7 Easy Exercises to Help You Write Incredible Copy
Copywriting is a content production technique focused on convincing the reader to take action. At Baloodesign, we understand that a “copy” is a balancing act. To succeed, you must write like the world’s greatest author and have the insight of the company’s sharpest salesperson. But that is not exactly an easy task. You want to be clever but impactful. Your words need to resonate like poetry, but in language that is easily understood by your audience.
There are several ways to be both the most creative and the most persuasive. It’s not as difficult as you think. You just need to be patient with your words and honest with yourself, especially if you’re fighting writer’s block or feeling outdated. We want to help you break through your blocks and refresh your copywriting techniques, so we have a little challenge for you. Try these 7 exercises to help you write better copy. From Haiku to urban direct, these challenges will help you “clear your head,” refresh, and dive in to offer more creative and functional forms.
1 – Pour Out Your Thoughts
Distractions always prevent you from reaching your creative goal. So, follow the suggestion of Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way,” and try the morning pages technique. This challenge asks you to fill three pages of paper with stream-of-consciousness writing. The catch? You have to do it by hand. According to Cameron, you should do this as soon as you wake up, but the first thing you start working on during the day also works. No matter how trivial your thoughts are. The goal is to transfer all that cerebral chatter and worries onto the paper and leave them there. Your mind needs to be empty before you can fill it with creativity. From there, switch to a one-person brainstorming mode, where new ideas are sure to emerge. Write them all down on the same sheet without questioning yourself. There’s no reason to hold back information or second-guess since the brainstorming is done only by you.
2 – Learn Just One More Thing
If you are writing about a topic you are fully immersed in or that is capturing your attention, challenge yourself to go one step beyond your existing knowledge. You never know what you might find, what perspective you might discover, or what idea might spark your interest. There is always something more to learn, and knowing more only enhances your perspective. When we work with new subjects, we tend to go deeper and avoid the biases of people who are immersed in the subject. Additionally, by engaging in other people’s work, you not only get a refresher course but also have the opportunity to see which angles have been covered before. New insights always help.
3 – Anchor Your Keywords
When you are ready to use your copywriting techniques and prepare to write a killer SEO article, keywords are essential. But don’t make them cheesy or useless by overusing them. Before you start, jot down the 5 to 10 keywords you are looking to target for SEO purposes. They definitely need to play a role but should not overwhelm the text or impact its overall understanding. Keep your list for reference and make sure you’re not underusing or overusing them. You need to be confident in what you want your copy to be remembered and searched for, while avoiding your keywords being the only selling points. There are few things that will make your audience turn away more than reading a copy that is frantically trying to force specific keywords.
4 – Write a Teaser
While you should have a collection of assets that inspire you, sometimes you need some fresh inspiration. To combat the horrible dilemma of writer’s block or simply to get the creative copywriting juices flowing, try this tactic. Take a break and look for something new to entertain yourself. It could be an ad, an article, a book excerpt, a photo essay, a video, etc. Whether you liked what you found or not, give yourself the following challenge: In a single paragraph, write a teaser for it. It doesn’t matter if it was an ad from the ’80s or a random comedy short on YouTube. Write three to five sentences that could convince someone to check it out. This will help stimulate the “salesman” part of your brain, offering you something completely new to use.
5 – Emotion and Meaning Within Your Lines
So, you’ve used copywriting techniques, written an excellent piece, and are ready to publish. Not so fast. Take a quick break away from the computer, go grab a coffee, and come back to fine-tune the details of your copy. In each paragraph, there are opportunities to refine and make your copy more engaging for your readers. Insert more emotional adjectives; choose stronger verbs. The focus is to create lively and powerful language that conveys your message. No need to add a new keyword. That’s not what we want right now. We believe that at this point in writing, your copy already has the necessary technical information. What we are looking for now is to do exactly the opposite. We have to turn emotionless words into something with empathy and emotion. Something the reader can relate to and take the desired action.
6 – Create Your Own List of Constraints
Along the same lines as keywords, be mindful of the words, phrases, and sentence structures you constantly rely on. Review your recent posts and jot down what you want to eliminate or avoid while writing. For example, you might notice that the word “enjoy” appears 10 times in a single post or that “In today’s market…” has become your introduction. Create your own restricted list with words and phrases to keep track of everything you want to avoid. Of course, we are not forbidding you from using these terms. The use of the restricted list is only to keep you alert and avoid certain habits. Review your restricted list document regularly to keep your copy fresh.
7 – Try the Haiku Method
It may seem obvious, but often the goal is forgotten: know your intention. What do you want to give your reader? Whether you’re writing a blog post or an infographic, you need to figure out how you can distill your message to its simplest and most concise state. If this message is unclear the next time you start a new project, try the Haiku method. Haiku (俳句) is a short form of Japanese poetry. In short, it is a three-line poem in a specific format: the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables. For example, here’s my Haiku for this post:
Tips to write
Like a master creative
Innovative
This is a fun creative challenge that forces you to identify exactly what you’re trying to say and provides a path to develop the rest of your copy.
We hope these exercises help you bring more creativity and results to your copy!
Need more help with content marketing? Contact Baloodesign and find out how we can help your business stand out in new markets.