Copywriting for beginners – guide and tips

Do you want to get better at writing texts that convert your visitors into customers? Perfect, then this is the article for you! Or maybe not exactly you, because unfortunately we don’t know you yet, but at least for everyone who wants to be able to put the words together in a way that catches the reader’s attention and increases their conversion rate. 

In this article, we review effective copywriting principles and give you tips on how to become better at writing sharp, selling texts. 

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is the art of writing texts that make the reader act. It’s all about taming the words and combining in a way that makes the reader feel or do something. If you have an online shop, the goal of the copy you write will typically be to get your visitors to make a purchase or sign up for your newsletter. 

The digital copywriter

Digital copywriting takes place behind the scenes of the internet. This is where others like you sit at the keyboard and hope that the next marketing email, product description, newsletter, or Facebook post will convince customers. Words are powerful, but there are many of them, especially online, where social media and websites are teeming with texts fighting for the attention of scrolling fingers. More than ever, the goal of digital copywriting today is to stand out from the crowd. 

Copywriting vs other types of writing

Copywriting is kind of the chameleon in the field of writing. It covers many different areas, but differs from other types of writing, such as narrative journalism or flowery prose. If copywriting were a person, it would be more “Hey, you there, want to buy something delicious? than “The winter night was endlessly long, and the light of the stars was so beautiful that it was almost unbearable.” 

Examples of different types of copywriting

Copywriting includes everything from short, sharp CTAs on a website to product descriptions and social media posts. Below we take a closer look at five different types of copywriting. 

Copywriting for websites

Copywriting for websites involves writing reader-friendly and informative texts for a company’s website. Examples of texts include, among others, about us texts, texts for landing pages, product descriptions and CTAs. Here, the goal is typically to get the reader to do something, such as making a purchase. You can think of the copywriter a bit like a skilled tour guide who makes sights and streets more interesting by talking about them in an exciting way. 

Advertising texts

Copywriting for advertising texts is, in short, marketing products, services or a brand in a convincing way by using text. It can be, for example, the text on the printed advertisements that you often see on the side of a bus, attention-grabbing ads on social media, TV and YouTube advertisements or a banner at the top of a website. The goal is to create interest and make the marketed product desirable among the target group. 

Email marketing

Email marketing copywriting involves writing engaging and persuasive content for email campaigns and newsletters. Because all inboxes are flooded daily with emails from bosses, companies, banks, government agencies, friends and family, catchy subject lines are an important art to master in email marketing. This is simply because e-mails from companies quickly end up in the trash if the subject line does not catch the recipient’s attention. If you want, you can read more about this in our article Write good subject lines – 7 tips. 

Of course, email marketing is about more than just giving the recipient something to read with their morning coffee. Typically, the goal is for the reader to click through to a link on a company’s website to complete an action. 

Social media

Copywriting for social media involves writing content for various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. Just like in inboxes, there is also fierce competition for users’ attention on social media. For this reason, writing catchy headlines and texts for posts on social media requires that you as a copywriter is always one step ahead and keep up with which trends are popular and create engagement. 

SEO-copywriting

Unlike other types of copywriting, SEO copywriting is not only about writing engaging and catchy copy, but also about optimising text for search engines. You do this, among other steps, by weaving relevant keywords into your texts, writing sharp page titles and descriptions, and at the same time ensuring that the content you create has value for the reader.  

In other words, SEO copywriting is the writing of texts that must speak to both search engines and readers. The goal of SEO copywriting is to achieve a better ranking in the search results, which increases the chances of getting more traffic to a website or blog. 

Copywriting: 4 basic principles

Now it’s time for us to dive into 4 basic copywriting principles that are good to keep in mind before you start writing: 

Understand your target group

In all types of communication, it is important to know your audience. The same applies to copywriting. To convey the message to your target audience, you should have a basic understanding of their needs, preferences and any problems they want to solve. You can think of it as learning the target audience’s language and therefore becoming better able to articulate yourself in a way that resonates with them. Market research is an important tool when you want to get to know your target group better. 

Catchy headings

Your heading should act as a magnet that attracts readers’ interest and makes them want to read on. Within SEO, headings also play an important role. They do this because headings in e.g. a blog post or a product description tell the search engines what the text is about. Three key words for good headlines are relevant, concise and creative. Think of your headlines as text on a closed door, among many other closed doors. The text must make your reader want to open just your door, and not one of all the other doors. 

Write to your reader’s feelings

Feelings and emotions are important in all contexts. They influence many of our choices and actions. For that reason, it is crucial that your texts not only convey information, but also speak to the reader’s feelings.  

Which emotions you want to evoke in your target audience naturally depends on what you convey and what your goal is. If you have a time-limited offer, you should create a sense of urgency so that the reader wants to make a purchase as soon as possible.  

If you sell coffee, you can arouse emotions in the potential customer with the help of storytelling. Here, for example, you could write a narrative product description that deals with a relaxing Sunday morning with a steaming hot cup of your coffee. 

Emphasise benefits over features

Your readers are already bombarded with information throughout the day, so you’ll find that you get the furthest by conveying a message that truly tells them something. Avoid communicating only the names of your product’s features or talking about your solution with a ton of positive adjectives. 

Instead, you should tell your audience what the product’s functions can be used for and the problems it solves for them. Include a context your target audience can relate to. For example, if you offer online yoga courses, you could highlight the advantage of being able to practice yoga at home in the living room, exactly when they want. This means they don’t have to rush off to yoga class right after picking up the children from kindergarten, preparing food, and feeding the pet parakeet. 

2 effective writing models

Writing can be difficult, even for experienced writers. In this section, we take a closer look at two effective writing models that make it easier to keep balance on the keyboard keys and get the reader to act. 

The AIDA model

AIDA is an abbreviation that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. 

The four parts of the model are: 

• Attention: Capture the reader’s attention with a sharp headline, preferably within a few seconds.
• Interest: Pique the reader’s interest with a message that is relevant to them or by showing that they can achieve something if they read on.
• Desire: Make the reader want to get their hands on the product or perform an action.  
• Action: Your CTA – motivate the reader to take an action – ‘Buy here’, ‘Add to basket’, ‘Try now’ or similar. 

The AIDA model is a classic and efficient model that is easy to work with. It can be used for everything from e-mails and website texts to advertisements and postings on social media. 

Before – after – bridge 

This writing model is both simple and effective. It is structured as follows: 

• Before: Here you must describe the reader’s reality as it is right now. You do this by briefly describing the target group’s problem in a relatable way.
• After: In this step, you describe what the reader’s reality looks like after they have purchased your product or started subscribing to your service. Here, of course, the problem is solved, or something has become better than it was before.
• Bridge: Here you tell the customer how they get from before to after. The process should be described as easy and straightforward.

Get better at copywriting – 5 tips

If you are a beginner and have only just decided to try your hand at copywriting, you are guaranteed to find that your coffee gets cold while you sit and stare at a blank page. All writers experience writer’s block from time to time. Gradually, as you work on a good handful of texts, you will likely discover that it suddenly feels a little easier.  

In the section below, you will get 5 quick tips that will help you become even better at copywriting.  

1 – Practice

As with anything else, practice makes perfect. This also applies to copywriting, so one of the best things you can do to get better is to write, write, and write some more. It doesn’t matter if much of what you write can’t be used. All writers write texts that end up in the trash, whether it’s a physical or a virtual bin. To be a little cliché, it’s the journey, not the destination that’s the most important thing, along with the small discoveries you make along the way.  

It is somewhat the same process as when you learn to play an instrument or try a new yoga position. It can feel hopeless at the start, until suddenly it’s not impossible anymore! 

2 – Get inspired by other copywriters

The internet is teeming with texts that you can be inspired by. Read the texts on other websites, including those of your competitors. Read ads, emails, and social media posts more actively than you normally do. This can help you discover different methods that you can mix and match when writing your own texts. 

3 – Thorough proofreading

No matter how sharp you are with grammar and spelling, you will, from time to time, make spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and produce clumsy wording. You may find yourself becoming blind to a text, especially if you have been sitting with it for a long time. That’s why thorough proofreading can’t be avoided. Close the document, do something else, and return to your text with fresh eyes. Then you will surely discover an issue – and if not, you can just be happy that your text is ready to be sent out into the world. 

4 – Read your texts aloud to yourself

If you want to get a better sense of how the reader will experience your text, you can read it aloud. It can feel a little weird to sit and read out loud to yourself, but you’d be surprised how many more mistakes you spot when you do. You’ll also quickly notice if a sentence is a little too long to convey the message clearly and effectively.  

If you are sitting in a café or in the middle of a busy office, you can use a text reader, for example the one built into Microsoft Word. There are also free text readers for browsers, such as this one for Google Chrome. Put on your headphones and let the text reader read your text aloud to you. 

5 – Ask for feedback and constructive criticism

Many have the notion that writers work best alone, preferably in a dark room surrounded by crumpled paper and empty coffee cups. Although this is true sometimes, most texts will end up being better if they are seen by more than two eyes. Ask your colleague or friend if they would like to read your text and give you constructive feedback.  

It happens that you formulate a sentence in a way that makes complete sense to yourself, but once seen by someone who can’t see inside your head, you find that it’s actually not so easy to interpret. That’s why feedback from others is worth its weight in gold when you’re working with copywriting. 

The copywriter’s tools

As a copywriter, you have a lot to keep track of. That’s why you should take every opportunity to make work easier and more efficient. Below we take a quick look at various tools that can make copywriting both more fun, easier, and more effective. 

Tools for proofreading

Above, we firmly established how important proofreading and feedback are for a copywriter. Fortunately, you don’t have to rely only on your own abilities, eyes and ears when reading. Most word processing programs, such as Microsoft Word and Google Docs, have built-in spelling and grammar checks. 

Here you can read more about how to activate spelling and grammar checking in Word. 

If you work with Google docs, you will find a guide here. 

Copywriting with AI

AI tools can also help you work more efficiently with copywriting. If you write a good prompt, the AI can assist you by writing a draft that you can either use as is or work on. 

Here you can read more about AI writing. 

When you create and host your website at one.com, you get access to our Website Builder with built-in AI writing assistant. The writing assistant can help you with all texts for your website. Every time you need a text, you will have the option to ask the AI writing assistant to suggest a text. It does that in a few seconds. Once you’re satisfied with the text, you can either use it as it is or edit as much as you want. 

The AI Assistant in Website Builder can also help you create an entire website in minutes, including sections, images, text and more. 

Tools for search engine optimisation

If you work with SEO copywriting, you need SEO tools that can help you find the best keywords and optimise your website on all fronts and edges. A quick search online will show you that there are many to choose from. Some tools are free while others are paid. Typically, the free tools have limited features, and in many cases, you will therefore get further with a paid tool. Below we look at two SEO tools you can access when creating your website at one.com. 

Marketgoo

When you create your website with the Website Builder from one.com, you have the choice of adding the user-friendly SEO tool Marketgoo directly from the control panel. It helps you, among other things, find the best keywords for your texts, analyses your page, suggests important improvements and much more. If you choose our Guru plan, Marketgoo is included in your subscription absolutely free for up to 10 websites. 

Rank Math

If you have a WordPress website, Rank Math is the best tool on the market. You can add the free version of the tool under 1-click installation of WordPress at one.com. If you want access to all the tool’s most important functions, including integration with Google Analytics, you can upgrade at any time via the control panel. 

Fire up your keyboard

We hope this article has given you the courage to fire up your keyboard and get started with copywriting. Remember that even seasoned writers experience writer’s block, but suddenly the text is exactly right. Make use of our tips, be creative, thorough, and get inspired by others, then your texts will soon flow much more easily.