Oct
24

Improving Your Content Marketing With Knock-Out Copywriting Techniques

By Tony Alverio

Do you need to add more life into your marketing content?

A good way to enhance one’s content marketing methods is to study and emulate the flow of discussions in well-converting sales copies and expert articles. Since content marketing is essentially a show-don’t-sell approach, we would do better learning from the masters. They persuasively promote anything without resorting to actual selling.

Most of us hate being sold to. Selling is a form of pressure that we can all sense. More often than not, what we think – right or wrong – instinctively form a “defensive shield” against sales pitches. But the experts seem to know how to brush this shield aside.

By observing what the experts are saying in their persuasive content, we can discover nuggets of ideas which we can likewise use to improve our own content marketing techniques. As our articles, blog posts and website content get better, so will our profits. We may not be experts at selling but, if we can be good at content marketing, we can still be good entrepreneurs.

So, how do we get better?

Use the AIDA formula. “A” means arresting Attention which is more than just getting noticed. “I” means building the Interest to investigate or read further. “D” means arousing the Desire to possess what is being offered. The last “A” means a persuasive call to Action, to make the reader proceed with what you want to achieve, like to make readers sign-up or decide to buy.

Arresting Attention

In a sales copy, this concerns the title or headline. In the case of a website or blog, this concerns your use of titles and sub-titles. This represents your initial line of engagement with prospects. To arrest attention, your title or headline should identify with a prospect’s problem, need or want.

You know your niche. You know how the people in your niche think. You know where they are most likely to suffer pain. In a few words, you must be able to stress what the pain is and hint that there is a remedy.

Developing Interest

An article usually has a summary and/or an introduction. This is where you can expand on your headline a little further without necessarily getting ahead of yourself and divulging details. The idea is to tease, to make the reader go on reading. Briefly stress why the pain is such a problem and, again, hint at a relief – that there is a solution which is effective because it does what you briefly say it does.

While not blatantly selling, a blog post or website content can be crafted in such a way that discussion flow in much the same manner. The same thing applies to the overall direction of related content and blog posts. Initiate and sustain interesting rapport. Keep your readers glued to your content with a progression that builds up interest.

Content marketing, of course, is about developing trust. Do not forget that you have to be perceived as an authority in the niche you’re in, and that you have to be providing the kind of information that your readers will find valuable and applicable.

Arousing Desire

Awaiting the answer to a problem is a vulnerable stage in the decision-making process. Whether you have mentioned your product or not, it is a good idea to romance your readers with irresistible benefits. This is the part where you emphasize what’s in it for them. You tease them and appeal to their emotions with what they stand to gain. Then you explain – just a little – how your product does its job.

Demos, slide-shows, videos…It’s a good idea to learn doing them. Testimonials and case studies come very handy in this area. Third-party endorsements or testimonials via written texts, audio or video are powerful content marketing tools as these relate to actual experiences which prospective users are most likely to consider before making buying decisions.

Call To Action

You know what sales copies, especially long copies, look like. They have a common flow that can serve as a guide to you content.

Even if you have done the first three parts of AIDA, until you make that sale or sign-up, you’re not done yet. In sales copies, there is a part that handles objections. This includes the familiar money-back guarantee and the implication that one has to be crazy to miss out.

Smart marketers can anticipate objections. They will attempt to remove all possible objections in the readers mind with ready answers. In the same vein, your content should effectively lead your readers to your desired action by providing answers to possible questions that may be the cause of hesitation. You should know these questions if you are indeed familiar with your target audience.

Another element of an effective call to action is the scarcity technique. How you integrate this to a website content or blog post is up to you, but the principle is to make the reader act fast. A time-limited offer, for instance, can be implied in a sentence plainly says so. The same way with a supply-limited offer.

Write with refinement. Content marketing is not selling or, worse, hard selling. Never sound like your pressuring your readers to act. If you can express yourself clearly enough using the AIDA principle, and you really have a good offer, your readers will most likely just arrive at favorable decisions themselves.

There are plenty of well-converting sales copies on the Net to learn form. Study each and every one you come across. Adopt what is useful and start profiting from empowered marketing content.

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