Announcing Copywriting Definitions Sure to “Up Your Game”

All right, everyone, I’m coming at you like a whirlwind. That’s right, this wizard of words, this paragon of phraseology, this benevolent dictator of discourse, feels you could probably benefit from knowing a thing or two about copywriting definitions.

That’s especially true if you’re someone looking to hire a copywriter, you’re a writing youngling looking to learn the trade, or even if you’re already a language mage who has reached the level of “badass,” but you need to brush up.

This article is PART 1 peeps, and it’s a glossary of copywriting definitions and terms that you really ought to bookmark. Just sayin.

Because I’m contrarian (and yet fun), let’s do this alphabetical listing of copywriting definitions BACKWARDS!

Yay!

White Paper

This is a document written by an authority or expert. Someone like me. Its purpose is to educate those who aren’t in the know. Presumably, people like your clients. It helps them make a decision, overcome a problem of some sort, or educate them on various issues. (Like how to conjure up more sales without behaving or sounding like a douche.)

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

This is what sets you apart from everyone else. It boils down to one question and one question alone that you must answer.

“Why should I, or anyone else, do business with you instead of your competition?”

For example, I thought about making mine “The Harry Potter of Copywriters Working Carefully Crafted Definitions of Copywriting into Powerful Spells That Blow Voldemort’s Copywriting Definitions Out of the Water.” But, that’s kind of long and not entirely accurate.

And, by not accurate, I mean Harry Potter is a wimp compared to yours truly.

Urgency

“Don’t wait! Do it now! Before it’s too late!” Oh, sheesh. Why did you wait so long? Too bad for you. Now everything we’re selling is gone. That’s the essence of urgency. As copywriting legend Dan Kennedy would tell you, “winning leaders demonstrate a profound Bias For Action.” That’s not just true of leaders. That’s true in your copy too. So get a move on, damn it! Make sure people understand why they should do something, then urge them to do it as soon as humanly possible.

Keep reading this glossary of copywriting definitions! Don’t wait a nanosecond longer!

Upsell

Ever heard someone at McDonald’s as if you want fries with that? If you want to “super-size” that? That’s an upsell at the moment of purchase. It’s all about getting the customer or client to consider adding a complimentary service or product to whatever he or she is purchasing already. French fries (Freedom Fries, Chips,), etc. complement burgers, right? Coca Cola, Pepsi (a soft drink), compliments the meal as well.

Related: Why Is This Copywriter Giving Away Marketing & Sales Secrets Worth $145,637 For Free?

When it comes to copywriting, and copywriting services, what kind of projects complement one another. Does a company need a blog? Great. Is the copy on their website designed to convert? Do they need landing pages? Do they need E-mail copy? All of those things could be offered as an upsell to a monthly blogging contract. In other words, each of these could be an upsell offer.

Tracking

This is all about ensuring that you know how well a particular promotion is performing. You’ll often want to see how many people buy by using purchase codes, or bounce rates, or even overall traffic. Many may believe that when it comes to copywriting a lot is subjective. For example, copywriting ought to move a person by tugging them and moving them emotionally.

But, how do you track how well something moved someone?

The number of sales made using particular copy is one way to track the success or failure of a piece. 

However, there are other data-driven ways to track and measure.

The Close

This is all about working the reader down to something that should be in every written piece you send out. That’s true whether it’s a blog post, a web page, or E-mail copy. And, that’s the call-to-action.

Closing is about selling. Selling can be high pressure and uncomfortable, or it can be soft and inviting. Personally, I prefer the latter for several reasons. The first is that hard selling makes me think of used car salesmen or someone who says “buy my crap” while pointing a gun at your head.

The second is that I feel selling is actually “building up in the mind of the prospect that desire which should normally culminate in a sale, the actual work of closing, far from being difficult, should be the easiest part of the whole procedure, as plucking ripe apples is the easiest part of fruit growing. Making a sale is not a trick that suddenly causes the prospect to reach one big decision to buy. Rather, it is a series of small decisions, just as climbing a flight of steps isn’t one jump from the bottom to top but a succession of easy steps.” (Salesmanship For the New Era, Charles A. Mear, 1929)

Testimonials

These are all about “what others are saying.”

Specifically, testimonials ought to be what others are saying about you and your service or product. Ideally, they shouldn’t be something like, “John or Suzie is just the best. Great person. He or she is nice to be around.”

No, these should preferably be tiny, one paragraph case studies.

“My business was suffering X, and then John or Suzy provided Y, and now my sales are through the roof. I bought my significant other something amazing, took a world cruise, died from excitement, and then went to heaven!”

Target Market

This is who you WANT to sell to.

Well, actually it’s more like, these are the people who are proven to WANT what you’ve got to offer.

For example, you might be selling little girl’s clothing. That clothing is for girls ages 5 – 7. Who’s your target market? The little girls who wear those clothes?

No!

The mothers of those little girls are your target market. And why? Because moms do most of the shopping for their children’s clothes. So, you’re looking at what … women, who are between the ages of 18 and 40 (in general)? 

You have to figure out who your ideal customer is and speak to THEM and only to them. Ideally, you want to find the top 1%, the people who buy from you not once, not twice, but as often as you have something to sell … and you want to market to them.

Related: Why Use a Copywriter When YOU Can Write the Damn Thing?

Tagline

This is basically just a one-sentence slogan. It says what you do and for whom you do it. Also, it can simply say what you do and can be punchy. It sums up a service, product, or brand. For example, mine is currently “Get Leads. Get Sales. Or Get Lost.”

Swipe File

Every copywriter ought to have a swipe file at his or her disposal. Every swipe file is made up of promotional content, advertising, and marketing collateral, that companies have put out, and which you feel provide excellent examples of copy that converts.

Most copywriters build their swipe files made up of content put out by other great copywriters like Dan Kennedy, Michael Masterson, Clayton Makepeace, Joshua Boswell, Gary Halbert, etc. (Most of these are direct response copywriters. Others specialize in copywriting of a different sort, such as E-mail copywriting, or B2B sales or copywriting for the Web.)

An absolutely great resource for those who don’t have their own swipe file is Swiped.co. Check that out.

Are you an aspiring copywriter who wants to get experience AND still make good money WITHOUT having  a single client? Here’s a way to make it happen.

Subheadings

Your copy can get boring when it’s long, and there are no breaks. Eyes get tired. Fingers start twitching. Suddenly the customer is clicking off your page. Well, that’s where Subheadings come in to play. First, they help to break up the text. Most people don’t read. They skim. Subheadings allow the reader to quickly see if the following paragraph, etc. is a topic they’re interested in reading.

Subheadings are usually written in a larger font than the body of the text. A great trick is to write these subheadings as mini-headlines that encourage curiosity. In essence, their whole job is to keep the customer reading and on the page longer!

Static Banner Ads

This is an ad you’ll usually see at the top of a page. You know, like a banner across your screen. There are actually two different types. There’s static, which is what we’re discussing here, and then there are dynamic banner ads.

Now, static banner ads are called that because they don’t have the dynamic information within them that … you guessed it … dynamic banners do. They’re made up of just one image. That picture neither moves nor rotates. It’s an ad characterized by a lack of animation or progression … hence the word “static.”

Squeeze Page

This is like a sales page or a landing page, right? Distractions should be minimal. Unlike a sales page, a squeeze page ought to ask your customers for their e-mail addresses and perhaps other contact details.

Special Report

A special report is called that because it’s well, special. Duh. 

The sauce has to do with why this report is special, though. And, that’s all about value. This report provides your customer with a value-filled informational product. It should talk about one specific issue, and your customers ought to be helped in some way if they read it. You can actually use these sorts of things as lead magnets, an ethical bribe, etc.

In other words, when someone lands on your Squeeze Page and gives you their e-mail address or other contact details, in return, you can give them your special report. Tit-for-tat. It’s a perfect first transaction. Just remember that your special report shouldn’t rely on hype or crap sales techniques. Whatever it is, it should provide real value.

SEO Copywriting

This is an incredibly dull form of writing, in my personal opinion. I hate it. However, knowing how to optimize and craft articles so that they get ranked on major search engines like Google is kind of an important thing these days. With this kind of writing, you’re working to ensure that keywords your customers are looking for on a search engine match the content in your articles. It’s all about helping your web site’s traffic to increase significantly.

SEO

For those who don’t know, that’s “Search Engine Optimization” to you. This is the practice of making things easier for various search engines, but primarily Google, to find and index your website. It’s also about making it easy for customers, clients, etc. to find your website when searching for particular products or services by using keywords.

Scarcity

Ever wanted to make people buy RIGHT NOW?

That’s urgency. Copywriters can use scarcity to make urgency … well, more urgent. We do that by limiting the NUMBER of services or products available to the customer at any given time (or by making them believe those things are limited).

We also do that by letting the customer or client know that they don’t have much TIME to make their purchases. In other words, whatever products or services you’re selling can’t be available forever. This causes your prospect to step up their decision-making game.

Yes, yes. No, no. Decide whatever you want, but do it now!

Sales Page

Remember the squeeze page? Well, this is similar. However, unlike the squeeze page, a sales page doesn’t just attempt to get the customer or client’s e-mail address and other contact details. Instead, the sales page is designed to sell. The thing here is that like a squeeze page, distractions are minimal, and it provides customers with all the information necessary to make a purchase.

Moreover, it’s designed so that the customer can only make a purchase or leave. They can’t normally go to other parts of our website. (For example, there are no links to other pages other than those that are part of the sales process itself.)

Risk Reversal

This is exactly what it sounds like. One of the biggest obstacles to buying is risk. If you’re able to remove that risk for the buyer, you’re much more likely to make the sale. Some common risk reversal methods are offering guarantees, adding bonuses into the purchase, refusing to take payment upfront (in other words, putting your money where your mouth is.)

For example, a consultant might create risk reversal by saying that the client doesn’t pay anything until the consultant has helped them do X, Y, and Z. Only then does the client need to pay.

Related: What Are Copywriter Jobs, Some of You Want to Know?

Copywriting Definitions Summary

All right then, me hearties! Hopefully, you’ve learned a thing or two. I guarantee that by coming to understand the copywriting definitions on this page, you’ll set yourself apart. You’ll have begun your entry into the world of Word Wizards.

Good job! 

That should make you feel great because, as J.K Rowling has written, “Nothing is more unnerving to the truly conventional than the unashamed misfit!”

Now, if you’ve enjoyed this article on copywriting definitions and you’re someone who wants or needs to hire a professional copywriter who specializes in your niche, you might want to consider seeing if you and I are a good fit. If you’re in the Financial Newsletter, Publishers, Supplements and Remedies, Health, Fitness and Exercise, Diet and Weight Loss, SAAS and Software, as well as the Computer or Biotech industries …

 Get in touch by emailing me at will@williamblesch.com or just head over to my Contact Page.

Are you an aspiring copywriter wishing you could get a little hands-on experience before jumping in and working for clients? Here’s a way to make it happen.