Web Copywriting Voodoo: The 8-Step Secret Copywriters Might Not Want You to Know
by Karri Flatla
I might get in ca-ca for sharing this with the entire readership of Search Engine Guide, but it's time to reveal what a lot of web copywriters probably don't want you to know. Why? Because keeping you in the dark about how we crunch out great copy day after day keeps us in business.Or so one would think.
Personally, I'd rather spill the beans. It's too much pressure to have everyone believing that we web copywriters and SEO copywriters are practitioners of witchcraft. While I readily admit that I cannot always explain how I craft each and every line of compelling copy, there are a few "tricks" that I use--and I'm pretty sure other copywriters use--when words fail me.
Voodoo That Will Help ANYONE Write Better Web Copy (Even SEO Copy)
The voodoo secret behind some (maybe even a lot) of the great copy you read online is what I call "freestyle copywriting." It entails temporarily suspending rules and formulas so you can get the creative juices flowing and ultimately, so you have something decent to work with later. Here's how it works:
Step 1: Do the requisite pre-work. Research your target market. Research potential keywords. Get your head around the main message for the page you want to write some great copy for. Write it all down in a notebook. Slam the notebook shut. Walk away.
Step 2: Get a good night's sleep. The brain works in mysterious ways. (Told you this was voodoo.)
Step 3: Open your notebook and review your pre-work. Chances are you suddenly have some additional insights you'd like to add to your notes. Write them down. Squeeze stuff in the margins. Use arrows and squiggly lines to connect related ideas and words. Try to keep this little brain dump all on one page if you can. This creative dance is the foundation for the witchcraft that follows.
Step 4: Open up a blank Word document. A new post or page in your WordPress or Typepad dashboard screen will do just fine as well. Take a sip of coffee and crack your knuckles a few times. Stretch your arms up above your head. This helps you feel like a real writer and puts you in the zone for some copywriting voodoo to happen. (No pressure.)
Step 5: Think about your key message and start typing like a mad scientist. Worried about the headline? I don't care. Start typing anyway. Not sure where to begin? Then don't start at the beginning; start in the middle or even at the end and work backwards. Just TYPE. Let the voodoo flow through you. Don't get up to go to the bathroom. Just type until you've got nothing more to say about the subject matter at hand.
Step 6: When the mad typing starts to feel redundant (and it probably won't for at least a page or two), STOP. Stretch out. Crack your knuckles. Take a sip of (now cold) coffee. Click save, and walk away.
Step 7: Get a good night's sleep.
Step 8: Turn on your computer and review your voodoo copy. Not bad, is it? It surely needs a lot of editing, rearranging, and a ton of ruthless deletion. But overall, I bet there are some real nuggets of gold in them there pages. This is where copywriting can actually be fun, because now you have the opportunity to take lots of raw, honest words and sculpt them into something concise, compelling, and able to incentivize action.
The point of all this? You've now got something much meatier than a blank page. You've got ideas, emotion, passion and hopefully lots of interesting facts and tidbits about what you're trying to pitch. Even if you have to look up some copywriting formula to know where to begin editing this mess, you've got an incredible starting point.
And that, my web friend, is how you win the battle. Find a starting point and jump off. It's what every web copywriter and SEO copywriter does when the words just won't come. Use this bit of copywriting voodoo next time you're stuck for words, and I promise, you'll end up with a call to action that is a helluva lot more inviting than something coerced by a template.
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