Why Should You Learn Copywriting?

The art of copywriting will stand anyone in good stead in just about every form of business. Many consider it to be the most valuable money-making skill in the world. But copywriting is really the art of persuasion applied to writing. And persuasive writing will also serve anybody well in many areas of personal life.

Let’s do a bit of myth-busting. In the next few minutes, you'll discover some essential things about copywriting. Stay tuned, because every business owner and marketer should know this.

Firstly, the term copywriting confuses a lot of people. Let’s clear that up

What Is Copywriting?

The first point of confusion is between copywriting and copyrighting.

Copywriting is simply the act of writing copy.

Copyright refers to the rights to any abstract intellectual property. Such as a piece of music or a piece of writing, etc.

Once we know we are talking about writing copy, the question becomes what is copy?

The word copy, in the context of written material, has a fairly wide interpretation. For example, written material created by journalists can be known as copy. By the broadest definition, copy is any piece of writing

But copywriting nowadays has a narrower definition. It is generally taken to mean written content which aims to persuade somebody to take action.

The sales letter or sales page is the most widely-known example of copywriting.

But copywriting has a much more widespread use. It’s not just needed in sales letters.

So Where Do You Need Copywriting?

The answer is... just about anywhere you're communicating with prospects, leads, clients, or customers.

Here's one example. You might be wanting your reader to opt in to your mailing list. So you send him to a landing page. In this case, a capture page. It's not a sales page — you’re not actually selling him something. But you are requiring an action.

The written material on your opt-in capture page is definitely copywriting. It needs writing skills designed to persuade your reader to take action -- to give you his email address.

And thinking like this, it's easy to see many more uses for the kind of writing which leads to action. The extent to which we need copywriting becomes clearer.

We need copywriting for opt-in pages, thankyou pages, welcome pages, product pages. In fact, pretty much every page on a business website. And then there’s email. One-off broadcast emails, autoresponder sequences... welcome sequences, product launch sequences, affiliate promo sequences — every email.

Every one of those pages and emails should be designed with one thing in mind. It needs to include a path to the next step for the reader. And we want to persuade the reader to take that next step.

For example, we have a blog page or an article giving useful information. This brings us traffic from Google.

What then?

What Do We Want Our Visitor To Do Next?

We need to define exactly what we want that traffic to do next, after arriving on our page.

We can’t ignore this, and just hope the new visitor eventually finds his way to where we want him to go. He almost certainly won't.

So, in this example, where DO we want that new visitor to go next?

Well, this visitor has come from an organic traffic source — a search on Google. He has arrived on one of our informational pages. So, when he arrives, he’s probably looking for information related to what your business is based on. But it’s likely that he doesn’t yet know your business specifically.

So, for this visitor, you will first want him to read your copy, and become engaged by what he reads. It's his introduction to your company. Your first and most important opportunity to show him he's in the right place.

Your chance to draw him further into your funnel.

And then? The next action you probably want him to take is to opt in to your mailing list. So that you can continue to draw him along your sales path, closer to the sale. Or through your sales funnel, if you prefer.

So even the informational article or blog post must also persuade your reader to take action. The art of writing that page is copywriting.

You Need GOOD Copywriting

And, if you want your business to do well, you need good copywriting. It’s now obvious that you need it at this early stage when your visitor first encounters your company. But, you also need it at every stage from there on.

Think about the next conversion points in your typical sales funnel. You’ll lose leads at every step. Each time they have to take some form of action, some of them won't do it. You can’t avoid that but you DO need to minimize the loss. You need to get the maximum possible number of people through to the next stage.

The persuasive writing you need to achieve that is... yup, it's copywriting.

We saw above that your sales funnel typically starts with an opt-in capture page. Your objective is to grab the email address of the new visitor. If that capture page does not convert well, you have sabotaged your business. Right from the first step. You are obtaining fewer new leads than you could be. You are putting fewer people on your list. And probably fewer than you need to get the business going.

Then, once you are getting people onto your list, you have the task of writing emails for that list.

Once again, you need to be well versed in the art of copywriting, as it applies to emails. Otherwise, your conversions will be low. Probably too low. Too few people will take the action you need them to take. So, again, at this next step, you have sabotaged your business.

And so it goes. Every step along the way. It's the same for every page and every piece of content that you write. The better the copywriting, the more people who will take the next action you need.

And, unfortunately the converse is true. The worse the copywriting, the lower the conversions. The fewer people who are going through your funnel. And, ultimately, the fewer people who buy your product. So, the less money your business makes, and the less money YOU make.

This is the simplest example of a sales funnel. But it still paints a pretty clear picture. Either your business is like rush-hour traffic, crammed with people passing through. Or it's like the hour before dawn. Mostly deserted, with the occasional visitor.

The sales coming out the end of your funnel are either like a fire hose or a dripping tap.

And it's copywriting that determines which.

Now we begin to see why copywriting is so essential for every business and every business owner.

As a business owner, you have only two choices. One is to write the copy yourself and the second is to hire somebody else to do it for you.

Of course, hiring a copywriter can be an expensive business. And it should be. Because copywriting is such a valuable skill set. It's in demand. Everybody needs the benefits of good copywriting to make their business work.

Most people, don’t have the money to pay a professional copywriter. Especially when starting out with a new business. Which means that many people try to write their own content. All the webpages, mentioned above, all the emails etc.

But without a good grounding in the skills of copywriting, all that content is likely to fail. It is highly unlikely to bring you really good results, or even the results that you need to keep a business going.

It’s A Crowded World Out There

According to HostingTribunal, there are 2 Billion websites as we head into 2021.

Statista.com says 306.4 Billion emails per day were sent in 2020. That’s projected to rise to 319.6 Billion in 2021

If you have bland, ineffective copy, you and your business are going to sink into the swamp. You're just not going to get the action.

In fact, I would say that poor copywriting is one of the primary reasons that so many businesses fail.

You need to stand out, and it’s really hard to do that, unless you have been shown how. Achieving that task is the very definition of good copywriting.

Copywriting’s Common Thread

We now see the way that copywriting fits into the essential structure of every business.

And yes, that’s every business that sells anything at all. Therefore every business under the sun.

And, once we realize how essential copywriting is, we see how it is baked into every aspect of our business. And we see the benefit of learning how to write good copy.

More than that, we see that learning to write copy is essential. Unless we have the resources to hire a professional copywriter.

There are no other alternatives. You do it yourself, or hire a pro. It’s one or the other.

And, even if you are in the position to hire a copywriter... it’s much better to have an understanding of the job you are asking him to do. You need to be able to communicate the job to him, and you need to be able to evaluate his work, once it’s done.

So, it's pretty unescapable. If you have a business, or are thinking about starting a business, the message is clear. You should make it an absolute priority to learn the basics of good copywriting.

Freelance Copywriting

Copywriting skill has many more applications, other than your own business. Great copy is in demand. All businesses need it. If you can write persuasive copy, there is great opportunity as a freelance copywriter.
Providing compelling copy for those who need is is a very robust business model. The demand never goes away. And good copy leads to repeat business. Once a client sees that you are delivering effective copy, you probably have a long-term client.

You don't need a large number of clients to make a very good income. Each potential client could well be an ongoing source of regular income.

There are many different kinds of copywriting a business might require. Here are just a few: