When you decide to become a digital copywriter, you make a commitment to continuous learning.
Digital marketing changes rapidly.
There are new tools, new strategies, and big shifts happening all the time.
Think about social media and how that changed the way companies connect with their audience…
Or online video and the new opportunities that created…
Or AI. We’re still figuring out how that’s going to remake the digital-marketing map.
To succeed in this business, it helps to be curious… to make time to learn new platforms, tools, and strategies… and to regularly work to sharpen your skills.
Because the better you are at copywriting, the more value you’ll be able to deliver to your clients. And value never goes out of style.
As an added bonus, the more you hone your writing skills and deepen your marketing knowledge, the better able you’ll be to position yourself and your services to land higher-value clients and grow your income.
If you’re wondering how to go about improving your writing skills, the first thing to consider is what skills clients actually want.
So, let’s start by looking at one of the most in-demand writing skills that can set you apart from other copywriters and from work constructed by AI tools.
Master the Art of Storytelling
Whatever type of writing you’re doing, whether it’s ghostwriting LinkedIn posts for thought leaders, creating email funnels for ecommerce companies, or crafting content pieces that are meant to be found by AI search tools and enjoyed by humans, you can make your work stronger by learning to integrate stories effectively.
Storytelling is important. Why? Glad you asked…
Stories have played an essential role in the survival of the human species, which means our brains are hardwired to pay attention to the stories we hear. Stories are how we remember things. They’re how we make connections with people. They provide a bond between us and the teller… or between us and the audience, when we’re the one doing the telling.
In short, stories are among the most effective ways to earn and hold attention and to move a reader to action. Still not convinced? Just take a look at these stats:
- Storytelling in marketing improves conversion rates by 30% on average.
- Storytelling can increase the perceived value of a product or service by more than 2,700%. To put that in context, a product that seems worth a dollar at first blush can be perceived as worth $28 after the prospect hears a story about it.
- On average, people are 22 times more likely to recall facts that are associated with a story than they are to remember raw data.
To improve your storytelling skills, you need to begin with an understanding of the essential elements of a story.
First, your story should be about a sympathetic hero. The hero shouldn’t be you or your client, but someone who is relatable to your audience.
Second, your story needs conflict. Your hero needs an obstacle to overcome or a problem to resolve. Without tension, your reader will get bored.
Third, your story needs emotional stakes. If your hero doesn’t resolve the conflict, it should be clear what the emotional toll will be.
And finally, your story needs a satisfying resolution… one where the hero solves the problem with the help of a guide (your client) and undergoes a positive transformation as a result.
So, how do you get better at using storytelling within your copywriting?
Step 1: Pay Attention
Look for where stories show up in the marketing materials you already engage with. TV ads, LinkedIn posts, email messages, landing pages… you’ll find stories in all these places. Maybe not in every instance, but often. Review at least one story critically each day. What arc does it use? How successful is it at engaging your emotions? How likely are you to remember it tomorrow?
By studying the stories that already come across your desk, so to speak, you’ll deepen your own sense of how to weave stories into what you write for your business and for clients.
Step 2: Improve on What You Find
Once or twice a week, grab a random ad, email, or landing page and rewrite it either to include a story or to improve on the story that’s there. Doing this regularly will make you a better storyteller and help you learn to integrate stories seamlessly into your copy.
Step 3: Get Feedback
Finally, find another writer you trust, give them your work, and ask for feedback specifically on the storytelling elements.
These three steps — reading critically, writing purposefully, and receiving feedback with an open mind and a desire to improve — will help you rapidly get better at storytelling.
Uncovering the Best Stories
A couple of weeks ago, Sandy Franks shared three ways to uncover irresistible stories.
When you start working with a new client — especially if you’re going to be working with them on recurring things like email newsletters or website content — it’s helpful to dedicate a meeting or two to surfacing their best stories.
Customer success stories are a great place to start. These stories share how someone has used your client’s product or service to get a great result.
Don’t stop at customer success stories though. Talk to the CEO or founder of the company to learn about the company’s origins, what obstacles they had to overcome, those moments when they almost gave up, how they turned the corner, what they learned along the way, what their larger mission is… all that good stuff.
And talk to product-development teams about the work they’ve done to design products. You’ll find a ton of stories behind every product or service.
Interview a variety of employees to find out what they enjoy about their work — those can make for excellent social-media stories.
Also, don’t forget about analogies. Sometimes the best story is one that makes a complex idea easier to understand. In those cases, it’s often an analogy you’re looking for rather than a story based on someone’s experience.
When to Use Stories in Your Marketing Materials
Really, when and where you use stories in your marketing materials is limited only by your imagination and creativity. But, if you need a little inspiration…
As the lead to your sales letter or article: Try opening your sales letter or article with a hypothetical story that puts your reader in a specific situation they’ll immediately relate to.
To relay a product’s benefits and advantages: When you start writing about how a product can work to improve your reader’s life, that’s the perfect time to weave in a story about the care and thought that went into developing the product.
To build trust and awareness: If LinkedIn is part of your client’s marketing strategy, but they aren’t using stories about the company’s mission, successes, and stumbles, that’s a missed opportunity.
In every email newsletter: If you’re sending out email newsletters, each one is an opportunity to include a story about a customer’s success with the product or service.
To convey complex ideas: If you’re writing about a product that’s highly technical, you can use a story to convey the complex ideas in a way that’s easier to grasp.
When you master the art of storytelling and start using it in your own marketing materials, as well as within your client’s, you’ll set yourself apart and help your clients stand out as something special amidst all the noise on the internet.