Aprenda a escribir textos convincentes con los maestros de la redacción publicitaria
Masterclass de marketing de contenidos: Sexta parte
So the content creation part of this Masterclass has made you hungry for more copywriting tips and tricks, huh? Good call – learning how to write compelling copy is one of the most powerful things you can do for your marketing and your business.
While I have certainly written my fair share of converting sales pages, email sequences and blog posts, when I’m teaching copywriting I always go back to the wisdom of the original masters of the (direct response) copywriting art.
While we do live in a different world than they did – they weren’t exactly concerned with bounce rate or SEO – they were absolute experts at influencing something that has hardly changed since the early days of advertising: the human psyche.
So come along for copywriting 101 and swipe some ideas from the folks Don Draper’s character was based on. ‘Cause there’s no school like the old school.
This post is Part Six in a brand spanking new Masterclass Series on Content Marketing. We believe it’s an incredibly important topic – and according to a little survey we did, you do too. Trouble is: there is so much content on content marketing out there (talk about meta) and a lot of the intel is conflicting.
Te traemos esta Masterclass en colaboración con Anouck Meier, Chief Storytelling Officer en Ampersand. Anouck es un copywriter de conversión y un estratega de marketing de contenidos que ha trabajado con numerosas marcas, grandes y pequeñas, para ayudarles a alcanzar sus objetivos de negocio a través de contenidos estratégicos. Vamos a aclarar la historia del contenido de una vez por todas en una guía completa. ¿Listo para sumergirte?
- Jeroen Corthout, Cofundador Salesflare, un CRM de ventas fácil de usar para pequeñas empresas B2B.
Copia vs. Contenido
Before we get started, I just want to touch on the difference between copy and content. This is a Content Marketing Masterclass after all – why are we bothering writing a whopping 2300+ words on copy?
- Copiatradicionalmente, son las palabras que utilizamos para hacer la venta. Utilizar John E. Kennedy’s definition, it’s salesmanship in print (or pixels, as the case may be). Its very aim is to persuade. The result of effective copywriting is your reader taking a specific action.
- ContenidoPor otro lado, crear y compartir contenidos de valor para atraer e implicar a un público, demostrar su capacidad para resolver sus problemas y generar el tipo de confianza que podría desembocar en una compra.
El contenido es el nuevo chico del barrio.
However, if you’re a smart cookie, you know to steal an idea or two from the old techniques of direct response copywriting. Believe me, the classic elements of persuasion will make everything in your content work better.
Si el contenido de su blog es muy bueno, pero no tiene lectores que lo acompañen, puede que lo único que necesite sea una pizca de redacción publicitaria clásica.
Maybe your headlines are too cute and clever – without showing any reader benefits. Maybe you haven’t focused on those reader benefits enough throughout your content. Or could it be that your calls to action aren’t specific enough?
Work some copywriting techniques into your blog and you’ll get your audience to subscribe, opt in and share your content with their peers. That, my friend, is how you build a large, loyal audience.
Without further ado – here are 7 strategies you’ll want to swipe from the rich tradition of direct response copywriting.
1. Escribir con las orejas
If you can’t turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn’t be in the ad writing business at all.
– Leo Burnett
One of the most common misconceptions about copywriting is that it’s some form of creative wordsmithing.
I cannot tell you how many emails I get from aspiring copywriters, telling me they want to make a living writing copy because they have a way with words. Because they’re creative writers and their friends love their witty wordplay and puns. Or – heaven forbid – their poetry.
It doesn’t matter how creative your 3rd grade teacher thought you were.
It doesn’t matter that you wrote a haiku a day all through college.
Even your rich vocabulary and eloquence will not do much for you as a copywriter.
El secreto de una buena redacción publicitaria no es ser ingenioso o sexy con las palabras.
It’s good old research.
La cita de Leo Burnett nos recuerda que el copy convierte mejor cuando dejas que sean tus clientes los que hablen. Cuando usted, como redactor publicitario, escucha a sus clientes.
Suena bastante sencillo, pero ¿cómo deja que sean sus clientes los que hablen?
Todo se reduce a la investigación de los clientes (que en realidad es un buen término para escuchar a escondidas a sus lectores). Averigüe cómo hablan de sus problemas, sus esperanzas y sus sueños.
Then you’re going to use those exact same words your audience would use to sell your product. It’s putting the words together on a page. Pretty different from coming up with clever lines for your latest sonnet, right?
You’ll find plenty of tips and tricks for customer research in the post about content strategy as well as the one on generating ideas for your content. Use your research to inspire your sales copy as well as your blog posts.
2. Escribir titulares irresistibles
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
– David Ogilvy
There is one reason and one reason only your reader will read a single word of the blog post you’ve written: your headline.
If your headline is weak or vague, your content won’t get read – even if it’s the best piece of content the world has ever seen. This is true even if you have a loyal, decent-sized audience. You need to persuade them to give you their attention, every single time you publish a piece of content.
Los buenos titulares ayudan a conseguirlo. Dedicar algo de tiempo a elaborar un titular convincente es una gran inversión de tiempo, ya que puede hacer que tu artículo triunfe o fracase.
When writing your headline, start with the 4 U’s:
- Útil: answer the “what’s in it for me” immediately
- Urgentediles por qué deberían leer tu post ahora
- Único: make clear your article isn’t just a rework or recycle of all the other pieces on the subject
- UltraespecíficoDígales exactamente lo que pueden esperar
Now if your blog post sucks, your headline obviously won’t save the piece. But it will do a lot to increase engagement from quality leads. And you’ll get more shares, likes and links.
3. Ponga primero la información más importante
The web is not a murder mystery. Tell them who did it in the first sentence.
– Gerry McGovern
It’s easily one of the trickiest habits I had to ditch when I said goodbye to the nice folks at Sidley Austin’s Brussels office to become a copywriter.
You see, a legal memo usually goes like this. First, explain what you’re going to discuss. Then, present a detailed overview of the case law and literature. Next, discuss and draw your conclusion. The most important point – the conclusion – always goes right at the very end.
If this structure seems familiar – and you’re not a lawyer – it’s because it’s how we’re taught to write essays as well.
Sin embargo, estructurar la información de esta manera en la web es un error.
De hecho, hay que hacer exactamente lo contrario. Los periodistas llaman a esta forma de escribir pirámide invertida.
Just open up a newspaper and you’ll recognize it straight away: the most newsworthy information comes first, details and background information come second. Even if you only read the headline and the introductory paragraph, you’ll get the main takeaways from the article.
It’s the same on your website or blog: your readers want to know the big picture first. If they’re really interested, they’ll read on to get the juicy details.
4. Que sea escaneable
“What I am doing here is taking the reader by the hand and leading him exactly where I want him to go. It seems like a small point and, maybe it is, but is the little touches like this that keeps the letter flowing and the reader moving along.”
– Gary Halbert
As I’m writing this blog post, I’m already thinking about the people reading it. Will people actually read it? In this digital day and age, the reality is: only few people will.
Investigación sugiere que sólo 16% de las personas leen las páginas web palabra por palabra. En cambio, la mayoría de la gente escanea.
They glance at each new page they stumble upon. They’ll scan some of the text, and click on the first thing that catches their attention or vaguely resembles the thing they’re looking for.
Here’s a checklist for using copywriting techniques in your content to meet scanners’ needs:
- Communicate in your headline what you’re going to talk about
- Utiliza los títulos de tus imágenes para apoyar tu mensaje principal.
- Ponga sus puntos clave en subtítulos
- Utilice un escáner fácil de escanear viñetas
- Utilice negrita para resaltar las palabras importantes
El visitante de su web está a la caza de información. Asegúrese de que comprende la información más importante con solo echar un vistazo a la página.
5. Don’t go off on any tangents
Sus lectores deben sentirse tan atraídos por su texto que no puedan dejar de leerlo hasta haberlo leído todo, como si se deslizaran por un tobogán resbaladizo.
– Joseph Sugarman
Tío Joe sure knows what he’s talking about. Each sentence you write should make your reader want to read the next one.
Esto significa ceñirse a su punto, centrarse y, lo más importante: desordenar el texto. Trata tu texto como lo haría Marie Kondo: elimina el exceso de desorden, reduce el ruido y añade espacios en blanco.
No sólo facilitará la lectura de su texto, sino que también aumentará la confianza percibida. Y despertar la alegría, claro.
Consider the visual appeal of your copy too – it impacts the readability of your text and whether or not your reader can find what he’s looking for quickly or not.
6. Que quede claro
Hay que saber expresarse de forma breve, clara y convincente.
-Claude Hopkins
If you can’t reduce your argument to a few crisp words and phrases, there’s something wrong with your argument.
– Maurice Saatchi
If I’m quoting not one but two godfathers of advertising, it’s because I’m really trying to make a point here.
Hopkins se refiere a la trifecta de la redacción publicitaria: claridad, brevedad y utilidad.
- We’ve talked about making your content relevant and useful for your reader extensively in part 3 of this Masterclass on content ideas. If it’s not relevant for your ideal customer, don’t even bother writing it. But even if you pick a useful topic to write about, no-one will actually read it unless you can make your points clearly and succinctly.
- La brevedad no consiste necesariamente en escribir textos cortos. – it’s about trimming the fat and using as little words as possible without rendering your message ineffective. Delete the words that are just window dressing (see, this is where your experience with haiku’s may come in handy after all).
- Clarity is about writing words your ideal reader can actually understand. Whenever I work with clients in the legal or professional services industry, they always give me this “you gotta be kidding me” look when I tell them to get rid of jargon and gobbledygook. What is hidden behind this look is the fear that they’ll share too much of their knowledge and that clients will no longer need their advice (why yes, I see right through you, guys and gals).
This is absolute nonsense, of course. I think the opposite is true. I believe it’s Einstein who said: ‘if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough’. The guy was no marketing expert by any measure, but not exactly an idiot either…
7. Hágalo factible
Writing direct response copy always serves a specific purpose. If you’re doing it right, your content should also serve a strategic goal and stimulate a specific behavior: subscribing to your email newsletter, reading the next blogpost in a series, downloading a white paper, getting in touch,…
To get action, you’ve got to ask for it.
(Sólo parece apropiado en la era post-#metoo, ¿verdad?).
O como diría el bueno de Gary Halbert:
“Relieve (the reader) of the burden of trying to figure out what he is supposed to do when he finishes reading a particular page.”
Get rid of any friction and make the next step easy. Clicking a button. Sharing a link. Typing an email address (but not necessarily full account information—even that amount of effort can scare people away).
Cuanto más fácil sea la acción, más probable será que su público se sienta lo suficientemente motivado como para llevarla a cabo.
And that’s it! Seven solid copywriting strategies to inject your content with and get better ROI.
Of course, rules are meant to be broken, and I am as guilty as anyone. And putting the wisdom of these old gents (the original Mad Men) in practice can be a daunting task – but it’s worth the extra effort.
Trusty old Gary (Halbert) knew what he was saying when he said that “the written word is the strongest source of power in the entire universe.” Use it wisely.
Are you using copywriting techniques in your blog posts? Any particular copywriting challenges you’re wrestling with? Let us know in the comments!
And don’t forget to check back next week for Part Seven of our Content Marketing Masterclass about distributing your content!
Esperamos que te haya gustado este post. Si es así, ¡difúndelo!
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