How can you create compelling marketing copy?

Always treat your marketing copies like a story. A story that is only relevant for one person, an ideal situation where that person is your TA (Target Audience). Put the life together. Let me clarify with an example: If I'm writing a marketing copy for a Timex watch, my target audience is the person who'll wear it. Now let's go micro. It's a classic Timex with an Indiglo feature. Let's find our person. The person belongs to a working-class family that can afford a watch between INR 1000-5000 but is aspirational and wants a watch from a global watch brand. The age group can range between 16-55 considering it's a classic watch, but will have interest from youngsters in the age group of 16-25 because of the Indiglo feature.

As you work on knowing your audience, also consider your unique approach to solving their pain points. Even businesses selling a commodified product or service can find an element of the customer experience that they deliver differently than their competitors—but it’s probably not the thing you think is the most exciting or critical element. What do happy customers repeatedly tell you that you did well? That’s a good first clue.

To create compelling marketing copy, start by deeply understanding your target audience, including their needs, desires, and pain points. Focus on crafting a clear, concise message that highlights the unique value proposition of your product or service. Use persuasive language that evokes emotion and creates a sense of urgency, while ensuring the tone aligns with your brand identity. Incorporate storytelling elements to make your message relatable and memorable, and always end with a strong call-to-action that encourages the reader to take the next step. Additionally, optimize your copy for SEO to improve online visibility and regularly test different versions to see what resonates best with your audience.

I my extensive experience dealing with marketing folks from all kind of backgrounds the most striking common feature I observed was actually the lack of real (!) understanding of their target audience's needs. While everybody is focusing on doing customer surveys, market research, building use cases and the like, most of the results obtained are actually biased towards what we think (!) our target audience needs ( you can easily "achieve" this e.g. through the choice of questions you ask). Very few marketeers I know actually spend the (considerable) effort and time required to try and put themselves into the "shoes" of their target audience to see the world from their perspective. This however is key to derive competitive selling points.

It is a 3-fold approach. 1) See the jobs to be done by your target audience. 2) Draft content topics that helps in solving those jobs. Basically take them from point A of pain to point B of solution to that pain. 3) Start writing long form content to Comprehensively solve every pain point. Write it in first person PAS format to add relatable pointers and storytelling. Also long form content will increase session time of the reader and lower bounce rate as the article will be comprehensive enough for the reader to find all answers of the topic within the article. This will lead to your article being pushed up on SERPs

I would recommend using the John Caples headline formula. Interest = benefit plus curiosity. Testing is also important. Don't try to be clever.

Rather than focusing on writing the clickbaity stuff, focus on telling a compelling story. Clickbait will only get you so far, but storytelling is a life-skill and will never die

For headlines, I like the simple Frank Kern formula - How to (do something awesome) without (something painful) in (x time) For example: How to generate 500 leads without cold calling in 14 days. This works great as a starting point. Of course we can use the same approach with different templates. Another way is using shock and disruptors. For example - 10 non-obvious ways to do x.

In order to write better stories, - Find the problem statement - Find the solution - Connect the solution to human behaviour - Present the solution as a radical change - Showcase the future impact in the present tense Storytelling is what separates the good campaigns from the bad campaigns. Being extremely objective here, but let me explain. Why is the 'Jordan' brand more of a statement than just style? The story. For anyone who has seen the Jordan movie knows and resonates with the strong story of struggle and perseverance that Micheal Jordan brings with him. Micheal Jordan is the shoe. It's his legacy. That's the impact of storytelling. It connects you with a brand and goes beyond the product and the corporate.

Storytelling is way overrated. Branding people like to bang on about "the story" without really knowing what that means. A story can be a proof element but the customer doesn't want a story. They can read Snow White if they want that. The customer wants to know that you have a solution to their problem.

Focus on benefits and keep to positive statements 👇 Simple but effective, we should tell readers what they have, not what they've avoided. It also makes copy a lot easier to read and digest. Here are a few examples: ❌ If you don't save your work, you could lose your progress. ✅ Your work is automatically saved. ❌ You can't read this article without an account. ✅ Sign up to read this article. ❌ Our service doesn't require a long set-up. ✅ Set up your profile in two easy steps.

A way to double down on CTA is to make the CTA button stand out. You can make it stand out by 1) Adding a catchy color for the button like Green or red. The idea is to make it stand out from the background 2) The CTA should be benefit driven. For example: Access growth, Access resources

In marketing, your aim is to appeal to your target audience. You can filter your communication through the target audience's lens to understand how they will see your message. Again, you have to let your audience in on Why your product is in the market. A lot of people talk about WHAT the product is, HOW it works, but leave out the WHY. Example: Wrong marketing message: WHAT - We make great computers. HOW - They are beautifully design, simple to use and user friendly. WHY - (missing) Do you want to buy one? Right Marketing message: WHY - We believe in challenging the status quo. HOW - We make great computers that are beautifully design, simple to use and user friendly. WHAT - We just happen to make great computers. Do you want to buy one?

I like this piece because it's more along direct response copywriting lines than most of the copywriting "advice" that appears on LinkedIn. There's a lot more to the subject.

A helpful approach is to generate multiple copies, typically at least 10, on a blackboard, and then select the ones that best align with your objectives and your target audience. If you have a team, it's also valuable to engage in discussions about these 10 copies with others and encourage them to contribute additional copies on the same board. The collaborative process often works wonders when multiple creative minds collaborate to generate fresh ideas for presenting something exciting to their respective audiences.