If you want your content to connect and resonate with your audience, there are some key elements it needs to have.⠀
The COOL thing is, creating compelling copy is a learnable skill. And it’s actually really simple when you know how to do it.
In fact when you learn the predictable patterns, it almost seems like magic!
But it’s not magic. It’s simply knowing the proven formula.
It’s knowing the right things that you can tweak and change, so that your copy becomes compelling, engaging and attracts the right people.
If you want to make your copy more ‘poppy’, it’s about taking bland, boring content and making it stand out.
It’s doing a copy makeover to make it influential – so that people take action, and are inspired to work with you.
Creating compelling copy closes the gap from where your ideal client currently are, to where they want to be.
So here are three hacks to instantly make your copy more compelling.
1 – Push On Pain
In order to move people to action, we want to push on people’s pain points. I know that sounds a little bit horrible and harsh but pain motivation is twice as strong as pleasure motivation.
People are twice as motivated to avoid pain as they are to move towards pleasure.
We can’t ignore this truth.
To move people to action, remind them of their pain, and the painful consequences that will occur if they don’t change.
The trajectory that we are on in some areas of life is often leading to MORE pain, but we try to ignore it.
Think about someone who smokes a pack a day. In order to keep up that habit, they have to shut the door on the little voice that tells them they need to change or else suffer the consequences.
Reminding people of the trajectory that they’re currently on is not causing more pain; you’re revealing the truth.
7 painful triggers that motivate people to act include:
Avoidance of…
- Danger
- Fear – e.g. emotional fear like fear of rejection, loss, failure, fear of not being good enough.
- Doubt
- Complication
- Uncertainty
- Boredom
- Loss
These 7 things are triggers that people will take action to avoid.
So if you think about your offer and your content, how can you start to use these things in your content?
How can you push on your ideal clients’ pain points in your content?
When it comes to buying products or services, people are constantly asking themselves is going to increase their status or decrease it.
How can you show someone that if they don’t take action, their status is going to be decreased? It’s super powerful, but it takes a little bit of thinking through.
When you take the time to really craft your copy and content, make sure that your content is engaging and compelling.
Making your content engaging and compelling drives people to take action and move towards you faster, so you can close the gap quicker than you can think.
If you write a content post that has these pain elements in it, you will find people wanting to book into your calendar straight away, get on a discovery call with you, and potentially sign up to your signature program offer. So this stuff matters.
I know this sounds like hard work, and it does take time to craft your words so they will move people to take action, but it’s so worth it. It’s a skill that anyone can learn and it’s actually quite simple, when you know the tweaks and formula, but there is some work involved.
A really compelling post can make you a lot of money.
This is why copywriting is one of the highest paid professions.
Over the last 10+ years I’ve been crafting marketing wording to attract clients. I’ve tested and proven the copywriting formulas that work. And I know from experience, when you craft your words correctly, your income will increase!
2 – Develop The Desire
Here are 7 desires that motivate humans:
- Desire for love
- Desire for freedom
- Desire for increase
- Desire for speed
- Desire for ease
- Desire for status
- Desire for pleasure
If you think about all the services and products in the world, most fall somewhere under these 7 desires. The desire for freedom is desiring freedom from pain, freedom from emotional turmoil.
People want things faster, better and easier.
We can incorporate these desires into our content to make it more enticing and more appealing.
And you don’t need to be a master copywriter to do this.
You just need to know these things so you can start thinking through how you can take a piece of content and make it pop. Here’s a piece of content for a fictional company that I’ve made up.
This will give you an example of adding different elements that focus on desire:
Original copy:
‘Functional Fitness is one of Australia’s leading gyms, with a wide range of fitness classes.. We are proud of our instructors and state of the art equipment. We’re passionate about our revolutionary approach, and take great pride in our classes that are second to none.’
This has some fancy language and it’s a typical features based piece of copywriting.
The problem with this basic copy is that it’s not talking about what’s in it for the reader and it doesn’t include all these desires. So, I’ve added some desires of added status, speed increase and ease.
Tweaked copy:
‘When you join Functional Fitness, you’ll find the most cutting edge classes that you’ll love coming back to. The instructors you will meet are super supportive, they will be there for you every step of the way, to help you achieve your goals. You’ll find our spaces fresh, vibrant and fun, so you can start feeling fitter, faster.’
You’ll also notice in this tweaked piece of copy, I used the word you, your or you’ll 9 times. The first piece of copy had no usage of these words, which is common with people’s copywriting. People want to hear what’s in it for them, not what you are doing for them.
In the tweaked copy, I push on status, so I say the classes are ‘cutting edge’. I also push on speed, so I mention people can get ‘fit faster’. I want to focus on ease so I mention the spaces are ‘fresh, vibrant’ and ‘fun’.
3 – Elevate The Emotion
We all have triggers for our emotions. We buy based on emotion, we justify our emotional decision and back it up with logic. There are some power words you can use that trigger an emotional response.
In my workshop this Saturday, I’ll be going through a full list of power words, but today I’ll share a few to get you started.
The first example is a headline:
BEFORE – ‘3 Ideas For Healthy Lunches’. You might make some content like this is you are a health coach. It does the job, but is pretty boring and bland.
I’ve changed this copy to add a little bit more of the pop…
AFTER – ‘3 Nearly Instant Cures For Boring Healthy Lunches.’
In this one statement, I’ve made it less boring, because no one wants boring. I’ve added speed by saying ‘nearly instant’. I’ve changed the word ‘ideas’ to the word ‘cures’, because everyone wants a cure to something.
This is a simple example that shows you just how easily you can take some words and just make a headline pop. Did you know your headline is 80% of the value of your content? If you get your headline right, you will get people clicking through.
The second example:
BEFORE – ‘How To Be More Effective At Copywriting.’ This is fine. It does the job. But just adding a fine tweak we can make it pop.
AFTER – ‘Surprising Ways To Be Uber Effective With Your Copywriting’.
People love surprise. They love novelty, actually the brain loves novelty. The brain also loves curiosity, so using the word ‘surprise’ hooks people in.
The third example:
BEFORE – ‘I’ll show you how to set goals, and make sure they happen.’
AFTER – ‘You’ll pick up my unique goal setting formula (and then you name your formula), so you can finally achieve the results that you want.’
When you name things and make them a formula, a roadmap, a blueprint, a method or pillars, you’re organising your knowledge and you’re putting a framework around it.
This adds curiosity and people want organised, structured knowledge.
When you structure and name your packages well, it’s no longer just tips, it’s an actual, tangible thing. The internet is full of tips, people don’t need more tips.
When you create a formula or a roadmap and name it, you tap into emotion.
Here’s an example for a baby sleep coach:
BEFORE –
‘I’ll show you how to create a successful bedtime routine’, you can use: ‘Learn my proven strategies for a successful bedtime routine, so you can finally enjoy a tear-free story time every night.’
AFTER –
Here we are evoking emotions, which is avoiding the tears every night.
Using the words ‘every night’ is pushing on the desire for increase.
So you can see, it’s just little tweaks, but when you understand the formula to writing compelling copy, it makes a huge difference. In this example, I’ve pushed on pain, developed the desire and elevated the emotions.
Another thing that I’ve done here, is add specificity. I’ve made it more tangible so you can visualise it.
3 Copywriting Traps People Fall Into…
1 – Not Having A Formula
A formula helps you put all the pieces together and joins the dots. When you have a formula, your business can change, really fast and people will start reaching out to you and wanting to work with you.
2 – Not Having A Strategy
You need a clear content strategy or you will waste hours labouring over words.
3 – Not Having Certainty
Not knowing certainty or understanding the best methods and layers that come into the psychology of influence and how to move people towards you, can leave you and your business behind.
As a business owner, the most useful but underrated skill that you can learn is the skill of writing compelling copy if you want to get more clients and grow your business. And the coolest thing is copywriting is a skill that can be learned.
For the last 10+ years I have been crafting copy and have developed a formula that has been proven to work. I use this formula with my clients, and they get fantastic results fast.
Want help to grow your business?
Business is too hard to do alone.
Do you need help to get more right-fit clients, free up more time and create a profitable, lifestyle-friendly business that you LOVE?
I offer a free 45-minute business strategy session, where you’ll get personalised guidance, direction, clarity, and a clear action plan.
I’ll walk you through a proven business growth roadmap and personalise it to show you exactly what you need to do to hit your financial and freedom goals.
This is only for people who are ready and committed to change.
Apply now for your free strategy session with Kat
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