Copywriting: What it is & why businesses need it

“Copywriting…like, as in copyright law?”

That’s the response I typically get when I tell someone what I do.

But I don’t blame them one bit.

I didn’t know what “copywriting” was until well after college because, well, no one really talks about it unless you’re in the industry. Plenty of folks can’t define copywriting and don’t understand its impact. Most of them don’t need to. Anyone with a brand, however, really, really should.

At its core, copywriting is persuasion, and is an integral and invaluable component of any marketing strategy. Heck, sometimes good copy is the main marketing strategy. Good copy gets customers, drives conversion, improves outcomes, and does a bunch of other important stuff that can both save and make money.

Hence, this post. (P.S. Time is precious. If you know what copy is and why it’s important for brands, I suggest moving on to other information that will bring you value. Thanks for reading, though!)

I’m not going to pretend that I’m a copywriting goddess, here to bestow every nugget of copywriting information upon you, because I simply don’t have enough space on this page and copywriting is too vast a topic. Very smart and experienced individuals have written detailed books, courses, and blog posts on the topic that I highly suggest you check out. The goal of this post is to plainly define copywriting and explain why it matters. So here we go.

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is essentially writing the words and materials that persuade/influence a target audience.

For example, words on a company’s website are considered “copy.” The goal of these words should be to encourage visitor engagement and/or persuade visitors to take action or think a certain thing.

Words in an email campaign are also copy. So are the words in advertisements, social media posts, certain types of articles, and more.

As you can probably tell, there are many different forms of copywriting (web copy, SEO copy, and email copy, to name a few), but they all have the same core: influence and persuasion.

Why does it matter?

Do you want to improve business outcomes? Make more sales? Reach more consumers? Increase website engagement? Make money? (It seems cliche to add “make money” to the list, but it’s relevant, so forgive me.)

Copywriting helps to do these things. Words are a large part of how brands communicate with audiences, so those words have the power to make or break a brand’s goals.

Good website copy will have more visitors clicking “add to cart”, signing up for an email list, or taking whatever action it is you’re looking for. Bad website copy will have visitors exiting out of your tab.

Good email copy will have higher conversion rates, good SEO copy will improve your website’s rankings in Google (and being on page 1 of a search is vital), and so on and so forth.

Good copy can mean less money spent on expensive marketing campaigns, because the words themselves are just that effective.

Can’t I just do my own copy? Words are words.

Anyone can write words, but few can write good copy.

Effective copywriting involves serious skills, many of which are intertwined with psychology and marketing. Good copy comes from an understanding of human behaviors, consumer wants and desires, the brand itself, research, creativity, and a boatload of additional knowledge and abilities.

Let’s put it this way: it’s a commonly cited statistic that you only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention before they move on from your website, advertisement, or whatever it is. So choosing what to say to draw in your audience, push them to the next line and the line after that, and eventually persuade them into taking action is hard.

I like to think of it as one big puzzle.

I like solving puzzles, which is why I chose this career, but copywriting certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Hopefully, though, copywriting makes a little more sense after this article.

Thanks for reading,

Megan