What's copywriting?

 I want to talk about Copywriting.

You may have heard about copywriting or maybe not...

But believe me, copywriting is one of the most important skills in digital marketing.

You can make everything in digital marketing work, but if you can't make your copy work, everything will fail.

Before I teach you what copywriting really is...

Let's understand how these words "copy" and "copywriting" came into existence.

Long back, there was no such thing as mass advertising or marketing.

I am talking like 200-300 years back

The first form of mass marketing came in the form of print

Printing presses were invented (by Gutenberg) and people started publishing content on newspapers and magazines

For the first time content could reach a lot of people - through replication

For approximately 4,500 years before Gutenberg invented the printing press, books were made by hand

They were written on surfaces of clay, papyrus, wax, and parchment

There was no "copy"

That's why no one bothered about copy-writing!

Then came the printing press (before TV and Radio came along)

Which helped people make copies of the content

That's why it came to be called "Copy-writing"

So before the invention of the printing press, the only kind of sales was done through 1:1 sales by Salesmen

People used to sell door-to-door

Or people used to have their merchandise in a market square and they sold their stuff

There was no concept of an "ad" to begin with

Only sales, directly done by sales-men

So when the printing press was invented and newspapers started getting distributed, the concept of an ad copy was born

And it is called an ad copy because the ad can be copied into each replica of the same newspaper that reaches 1000s of people

People who wrote content for these ads became COPY-writers...

They were Ad Copywriters, but they became known as copywriters...

And the art of writing ad copies became to be known as "copywriting"

Many people think that people who are good with the English language can write good copies.

No!

Language skills have nothing to do with copywriting

Someone might not be good with writing English and they can still be a good copywriter

Copywriting is the art of seamless communication with the target reader

Here, I am writing an "email copy"

You are the target reader

Do you feel I am talking directly to you?

Like I am sitting next to you and talking about copywriting?

That's the skill I have developed over the years

When I started writing, I wrote things online that looked like English Essays...

...Boring and professional.

Such content is good for legal documents and school essays

But it doesn't work online.

Because online, you need to talk to people directly

Appeal to their desires

And satisfy them

If you have read up to this point in this email, that's because you want to learn to Copywrite

When you opened this email, you knew that you were about to learn copywriting skills from me

And I am teaching that to you with my communication via written words

Copywriting skill is not a skill that has to be learned (or needs to be learned)

Effective copywriting is just communicating properly

We all communicate very well with our friends and family in-person

But we become boring when it comes to writing online

That's because writing online is a strange experience for humans

Evolution didn't prepare us for that

The art of copywriting is to bring your online writing style to as close as possible to in-person communication

So it's more like unlearning your heavy professional English and become better at communication through writing

So everyone is a born copywriter

You just forgot it because you wrote Essays at school and project notes in college

Damn these Educational institutions

Albert Einstein said, "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."

Not sure if it was really Einstein, but it's a famous quote and it became famous because it is so true.

And in the case of copywriting, it is truer than ever

The way I am writing to you now would have been the natural way I would have written if I didn't go to school!

After 20 years of schooling, I unlearned what I learned about writing words in the next 10 years.

And now when I am 30 years of age, I am writing as I would talk to you directly, like a friend sitting next to me

Copywriting engages people

It makes people read

It is just like speaking skill where you can make people listen to you

You know I write VERY long emails

But no one has ever complained that my mails are long (If you have read up to this point, you wouldn't. Because you were engaged).

Because it is easy to read, it captures your attention and gives you real learning value

I am sure your thoughts about "professional English" has changed by now

They are not for communication

School type Essay type of English is for documentation

Legal documents

Government documents. etc

Copywriting is talking with words

Talking directly, to the point, without the fluff

Talk less, say more.

Write less, say more.

That's what I have learned recently

And since then, writing has become so easy

So if you want to become a great copywriter, learn to write as you would talk

Once you get that skill, you can refine it over time

And I say Copywriting is the most important skill in digital marketing because such copy sells.

I have tested short copy vs. long copy

Long copy sells. Period!

The first question that people ask me is that "Will people have the patience to read such a long sales letter."

The answer is YES and NO.

YES, the buyers will read.

People who are not going to buy will not read.

And in such a sales page, I expect a 2-5% conversion.

This means if I get 100 visitors to the sales page, 2-5 people will convert.

These 2-5 people converted BECAUSE it was a long sales copy.

The copy helped them understand if the product is for them

If the product has good testimonials and user feedback

It helps them understand the features and benefits of the product

I will get the RIGHT BUYERS.

And more buyers.

With a short copy, I sell 0.5% to 1%.

And they are the wrong buyers - because they bought without understanding the product completely. I don't want such customers.

If you are parting with your money, you won't do it very easily

You will read if you are a serious buyer

If you are reading up to this line, you are reading because you want to learn copywriting

Some people will never see this line even if they opened this mail...

...Those are the people who are not interested in learning copywriting skill.

If you are buying something from a door to door salesman, you will ask all the questions that you need to. To get the right answers from the salesman.

That's what long sales copy does.

It answers all the questions, removes all the objections, explains all the features and benefits.

Choose any product or service, a great copywriter would do the best job in talking to the prospect in the best way possible, so that the prospect converts into a buyer.

Many people teach blogging in India

They have free blogs and free YouTube videos

They make money from display ads

Many people have tried to sell a blogging course. And they failed

And this happened because of long sales emails and long sales copies.

Many people think that the biggest challenge in Digital Marketing is getting traffic.

NO!

Getting traffic is not the problem.

The problem lies in converting that traffic into sales.

If you can convert traffic into sales, you can always pay for the traffic.

Or pay for creating the content that brings in the traffic.

For every 100 visitors to my sales page on my blogging course, I make at least 2 sales.

Who knows, even you might become a customer ;)

2 sales of 1999 each equals 3998 INR. That's $58.31 in revenue.

Even if I have to pay 30 INR for every click or $0.50 approx, it is not a problem because I will break even.

I can drive unlimited traffic to this page because all the traffic I pay for would be paid for by the sales.

So if you can figure out how to sell online using copywriting, every damn problem in digital marketing is solved.

You can hire enough content writers to write, rock with content marketing, and get a lot of traffic.

You can hire SEO experts and make sure the site is indexed well on the search engines.

You can hire paid marketers and get them to make the best of the campaigns which bring in traffic at the lowest cost.

You can hire designers to get the best website and ad copy designs.

You can hire them all because you can pay them all.

Because your copy converts.

Because when the traffic from all the sources makes you money, you just pay a part of that income back to traffic generation.

That's what I have realized in recent times.

Copywriting is the ultimate skill in Digital Marketing.

If you can make copywriting work, you can buy off every other skillset in digital marketing.

On the other hand, your SEO, Design, Content, Paid Ads skills will be of no use if you can't convert the traffic into sales.

That traffic will only end up costing you server bandwidth.

Right now in India, even businesses don't realize that they need long sales copies.

So they are not looking for a copywriter.

If you learn copywriting now, the only way you can make money off it is to sell your own products.

If you don't have your own products, you can still start learning copywriting.

Read a few books on it.

Write on your blog.

Write copy for other businesses for free.

Eventually, it will become the ultimate DM skill.

I am pretty sure you will agree with me 100% on this.

Because if you are reading this line right now,

It is my copywriting skill that has held your attention up to here.

I got your attention for this long.

In a world where every app, friend, family member, and business is trying to grab your attention and serve their needs...

In an attention-deficit world...

Attention is the most valuable resource.

It is more valuable than gold.

Scarcity creates value.

And in a world where attention is the most scarce thing...

The skill to get someone's attention for this long is the ULTIMATE SKILL.

What do you think?