YOU Need Copy: Your Copy’s Not About You

There’s something about the rule of three that tickles my fancy so here it is again: What word appeared three times in the title? That’s right, “YOU!”

Just like when Bart tries to answer Smokey the Bear’s question about who can prevent forest fires, this could be a tricky topic for some people to wrap their minds around but it’s really quite simple - and a bit harsh.

Your client doesn’t care as much about you as they do about themselves.

This means that to keep your audience engaged and actively traveling through your sales funnel, you need to make your content all about them - even when you’re talking about yourself. This is where many people experience hiccups in their copywriting. You need to be the solution to their problem and you need to present yourself in a way that guides them to that natural conclusion.

Who Do You Serve?

Knowing your ideal client is vital to writing good copy for your business.

But WHY?

One of the main contributors to whether or not a person will do business with you is whether or not they know, like, and trust you. If you don't know who you're trying to serve then how do you know if your copy is going to resonate with them?

Trying to speak to too wide of an audience will make you miss the mark on a good number of people. It will also weaken your message and lessen its effect on the people who you could potentially help. Leads lower and conversion drops - in short, your business suffers.

Some aspects to consider when describing your ideal client are:

• Age demographic

• Gender

• Marital status

• How long they've been in their chosen career

• Familiarity with offered service/product

• Income level

• Moral beliefs

• Behaviour patterns

• Challenges

• Needs

• Goals (short/long-term)

• Their favourite colour
  

This is by far NOT a comprehensive list but rather a place to start when considering who you and your business plan on attracting.

You can even tap into some psychological tricks to help yourself really connect with your client persona by assigning them a name and choosing an image that best represents them. Having a firm understanding of this fictional person will fine-tune every piece of the copy you need in your business.

"A friend to all is a friend to none."

• Aristotle

In learning who you serve, you will inevitably come to the conclusion that you can’t and may not even want to help everyone. If you’ve done the branding work and refined your offer in order to make it scale the way I know you want it to then this reality will come sooner rather than later.

Harsh truth: Everyone will not be your person.

Effective copywriting speaks to the person who is going to benefit most from the product or service being provided (hint: that should be your ideal client!).

WHY?

Because they are most likely to take action!

If you want to perfect your understanding of who your client IS then you need to have a detailed, and evolutionary, understanding of who your client is NOT. Don't be afraid to let those people go - you'll be doing them as much of a favour as yourself.

When figuring out who is NOT your ideal client, it is important to look inward at your personal values as well as your professional stance and how they are represented in your brand and work practice. Working with someone who shares oppositional ethics to your own risks the chance of miscommunication and dissatisfaction based on a lack of mutual understanding.

This is particularly important in copywriting where the main task of the service is to create a piece of writing that moves the audience into action. In order to do that effectively, there needs to be a mutual investment in the copy. That investment is largely driven by shared passions and a connection between the creators (the idea person AND the writer). Without this, how can the piece of writing embody the naturally emotive language and undertone that drives action and sales? After all, people buy with emotion and justify with logic.

Writing for Your Ideal Client

Writing copy for your ideal client can be a big challenge to writers and non-writers alike. It takes years to learn and put into practice the skills required to not only write for yourself but for others as well. Creating fantastic copy that resonates with your audience combines many strategies but you can make heaps of progress just by considering these three elements.

• Lose the Jargon - You’re an expert in your field and that’s what makes what you offer so amazing but who’s looking to hire you? Someone who probably doesn’t know all that you do. Make sure they understand what you have to offer by dropping the jargon and using everyday words to share your message.
  

• Speak your ideal clients’ language - If you don’t know it already, learn it. Learn it by hanging out where your ideal clients are and listening, interacting, and asking questions about how they interact with the service you offer.
  

• YOU > I - Make it all about them! An effective way to check if you’re doing this is to count how many times you’ve written the word “I” and consider what it’s pertaining to. If it’s not referring to your ideal client then consider revising.

Make It Resonate

An emotional appeal is a method of persuasion that's designed to create an emotional response. People are more likely to take action when something resonates with them, emotionally. Incorporating emotion in your copywriting will help to increase your engagement and sales which will positively affect the growth of your business - and who doesn’t want that?

A HUGE part of ensuring that your ideal clients are flocking to your services is by using storytelling to get people personally invested in the outcome of your service! This is yet another space where knowing your ideal client, inside and out, will help you to make it work effectively. Take inspiration from your own life, the information you’ve gathered through market research, and whatever is going on in the world while you’re creating your content (Not like there’s much going on these days … ).

If you can find something that not only piques their interest but also pulls on a few of those heartstrings then you will be well on your way to having the opportunity to help those who need your service most. You’re a helper and you want to serve your clients well. If they can emotionally identify with the copy you’re putting out into the world then they need your help and you’ll be there to serve, above and beyond.

I know it, you know it.

It’s high time your ideal clients know it too.

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Making your copy all about your ideal client can significantly impact your bottom line.

If you’re a service-based entrepreneur who hates, isn't good at, or doesn’t have time to create content and copy that converts then

📲 Book your FREE Consultation call today!