When starting a business, our main priority is to create a quality product, something that people will be attracted to, convinced and even seduced by, and that, above all, can deliver on the promise of bringing a better life.

However, once we already have our product, we start directly to elaborate the website and let time pass thinking that this is enough to have millions of sales.

A week later we notice that no one has touched our site and we find out that no one has heard about our offer, which depresses us and makes us give up the initiative altogether.

This is a reality that thousands and millions of people have gone through, and not precisely because of a mistake made in any of the steps described above, but because of the omission of a very important step when it comes to making your product known: Advertising it.

This phase is so important that those companies or businesses that invest in advertising tend to make many more sales than the competition, even if the product is not much better in quality than the competition.

• There are thousands of advertising methods, from billboards and emails to branded posts on social media, all based on a single principle: convincing the reader to buy a product.

Now, you might think that writing pretty words and using colorful images to get someone to buy your product is something as easy as saying "Hi, I have a phone charger with a longer cable, do you want to buy it?". However, this is far from reality.

Convincing a potential customer to pay attention to what you are saying, let alone buy one of your products, is a tortuous process that requires subtlety and great knowledge of human psychology.

This is precisely where the discipline of Copywriting comes in, which is in charge of writing all those texts, which, if they are effective, persuasive and creative when presenting an offer, manage to create sales.

If you think you are doomed to suffer eternal bankruptcy due to the failure of your entrepreneurial initiatives, you are in luck.

In the following article we will make a short presentation on copywriting, introducing you to the benefits and importance of this form of content writing that will bring you many more sales, more success and who knows, even more appointments ;). Let's start

What is copywriting?

Credits to No-longer-here and Pixabay.com

There are a lot of ways to describe copywriting, ranging from "the activity of writing copy to generate sales" to "messages created to increase conversions on a particular site", all of which leave you more confused than you start reading.

But this doesn't have to be the case. In simple terms, copywriting is text written for the purpose of making a sale, either directly or indirectly.

This can be something as immediate as writing to a business offering your products or even something as indirect as writing a story that generates intrigue in a potential customer so that he clicks on a link to an online store.

You might think that this is a recent term, more information about the first copywriter, John Emory Powers, dates back to 1870, where, thanks to his style (Powers Style) characterized by an easy to understand language, he achieved a great amount of sales.

However, in today's world, due to the great technological and media changes, where people tend to consume content in a dispersed and continuous way, the ways of presenting a product or service have changed drastically.

Comparisons: Advertising in the 20th century vs. the 21st century

Credits to Vintage Blue and Pixabay.com

According to studies conducted and published by Dr. Gloria Mark, professor of computer science at the University of California in her book "Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity", it can be clearly observed how the human being's ability to focus has decreased in the last 20 years.

In 2004, when the average attention span of a person in front of a screen was measured, a total of 2 and a half minutes was obtained, however, in a matter of a decade this decreased to 75 seconds (1 minute and 15 seconds) and is currently at an all-time low of 45 seconds.

This decrease in our ability to concentrate has had repercussions in activities that require sustained attention such as reading, where for most young people reading any book only brings mental lapses, preferring formats more suited to their attention levels such as summaries or audiobooks.

And this is precisely why advertising has changed significantly in recent years, with sales presentations going from several pages of 5-6 line paragraphs to at most 2 pages with 1-2 line spaced sentences and lots of images.

To illustrate this, here is a comparison between an example of advertising from the 1970s and one from today:

All credits to Tony Brigbull and Albany Life

This copy, related to a life insurance company that asked the customer to answer a series of questions to deduce the date of death, has the merit of being quite long, something that would take today's reader 5-10 minutes to digest and would probably result in the loss of a customer.
However, due to the interest the Headline created and the fact that audiences at the time consumed much of their content in magazines, this was a great success at the hands of Tony Brignull.

Now, if we look at copy from current times:

All credits to Interactive Brokers

We can see the word economy in this email, where images predominate and everything is well spaced, so that it is not too "chunky" for the reader, always appealing to the problems and solutions that the brand can provide, never sounding like they are trying to sell you something.

You may not be totally convinced about copywriting after knowing what it is, but this is one of, if not the most important skill in the business world, so much so that many people create agencies from copywriting.

That is why, in order to increase the level of interest in this practice, the benefits of copywriting will be shown, which will give us a whole new perspective on the importance of this art.

Benefits of Copywriting

Something better than customers

Credits to Pexels and Pixabay.com

Going back to the comparison of copywriting examples between generations, we can see how the intentions of the message were much clearer a few decades ago, all communicating a "Buy me" subtext.

However, nowadays, a piece of copy that deserves to be called that will have as its main priority to make the customer feel understood, communicating the doubts they may feel and offering a solution to them, not as a salesperson, but as a friend.

If you execute copywriting in your sales strategies, you will surely have not only many more sales, but also more loyal customers, who are willing to buy your products more than once and even move up your value ladder.

You will know your product better:

Credits to Bru-nO and Pixabay.com

Since the foundation of successful copywriting is knowing the offer in detail, a clear understanding of those problems your product solves and how it can provide a better life for the prospect are key to giving you insight into the future.

By researching the market and your competition, you will stumble upon those gems that give you the cue to step up and achieve success, where complaints and problems from other companies' customers are your opportunity to differentiate yourself.

Many brands are at the top of a particular niche (Sneakers, Phones, etc...) and are not abysmally better than the rest. What puts them a step above is not the fact that they reinvent the wheel, but that they know that having 2 or 3 better attributes is reason enough to attract customers in their direction.

What I mean by this is that by being able to establish the benefits of your product and those of your competitors, you will know how to improve it and in this way, you will get many more potential sales.

You will communicate your value better

Credits to StockSnap and Pixabay.com

If you think the scope of copywriting is only limited to business, you're wrong. The knowledge of those things that bring stress, joy or peace to a person is a superpower in itself, something that can lead you to
opportunities you never thought would appear before.
Whether you are in a business meeting, a family reunion or a romantic encounter, with copywriting you will be able to communicate your value much more easily, persuading your way to success.

It is precisely the art of communicating value that allows salespeople to present themselves with excellent opportunities in life, obtaining not only women or contracts, but also greater satisfaction.

As in any discipline, one step will not get you in the front door, so it will take rigorous training and testing before you can communicate value. But this need not discourage you, as the most important step is to get started.

In order to make the road easier for you, here are 3 tips that will be of vital importance in accelerating your development as a copywriter.

SEARCH FOR REFERENCES

Credits to loufre

What better way to learn than to use the works of others as inspiration? There are thousands and millions of successful pieces of copy on the internet, which you can find everywhere: In blogs, in your social networks and even in your Inbox.

Just take a look at those annoying emails, analyze their structure and how they make you feel and you can replicate them and get value out of them, perfecting your technique at the same time.

AMAZON, REVIEWS, CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Credits to mcmurryjulie

In order to be able to make copy that attracts eyeballs, research is a crucial part, with which you will understand those things that really make the product valuable to the consumer.

Now you might ask, where do I get customer feedback information?

Well, you need look no further than your Amazon page, where you'll find products in all niches with plenty of positive and negative reviews, and you can take a look at the competition and how product offerings are structured on these platforms, giving you a headstart when it comes to writing copy.

PRACTICE WITH DIFFERENT FORMS

Credits to ChristopherPluta

Many people think that just by knowing one of the many forms of copywriting they have the game figured out. However, each medium is different and therefore so is the way to capture the attention of its users.

Making long copy formats are totally different from how you would make copy for social networks, both following totally different rules for product promotion, which is why being versatile in writing will give you an abysmal advantage over others.

The world of Copy is something that is shrouded in mystery partly because of those who try to make it seem more complicated than it is and those who pass it off as a mere attempt to make sales, however, this is a respected discipline of vital importance in today's world.

That is why I hope the information presented in this article has been useful to you, leading you to know a little more about the world of advertising and how to apply it to your business/life. Thanks for your support and good luck!

Pages used for research:
https://dma.org.uk/article/steve-harrison-s-history-of-copywriting-in-five-ads
https://www.directom.com/history-of-advertising-how-has-advertising-changed-over-time/
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/11/health/short-attention-span-wellness/index.html
https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/average-human-attention-span

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