Copywriting - The ultimate digital marketing skill

The Digital Marketing Podcast with Mandar Marathe

Its not SEO, its not paid search. It's not your ability to run Facebook Ads or Google Ads. It's not how many followers your have on Social Media - Instagram or Facebook. It's not about partnerships or affiliate marketing. What I feel is the ultimate skill in digital marketing is to be able to write good copy.

What is copywriting? Before the printing press was invented by Guttenberg, people used to write on clay. They used to write on papyrus rolls, on wax or on parchments. There was no way of replicating the content they produced then - wherever they wrote it, it was just there. Only after the printing press was invented, you could literally copy someone's writing. People who started writing for newspapers or magazines were know as copywriters. Those who wrote copy for advertisements were known as Ad copywriters. So the skill of copy writing comes from the print industry.

Why is copy writing important for Digital Marketing? Digital marketing is advertising or promoting your products and services online to generate more brand awareness or leads for your business. Before the printing press was invented, sales were 1:1. A salesperson went and met a prospect and converted him/her to a customer. There was no way of mass advertising - which only came into existence after print.

Who is a good copy writer? Is it someone who speaks good English. Is it someone a grammar nazi ? I have people in my friend circle or my colleagues who focus on developing English as a spoken language skill and put too much emphasis on it while writing copy. I think that a good copywriter is someone who is a good communicator. You should be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas. You need to understand your target audience and write copy as if you are talking to a friend who is sitting right next to you. Lets say you want to explain a concept such as SEO or Social Media to a friend. How would you go about explaining it to them? You would try to simplify it as much as possible. Second, you need to write content that engages your audience. In today's world attention is a scarce commodity. There was a research conducted by Draft FCB which states that the average attention span of a person is 6.5 seconds - that's less than one of a goldfish. If a prospect visits your website, you would be able to engage them via good copy.

Long-form copy and its importance. Great copy always sells. The objective of digital marketing is so get people to your website and take action. You could posts on Social Media or drive visitors to your website via Facebook or Google Ads. Once they come to your website and they are on your service page or product page. How are you going to draw their attention ? It is by having conversational, long-form copy. Why long-form copy? Simply because it will explain all the features of your product or cover in details related to your services. With long-form copy you leave no stone un-turned when it comes to solving all doubts of your customers or answering all questions they might have related to your products or services.