7 Copywriting Secrets for Magnetic Copy
First things first, there are no copywriting secrets to magnetic messaging: just good ‘ole strategy, research, and wordsmithery. But still, this can trip people up, especially when you don’t have a process in place to find the right nuggets of gold and know how to use them.
That’s why I’ll share the 7 methods to crafting magnetic copy, so you can skip the “how do I do this?” and go straight to “I DID THAT SH*T!”
Here’s the TL;DR version of copywriting secrets for all my skimmers out there:
1. Research
Before you write anything, you need to know what best to say, when to say it, and how to say it. Research will help you find that out. For example, extensive market research on Google can help you find out who the ideal target audience for the thing you’re selling, any problems they’re going through, the number you should price your offer at, and facts & statistics that’ll help you prove the offer is worth the investment.
Additionally, consumer surveys — or even social media polls — can help you seed out consumer sentiment (what your target audience thinks and feels about a product, service, or brand), discover what compels them to buy or not buy, learn what they like or don’t like in popular culture and life, find out where they consume content and what they want that content to be, and learn the words and phrases they use often that you can steal for your own messaging!
2. Clarity
No confusion allowed! Sounding cool is awesome, until you sacrifice clarity for the sake of creativity. It’s always best to be clear first and foremost, and add your personality in afterward. So, always make sure to read your copy aloud before finalizing it to make sure it sounds sensical. And you can use a tool like Hemingway Editor to make your copy more readable, conversational, and clear.
3. Personality
Is your copy clear? Good. Now, let your brand voice shine! Get an audio transcribing tool like Otter.ai open and start talking aloud how you’d explain something in your own words. It helps get rid of any jargon or restrictive writing rules you learned in school, and keeps some of your natural essence in your words. After a while, you can create a brand dictionary of words and phrases that you repeat often and will become unique to your brand. You can even add it to a brand voice guide so you’ll always sound consistent, like this:
4. Empathy
Show you understand your audience. Lurk in social media comments and in review sections of different website, conduct consumer surveys, and pay attention to what the community is saying on different social media apps like X, Reddit, and TikTok. You’ll discover what they care about, what they like and don’t like, and can tailor your copy to have more words and phrases that your people use! Like this section of my clients website, where we pulled direct questions her target audience had about postpartum life for the connection section of her home page:
5. Value
What’s in it for your target audience? Not just the features or what’s included, but the benefits of those features. What can they enjoy from a custom website build? What joy can they derive from a complimentary audit? Try to connect every feature of your offer to a benefit that’s money-, time-, freedom-related or ego-boosting!
For example: Networking, collaboration, and peer support so you can build a Rolodex of colleagues and allies that rave about you in every room you’re in (and not in).
Feature: Networking, collaboration, and peer support
Benefit: Other professionals talking positively about you and spreading the word to potential employers and future colleagues that’ll expand your career opportunities
6. Collaboration Between Copy & Visuals
Copy that works well with design is not easy, but when done right, it can be a GAMECHANGER. Like this hero section on Mobbin’s website. Rather than telling you all the big-time company design teams that trust them, they show you at the top with an animated visual of logos. Then, supplementing that credibility with another social proof point: their extensive library.
If you can get a copywriter + design duo, that’ll be the best way to ensure copy + visual cohesion. Or, hire a copywriter and designer at the same time, and have them collaborate at the same time instead of doing their work in silos.
7. Call-to-Action
Tell them what to do next! Whether it’s to fill out your application form, booking a call, or something else. A clear next step direction will make things a lot easier and take away any extra mental processing they might have to do. The clearer the call to action, the better — especially when you want the action to be booking or buying. But you can also pepper calls to value in the middle of your web page that have more personality when you want them to learn more or request a demo or just get to the checkout page.
In closing…
There are no copywriting secrets to magnetic messaging, only copywriting tools and techniques that make our jobs a lot easier and make your copy a lot more impactful.
