRE IT.
- 11. IF A BETTER WORD CAN DO THE JOB, PROMOTE IT.
- 12. KILL weak WORDS ● Actual ● Almost ● Perhaps ● Just ● Literally ● Really ● Very ● Things ● That ● Aspect ● Meaningful ● In Fact
- 13. USE ACTIVE VOICE “Use the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive.” - Strunk and White, The Elements of Style
- 14. IT’S A STYLE THING
- 15. PASSIVE vs. ACTIVE ● Active voice means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its verb. ● Passive voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb's action.
- 16. “I will always remember my first visit to Pittsburgh. “My first visit to Pittsburgh will always be remembered by me.”
- 17. PASSIVE VOICE TIPS ● Passive voice is NOT a grammatical error. ● Not all grammar checkers will catch passive voice. ● If passive voice strengthens what you are writing, then use it!
- 19. Unique HEADLINES SHOULD BE Specific Active Crisp
- 20. IDEAL LENGTH FOR BLOG HEADLINES? ● 6 Words | 50 Characters (Buffer) ● 12-18 Words | 80-95 Characters (BuzzSumo) ● 16 - 18 Words | 80-100 Characters (Outbrain)
- 21. BUZZSUMO STUDY OF 100 MILLION HEADLINES buzzsumo.com/blog/most-shared-headlines-study/
- 22. PHRASES THAT WORK ON FACEBOOK Source: BuzzSumo.com Study
- 23. “WILL MAKE YOU…” ● 24 Pictures That Will Make You Want to Visit Pittsburgh ● This Couples Anniversary Trip Will Make You Tear Up ● 6 Tips That Will Make You A Better Wine Taster ● 13 Pittsburgh Travel Tips That Will Make You Feel Smart
- 24. WORST PERFORMERS ON FACEBOOK Source: BuzzSumo.com Study
- 25. TOP STARTING PHRASES ON FACEBOOK Source: BuzzSumo.com Study
- 26. BEST NUMBERS IN LISTS 10 5 15 7 20 6 8
- 28. 11.1 SECONDS Average time spent reading an email message. Source: Litmus Email Analytics.
- 29. 250-300 WORDS PER MINUTE Reading speed for the average adult human.
- 30. 50 WORDS IS IDEAL LENGTH FOR EMAIL COPY Wow. That's really not very much room for copywriting, is it? I'll bet your emails are pretty long and you're thinking of testing shorter copy. If you're wondering what fifty words looks like, there are only fifty words total on this slide.
- 31. RE: SUBJECT LINES TAKE YOUR TIME Spend as much time writing the email subject line as you do the email copy itself.
- 32. SUBJECT LINE + PREHEADER =
- 33. WRITING PROCESS & TOOLS
- 34. IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS ● Who is this for? ● How should they feel? ● What should they do?
- 35. ALWAYS OUTLINE FIRST ● Identify Subheadings ● Identify the 1-2 key ideas you want to hit for each Subheading
- 36. LET IT FLY! ● It’s a “free-write” ● Get your ideas down ● Save word choice, grammar, and sentence structure for later.
- 37. ESCHEW OBFUSCATION (write like a human)
- 38. HEMINGWAY EDITOR
- 39. GRAMMARLY APP
- 40. GRAMMARLY APP
- 41. READ IT OUT LOUD ● Where do you get “stuck” ● Is there rhythm and “flow”
- 42. LOOK FOR PATTERNS & BREAK THEM How to tell if your writing is repetitive? Hmmm... Well if it is repetitive than you will repeat the same words or the same constructions again and again. There are so many words out there. Why use the same words over and over again and again?
- 43. VARY YOUR STYLE ● Sentence length ● Sentence construction ● Repeated word choices
- 44. GET STUCK? WALK AWAY
- 45. THANK YOU! Britt Brouse Digital Strategy Director @ Tempest @brittbrouse