Alle Ceambur

Want to become a successful copywriter in 2022? Then you may want to learn and improve these 5 essential copywriting skills. So, buckle up!

Try to guess what the following phrases have in common:

💁‍♀️ – “Because you’re worth it” (L’oreal)
🍗 – “It’s finger lickin’ good” (KFC)
💻 – “See What’s Next” (Netflix)

You guessed it: they’re popular brand slogans written by expert copywriters.

But what makes them unique is that they have the ability to express the “essence” of the brand in such few words.

That’s not easy even for seasoned writers.

So what does it take to be a successful copywriter that can write explosive copy for brands in the likes of Netflix, L’Oreal and KFC?

Well – a lot of things and a lot of experience.

So, in this article, I will try to summarize the 5 essential copywriting skills in a few categories as below:

• Research skills
• Technical writing skills
• Thinking like the audience
• Search optimisation skills (SEO)
• Using simple words

Let’s go through these essential copywriting skills one by one!

5 Essential copywriting skills you need to be a successful copywriter in 2022

#1 Copywriting skill to learn: Research skills 👩‍💻

A good topic to write about needs to be well-researched and relevant to a particular group of people. The most successful writers start with researching their topics.

Because you can be an expert in your industry and have vast knowledge in a topic but you still need to test your chosen topics and find out if there’s an audience. Aka. you want to be sure someone is interested in reading about it.

For example, I usually spend time reading a minimum of 4-10 competitor articles before I start drafting a single word.

What if you can’t find enough articles on a topic? or nobody is writing about a keyword? My advice: scrape it! Unless you have a really large audience (I’m talking about 100k readers or more) you’d most likely be wasting your time writing about something nobody cares to read about.

Tools you can use to research topics before writing: SEMrush, Buzzsumo and Ubersuggest.

#2 Copywriting skill you need to master: Technical writing ✍🏻

Writing structure, grammar and proven formats can make your articles engaging.

The good news? There are plenty of courses you can take to learn writing skills.

You can check out my 3 step process for Blog Writing where you can learn my technique for writing articles – complete with a simple-to-use template.

Suggested reading: AIDA method for writing social media captions that convert.

#3 Essential copywriting skills: Learn to think like the audience you’re writing for 🎭

One of the most important writing skills to learn is thinking like the reader.

Most beginner writers start writing about things that they (themselves) are passionate about. And that’s okay – that makes you as the writer happy and motivated and proud of your work.

But … there’s a problem! Your audience won’t find it relevant.

And if they can’t relate to what you’re writing, simply put – they won’t read it.

The secret to highly engaging copy is this:

Instead of telling your readers what YOU WANT them to know, tell them what THEY WANT to hear 👂

#4 Skill to learn: How to optimize for SEO💡

The whole point of copywriting is to attract a crowd of interested readers – or buyers.

It doesn’t matter if your writing skills are exceptional. If you don’t learn #SEO then you’ll be wasting your time being stuck with 0 reads and 10 followers.

The copywriting reality is harsh, I know.

But learning SEO is a must if you want to become a successful writer.

I would suggest you get started learning SEO by using Yoast plug-in on WordPress and follow one of my favourite SEO gurus: Neil Patel.

DOWNLOAD FREE: Copywriting Guide for Writing Social Media Captions

#5 Basic Copywriting Skills Anyone Can Learn: Cut the nonsense 😅

I know as a writer you enjoy telling stories and diving deep into the details. But the most effective copy for blog articles and social media is: short, sweet and straight to the point.

I use Grammarly to proofread and Hemingway Editor to reduce and simplify my copy until I have nothing else to remove. Trust me, simple words and short sentences work like magic 🪄

Conclusion:

Copywriting is an essential skill to master if you want to market your business. It’s not just for bloggers and writers to know, but any business owner and marketer would benefit from elevating their copywriting skills.

Remember: Good copy combined with social media marketing builds trust and engagement!