The copywriting world is quickly expanding and evolving like the universe of your favorite superhero movies.
With technological advancements in the past decade, online marketers became the main drivers of business growth in practically every niche. And they will continue to be relevant so long as they adapt to the ever-evolving state of the digital space.
It was said that two years from now, online marketers will shift their targeting efforts from millennials to Generation Z. By that time, they will account for 40% of all consumers.
We all know that this generation grew up with a mobile phone in their hand.
They appreciate valuable content in as fast as eight seconds. In turn, copywriters must up their content game and work on their copywriting skills.
If you are new to copywriting, it is important to immediately get acquainted with your brand voice. This will help your copy stand out in a sea of content – eager to steal your audience’s attention.
Here are five proven steps to find your copywriting voice and cut through the content noise:
1. Choose A Niche You Understand
In copywriting, it is critical to understand the business model including the products and services it offers.
It is equally important to know the audience you are speaking with.
After answering what the business is, start asking “who” your business is for. This will help you define a voice that resonates with potential customers.
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Remember, if you can find a certain topic in a magazine, then there must be an audience for it. Understanding your niche early on will help strengthen your focus when it comes to your copywriting strategies and marketing efforts.
Additionally, niche-focused pieces convert more and are more likely to transform a business into the go-to authority in any industry. If you choose a niche you’re truly passionate about, you can leverage your expertise to consistently produce great copy.
2. Listen And Talk In Your Customer’s Language
Defining your niche is one side of the coin.
Listening and talking to your customers in a language that echoes with them is the other.
Listening to the audience through feedback and surveys will give copywriters a chance to tune into their language. And by incorporating this language into your content strategy, it’s easier to win your audience’s trust.
A great way to run surveys is to use visual tools like Google Forms.
With this tool, you can easily create surveys to quickly gather actionable data.
Google Forms makes sure answering surveys is easy for your audience as well. This will help you convince more of them to participate and provide their honest, constructive feedback.
Here’s a tip: ask your audience what they like about your business or how you deliver your content. Or, you can ask them about the value your business brings to them.
There will surely be a mix of positive and negative from respondents. Listening to both sides should help you determine your strengths and weaknesses – giving you a clear roadmap to improvement.
3. Attention, Attention, Attention!
“Location, location, location.”
That’s what a lot of entrepreneurs define as the most important component of any business strategy.
In the digital space, however, it is about attention, attention, and more attention.
A great copywriter is an expert at capturing the audience’s attention – making them thirsty for more information.
This skill can be honed by continually improving your tone, word usage and style. It’s also important to understand where and when readers lose their interest.
Using heatmap tools like Hotjar, you can create scroll maps that measure “scroll depth.”
They pinpoint exactly where on your page users stop reading.
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Hotjar also lets you view recordings of cursor movements and heatmaps to determine where users go after reading a page. But since we’re talking about copy, here are a few ideas you can use to maximize scroll depth:
Start with an interesting story
Ask a question related to their pain points
Pepper your copy with visuals – a meme or creating a video with a good video editor sometimes works
Show them real results from you or other customers
Go against conventional wisdom
4. Identify What Makes You Unique
Identifying what sets you apart is a pivotal step to finding your copywriting voice.
Many writers refuse to tap into their inner voice for the sake of pleasing a larger crowd. But in reality, this can dull their writing style, doing more harm than good.
Remember that your unique life experiences have given you a distinct perspective. And over the years, those experiences helped mold your “inner voice.”
So, give those real-life events a chance to influence your work.
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Think about the stories you love and the types of characters that pull you in. Then, let these elements influence the way you write.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to use a language that reflects who you truly are.
Write like you talk. Read the copy aloud, and if it does not sound right, refine it.
There are many text-to-speech applications online which you can use to check how your copy sounds. One example is NaturalReader, a text-to-speech application that can read various file types like a human.
5. Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment
It may take a lot of trial and error before you find your copywriting voice, but it’s definitely worth the shot.
When it comes to writing styles, don’t be afraid to experiment. Only then can you discover which one you’re most comfortable with.
Who knows — you may be more comfortable writing in stylized language than simple prose.
Manage your expectations, though, because the experimental stage can be particularly overwhelming. But you can use this period to adopt style elements you enjoy and ditch others that don’t feel right.
During this time, you may also feel tempted to compare your work with others. Remind yourself that doing so will only prevent you from honing your unique creative identity.
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Don’t try to be someone else. Take inspiration from other writers, but never think your writing style and voice are lesser than theirs.
Finally, give yourself time to develop your copywriting voice. If you haven’t discovered your creative foothold just yet, don’t stress yourself. Instead, be patient and keep on writing until you uncover your writing style and personal voice.
Conclusion
Finding your copywriting voice is a continuous process. It pays to know, however, that there are tools available at our disposal to help make the copywriting life easier.
Like other skills, it takes time, experience, and a lot of iteration until you can finally say you found it!
