The psychology of copywriting Part 1

Dalibor Šumiga Content marketing/Native advertising

After our article on banner psychology (part 1 and part 2) came out, several people asked me if we would write about other marketing tools and techniques through the aspect of behavioral science. This time, we decided to do a piece on the psychology of copywriting.

In the first part of this article, we will go through the basics of copywriting, i.e. “preactions” you need to take in order to create a marketing message for your customers.

WRITING POSTS IS NOT COPYWRITING

Facebook is currently the most active and attractive area for creative expression, but also the right place for recognizing the most common mistakes in copywriting. It is necessary to distinguish post writing from the real copywriting.

Writing posts is just creating content in a serial manner, without an analytical or a psychological approach. That is, writing statuses just for the sake of it, only to fill out the quota, without taking into account what your fans really want to read.

If a particular status is interesting to you, it doesn’t mean your fans will like it too. Of course, the question remains – are you writing posts for yourself or for your fans?

If you’re writing for yourself and you want to see on a Facebook page only the things you or your superiors like, you’re welcome to stop reading this article.

There are 2 sayings that best describe the current state of most Facebook posts in Croatia:

01) The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)

If no one likes, comments or shares your post, or a very small number of people who have seen it don’t respond to your message, why on earth are you choosing the same strategy over and over again?

02) Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine. (David Ogilvy)

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes – would you, if you were in their place, buy a product if you saw the message like the one you’re getting across? Would you read a newsletter containing the title you offer your customers? Would you be thrilled to go to the store after seeing the TV commercial you serve to your customers?

Please be objective when answering this question. Business is not a hobby, your subjective decisions and preferences can ruin the entire company.

THE CUSTOMER IS NOT BUYING THE PRODUCT, HE’S BUYING ITS BENEFIT

Harley Davidson doesn’t sell motorcycles. Harley Davidson sells affiliation to the “outlaws”, “free riders”, “road warriors”. Harley Davidson sells the experience. The moment Harley Davidson starts selling motorcycles, they will go out of business…

The same applies to your product… When you sell, focus on the experience that your product/service has to offer.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Every person who sees your ad, commercial, post or blog/newsletter title will ask this question.

If your copy doesn’t provide people with a good enough answer, they will ignore your message. Logic is simple – people are highly egocentric beings and above all, they want to know what benefits there are for each and every one of them.

SO WHAT?

When a prospective customer sees your marketing message stating something like this:

“We are company XYZ, top experts in super services!” do you know what he says?

He says – SO WHAT…?

The answer to this question is the best copy you can create…

Now that we have established the basic stuff, in the second part of this blog we will dig deeper into the behavioral psychology of creative writing. Follow us next week too.