What is Copywriting?

Copywriting is a term that is widely used in the world of marketing and communication. Whether you’re an entrepreneur that’s just at the start of the journey or a seasoned professional, understanding the fundamentals of copywriting can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your message and the results of your marketing efforts. 

Copywriting is a skill that involves writing texts that are designed to sell something, inform you about something, or convince you of something. It is also possible to apply all three at the same time. This is more common in longer forms of copywriting, such as a sales page. 

The goal of copywriting is to get the audience to take action. The actions you want the audience to take can vary greatly from each other. For example, sign up for a newsletter, buy your product or service, save or share your post on your socials, download something or contact you. Each action requires a different focus on different elements in your copywriting. 

Copywriting is about words. Words that inspire action. It doesn’t matter whether the words are written words, for example in an e-mail, or spoken words, such as in a video. 

We now know what it is, but who actually writes it? 

Types of Copywriters 

The classic name for a person who writes that kind of text is a copywriter or copywriter. 

In addition, you also have more modern names, such as storyteller or conversion copywriter. It’s still about copywriting, just different areas of expertise within copywriting. Through storytelling, you try to evoke emotion in the reader. By including them in a story that they can find themselves in, you encourage them to take action. And a conversion copywriter can also apply storytelling in his copywriting, just like a storyteller. They both still do the same thing. 

Here you can read more about the different types of copywriters out there.

Copywriting can be found all around us. But you may not notice that every text is copywriting. Therefore, here are a number of important examples where copywriting can be found. 

Types of Copywriting

Direct Response Copywriting VS. Indirect Response Copywriting

When copy is written, it can belong to one of these two types of copywriting, direct and indirect response copywriting.  

The biggest difference between the two is asking for immediate action.  

Direct Response Copywriting 

With direct response, there are ways so you can know how your copy is doing. Let’s say you create an advertisement, sales page or email. You place links in your copy to measure how well your copy is resonating. You, as a copywriter, try to get the reader to take action right away. And nowadays you can do that by getting people to click on something. 

Indirect Response Copywriting

With indirect response, there are no ways to know if your copy is catching on. They’re not asking you to do something right away. They can give a suggestion to buy a product. But no one knows if the sales of that product are coming through that one ad or some other reason. Think of car commercials, billboards or the advertisements you used to see in newspapers. Now you still see advertisements in newspapers, but not to the same extent and in the same way as in the past. 

Which one is best, I’ll leave in the middle for now. Direct response copywriters sometimes have discussions with indirect response copywriters about this. But of course you can form your own opinion.

Recap

So, copywriting is essential for a business, both online and offline, to succeed. It offers you the chance to inform, persuade, and sell something to your audience. This can be done in different ways and platforms. Finding your own way in this is important. But so is doing it effectively and efficiently. If you want a copywriter who can help you with your copy, contact us via info@luminarywords.com or schedule your appointment via: https://calendly.com/luminarywords/_