How to learn to write texts? Beginner's Guide to Copywriting
Everyone is capable of writing texts at a good level. This is a skill that can be mastered. In this article, I have collected personal experience and also the experience of teaching other people copywriting, which I want to share.
To learn how to write texts, you need to understand:
- What to write?
- How to write?
These are two simple questions, but in practice there are many difficulties with them. How to overcome them, I will tell below. However, it won't be easy, and if at some point you realize that you can't cope, it's easier to just paying for essays. Yes, this way you will not learn how to write on your own, but you will save time and nerves, and also meet the deadlines. The best option when deadlines are running out.
1. Learn to understand the objectives of the text and the audience
You can write a good text if you answer two questions:
- Why do you write?
- For whom do you write?
These questions will help you understand the purpose of the text and its audience. For example, I am writing this article for people who want to learn how to write texts in order to earn money on it. Most likely, the article will be read by young people who want to become freelancers. They roughly understand what copywriting is. Perhaps they have experience in this area and want to develop.
If you are writing text for a website about a service, then your audience is people who have a specific problem that is solved by this service. Your task is to convince them to contact the company that ordered the text for you.
2. Plan your text
The plan is a frame on which words are then “put on” and a finished text is obtained. The better the plan, the higher the quality of the content.
There is a “Questions” technique that helps to make a good plan. You need to ask yourself the following questions and mentally answer them:
- What worries the person who will read your text?
- Why will he read your text?
- What does he want to know?
- What is the most important thing for him?
- What would you like to read or learn, being in the position of this person?
For example, my task is to write a short guide for people who want to learn copywriting. My reader is concerned about the question of how to master this craft. Perhaps he wants to understand why he can't write lyrics and what he should do. He will read my text because he wants to make money from articles. He wants to know what you need to know and be able to write texts. Useful tips and tricks. It is important that the article is understandable to a beginner.
Above, I answered a number of questions from the list, but you can already see how much information has been received for the future plan. Having figured out what your reader wants, your task is to draw up a plan with a thesis description of a future article.
Stop thinking about the wording! Often people speak beautifully, but cannot formulate thoughts on paper. They begin to "think" and want to "write smarter and more correctly." This is mistake. Write the way you speak. Then you will finalize the written text, but first you need to write it.
4. Use more facts
Facts are the basis of the article. The more data, figures and other factual information you collect, the better the content will turn out. Before writing an article, write down on a piece of paper all the numbers that you have, and as you prepare the material, note what data you have already added.
How to distinguish facts from "water"? If the sentence can be removed and the text does not lose anything in meaning and usefulness, then this is “water”.
What if the customer does not provide facts? Try to find them on the Internet or on the client's website. If there is no initial information at all, write the text with the data that is available.
5. Read good texts
There are sites with high quality content, both informational and commercial. Read the texts on such sites and think why the author wrote this way and not otherwise? Why did he choose such a plan of text? Why does he use such language? Why is a table added here and a list here?
It is important not only to read a lot, but also to analyze texts. Learn to see how the author worked on them and why choose to write that way. It is important to develop a professional view of the content.
Notice interesting techniques, formulations, ideas and use them in your work. The more you read good texts, the faster you grow in copywriting.
6. Final revision of the text
Set the text aside for a while and then read it again. You will notice some flaws, repetition of words and other problems that need to be corrected. Work on the text. Change wording. Remove errors. This will improve the quality of your content.
Pay special attention to the following things:
- The title of the text. It is normal if you rewrite the title 2-3 times before you find the best option. Learn to write headlines that grab attention and make you want to see the text.
- Lead (first paragraph). Read the article on how to write a good lead. There are useful tricks, including for selling texts.
- Structure. It must match the plan. Each paragraph of the plan should have a subheading.
- Content. Remove anything that doesn't make sense or value to the reader. The text may be shortened - this is normal.
- Introductory words, long sentences and large paragraphs. All this is better to remove or recycle (reduce, simplify, break into several parts).