Copywriting Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Persuasive Writing

What is copywriting?

The word copywriting comes from English and consists of writing marketing texts that encourage action and convert leads into customers using persuasive language as the basis for a brand or business. That is why it is often also called persuasive writing .

Returning to this first concept, the question surely arises as to what we mean by “ action ”. And this must be understood not only as a sale but also as downloading a document, making an appointment, leaving a comment…

It should not be forgotten, however, that the ultimate goal of any business is sales (to which copywriting is no stranger). And sales are conversion .

With all this in mind, it is clear that copy * (you will also see it this way) has a lot to do with psychology, marketing, sales and communication . It is the link between all of them. Indispensable in any business.

We could give a more technical definition of the brazil telegram data copywriting , but we like this double version used by Javi Pastor, a renowned Spanish copywriter, in this video .

We believe that it complements what we have already explained to you about this concept.

Origins of copywriting

If you think that copywriting is something new, you are wrong. It dates back to at least the 1950s of the last century . In fact, that decade was the one that saw its great takeoff. However, the most purists say that the first persuasive text as such comes from 1477 in Babylon.

Others, however, dare to go further and point to the origins of this type of writing in Thebes (present-day Egypt). There is evidence of a text on papyrus, dated around 1000 BC, whose focus is clearly commercial, as it speaks of a reward.

We would therefore be facing the first advertisement in history . We anticipate, however, that the background of the message is not pleasant.

The announcement reads as follows:

“The slave Shem having run away from his employer Hapu, the weaver, invites all good citizens of Thebes to find him. He is a Hittite, five feet tall, of robust build and brown eyes. Half a gold piece is offered to anyone who can give information about his whereabouts.”

We have explored the origins of copywriting and, if we are consistent, it is time to find out who was the first professional in that field .

If you want to meet him, please continue reading.

Who was the first copywriter in history?

It is impossible to talk about copywriting  should you build your owne commerce website  without referring to the professional who practices it. This would be the copywriter, who is also called a copy . Therefore, profession and professional would receive the same name .

To answer the question of who was the first copywriter in history, we will have to travel back in time, specifically to the Wanamaker’s and Lord & Taylor department stores in New York around 1870 .

John Emory Powers , this first copywriter , began writing ads for the department store chain on a part-time basis. Over the years, he improved his method and eventually set up his own independent business.

We could go into more detail about him, but that is not the purpose of this article. If you are interested in learning more about his life, we recommend reading this .

Now, if you like, we can return to the present with some important information, such as the types of copywriting that exist.

Types of copywriting

The question, at this point, is how many types of copy there are.

Fortunately, there seems to be a consensus on this. There are three main types of copywriting :

• Direct response copy .
• Brand recognition copy (associated with advertising). Also known as creative copy and brand copywriting .
• Technical copy .

Why “mainly”?

Because, although in general terms these are the only three classes, if we look at the application context there are many more (we will see some of them in this same article).

But let’s go step by step. In the next three sections ch leads we explain what each of these two general modalities consists of.

Direct response copy

Direct response copywriting is focused on sales, capturing a lead, getting a new subscriber… Therefore, it is linked to the immediacy of the action. And it is measurable through KPIs, for example .

These are short, striking and attractive messages and always contain at least one CTA ( call to action).

This is the most common. It is used on websites, sales pages, email marketing campaigns, etc.

Brand awareness copy

Brand recognition copy, on the other hand, acts more subtly on the mind of the recipient of the message. It seeks to make the user identify the brand and the product or service .

This type of copy would include any perfume advertisement in a magazine, for example. With the image itself, the brand suggests certain values ​​or behaviours, but does not encourage a purchase .

We have mentioned a perfume, although it would be transferable to any type of product or service, as long as there is no call to action .

These are longer messages, attractive but not very impactful, and intended to convey emotions or evoke experiences to connect with the brand.

Technical Copy

As for technical copy , these are messages that attempt to explain complex concepts in the simplest way possible .

It tends to be used, above all, for brands in the industrial or technological sector , where there are many technical terms that make it difficult to understand the characteristics or benefits of a product.

In this sense, these are longer messages, with simple language and a didactic tone that aim to convince by explaining the characteristics/benefits of the product/service.

What is copywriting used for?

Copywriting is most famous in digital marketing, possibly because in the technological age we consume advertising mainly through the Internet. Every page or social network impacts us with advertisements that use copywriting to attract attention and lead to sales.

Thanks to this, we distinguish between different contexts where copywriting is applied .

Copywriting for the web

These are the messages we include on our website (and all its landing pages) to attract the attention of our potential customers and to present our products in the most attractive way possible.

In this sense, it is about both the most generic texts for presenting the product/service, as well as the specific characteristics of each product and even the different CTAs .

Copywriting for SEO

In this case, these are the articles that we include in our website’s blog to position ourselves in the first searches on Google or other search engines .

To do this, keywords are used strategically placed throughout the article so that the search engine algorithm can locate them and place our article in a priority position.

Other determining factors will be the length of the article, the use of internal and external links, audiovisual content , etc.

Copywriting for social media

These are the messages present on social networks , whether in the text section or in the image we use.

Depending on the social network, they will be shorter or longer messages, with more or fewer emojis.

What is essential for each of them (with the exception perhaps of TikTok) is to use a “ hook ” that attracts our audience from the first second.

The hook is the first sentence of the text on social networks and there are different strategies that help to attract the attention of our potential client:

• Ask a question : “Do you dream of a white kitchen that is easy to clean?”
• Create mystery : “This product will change your life forever…”
• Make a promise : “With this product, you will clean your kitchen 2 times faster”
• Use enumerations : “The 5 reasons why (product) will increase your work productivity”
• Create a contradiction : “How I went from having €5 in the bank to having €50,000”

Copywriting for email marketing

Copywriting is also used in email marketing , both for the subject line and description, as well as for the body of the text .

Regarding the delivery and description, we must again think about what hook we are going to write that will encourage our reader to open the email. The strategies mentioned above are also applicable to email marketing, however, we must keep in mind that email marketing tools are very strict with the words used , therefore, we must avoid using expressions such as “free” or “win” so that our email is not sent to spam.

For the body of the text, we will have more freedom, however, we must always try to keep the texts short and to the point , since most users read emails on their mobile phone and it is advisable not to overwhelm them with the length.

In this sense, they can be promotional texts about our product/service, corporate texts about the brand’s milestones and successes, a weekly or monthly newsletter , etc. All of this is part of copywriting !

Copywriting for Ads / advertising

It is the shortest copywriting to do, but at the same time the most difficult, since it is the copywriting used in paid advertising (whether online or offline) and requires messages to be brief, but extremely impactful.

So you have to spend a lot of time searching for the right words and message, even if it turns out to be just a sentence.

Let’s think about famous brands that have created advertising that has later become their brand claim: L’Oreal with its “you’re worth it”, Rexona “it won’t let you down”, Telepizza with its “the secret is in the dough”…

All of these catchy phrases that we associate with specific brands started with advertising copy that they then adapted for all of their ads.

Our recommendation is that, if there is an investment of money, we invest a lot of time in searching for the right words, emotions and sensations for the copy, always thinking about our target audience and what their aspirations, fears or needs are .

Who can work as a copywriter?

Actually, anyone ! As long as you like to write, write correctly, have a rich vocabulary and have a basic understanding of marketing to understand the different formats, audiences, market trends, etc.

However, these are the qualifications that copywriters currently have:

• Graduates in Journalism or Communication
• Graduates in Audiovisual Communication
• Graduates in Philology
• Graduates in Psychology
• Graduates in Advertising or Marketing
• Graduates in Public Relations
• Professionals with vocational training or higher education related to marketing or communication

Types of copywriters

If you have a business and you consider that one of your weaknesses is the messages you send to your potential clients , at TTANDEM we have more than 10 years of experience helping different brands from all sectors to stand out in the digital world through persuasive, attractive and impactful texts. Contact us without obligation to tell us your needs!