Copywriting for small businesses is an art. It isn’t just any type of writing. It’s writing aimed at connecting with your customers and ultimately earning their business.
Every word in copywriting is intentional and designed to create an emotional response within your readers. Your goal is to highlight the most impactful features and benefits your product offers.
Content is how you communicate who you are and why you matter to your customers. It’s a powerful medium and one that takes time to master the art of. Not every business can hire a freelance copywriter for small business. Instead, you’ll need to master this art with the staff you have. Here’s how you can do that.
What Is Copywriting for Small Businesses?
Copywriting is the backbone of just about every form of marketing. From web pages to print brochures, you’ll find it across mediums as a tool to engage your target audience.
Some content is readily available to everyone, such as a webpage. Other content is targeted at a smaller target audience, such as a pop-up box designed to target users before they bounce from your website or an email message that only goes to a specific subset of your target market.
Now you can see why copywriting is so intentional. Copywriting can involve just a couple of words, such as a headline or search engine ad, or it could be a few thousand words as you work to explain a complicated topic.
It has no constraints on the length or style of the content. All that matters is that it speaks to the customer and resonates with them based on the constraints of the medium you’re using to deliver the content.
For example, if you’re writing for a YouTube video, you need to collaborate with the production team to ensure that you don’t write too much copy based on the amount of time you’ll have to show the words on the screen.
The faster a video moves, the shorter your copywriting will have to be, which honestly is more challenging than writing this blog that includes hundreds of words to get my point across. And even still, the average reader will only spend 37 seconds on this blog post. I have to get my point across swiftly but with effective customer engagement.
Tips for Copywriting for Local Businesses
With a better concept of what copywriting is and how it differs from other forms of writing, you’re ready to begin growing your customer relationships with meaningful copywriting across all mediums.
1. Start with Your Objective in Mind
Before you begin to consider what words to use, think about your objective. What are you trying to accomplish with this marketing initiative? Ideally, you want one main objective for your content, though having some smaller sub-objectives can serve your purposes as well.
For example, if you’re hosting a webinar, your goal is to illicit sign-ups. But if you’re working with a grassroots effort, your goal is to get people involved to begin sharing the information on their personal social media and spreading the information via word of mouth.
Regardless, you want the action to be completely apparent from your copy. That’s why you start with your objective in mind.
2. Listen to Your Audience
Long before you develop copy for your audience, you need to be listening to them and doing in-depth research to understand what matters most to them.
Are they looking for a simpler solution than what they have currently? Do they need to rid their lives of some stress? Is their current solution too antiquated? You want to make these things clear in your writing to connect with them in a meaningful way.
When writing for your audience, you’ll use second-person pronouns (such as “you”) far more than first-person “us” or “we.” That will tell you that you’re speaking to your customer and not coming from an internal standpoint.
3. Be Authentic
Don’t oversell what you do and don’t try to be too profound. Just be authentic and real with your customers. That’s what they’re looking for and what they’ll appreciate finding in a company. So don’t sugarcoat your copywriting or use big words to make it more impressive. That will just confuse your customers or make them feel too overwhelmed.
The more conversational you can be, the better. This will help make your content easy to read and enjoyable.
4. Less is Generally More
When you can say it in only a few words, do so. There’s no reason to elongate your copywriting artificially. The simpler and briefer you can keep your content, the better.
Only include the essential information that will help your audience understand what you are communicating. That’s not to say you should never explain things, just to say to do it as simply as possible.
5. Don’t Forget a Call to Action
The whole reason you’re writing content and engaging with your audience is to invite them to take an action. Make that action very clear in your content with clear calls to action.
These actions can come in a variety of formats, such as:
- Buy now
- Take advantage of the sale before the end of the year
- Schedule your free consultation
- Experience what it feels like to automate this part of your business
- Watch a video explaining how this works
- Like our social media pages to stay in touch
- Subscribe to our email list to learn about important sales and specials
Those are just a few examples. Your call to action will be dependent on what you’re selling and how you’re planning to engage with your customer.
6. Keep a Look Out for Inspiration
Marketing and copywriting are all around you. Start paying close attention to every billboard, postcard and online ad you see. Think about what you like, what inspires you to take action and how you might engage with the brand that is advertising to you.
Take time to analyze the messaging around you. Think carefully about every message and why the company is putting that message out. Use these examples as opportunities to grow your skills and understanding of how to write great copy.
7. Focus on Concise, Easy-to-read Content
If you’re just starting out learning about copywriting for small business owners, you’re probably just focused on getting the words on the page. And that’s certainly understandable. But as you grow in your skills, you want to improve on the clarity and conciseness of your writing.
One way of doing that is subscribing to a service like Grammarly. Just know that you have to read each editing suggestion carefully because these algorithm-based services don’t always get it right. Reading into context can be challenging for these services but they provide a good baseline.
Copywriting Services for Small Businesses
Maybe it’s time to expand your team with a freelance copywriter. Business owners only have so much time. If you want some assistance with writing your small business copy, contact us. We offer a free consultation to put you on the right track or prepare you for hiring a freelance copywriting.
Small Business Copywriting FAQs
Learn more about finding the best copywriter for your needs or how to improve on your small business copywriting from these commonly asked questions.
How Do Small Businesses Get Copywriting?
Many small businesses turn to freelance writers to get copywriting. That’s because hiring someone full time doesn’t make sense while the business is small. And yet, the business owner cannot continue to do all the writing as the company grows.
Why Is Copywriting Important for Small Business?
Copywriting is how businesses communicate with customers. To communicate effectively, you need clear, concise content. Without a clear messaging plan, customers might leave your website with more questions than answers.
What Are Different Types of Copywriting?
When it comes to copywriting for small businesses, you’ll have copy for everything from social media to brochures. Copywriting covers social media, email marketing, website copy, blogging, SEO and much more.