Copy Secrets to Supercharge your Marketing – in Just 7 Minutes with Belinda Weaver

Related Links and Resources:

It follows on from these ideas of structure and mapping. It's a copywriting framework and in my guide, it's called 'Smart business owners guide to copywriting'. If you go to my website www.copywritematters.com and there's a LEARN button and you'll see 'free guide for business owners' and it's a free download and it actually goes through my 'go-to' copywriting framework which gives structure to the PAS (Pain-Agitate-Solve).

Summary:

Belinda Weaver helps people write copy that makes them money. Whether it's teaching copywriters how to run successful businesses or business owners how to write more effective copy Belinda has courses, coaching and mentoring that builds skills and confidence.

But she wasn't always a copywriter. Belinda worked as a computer programmer, then in marketing before discovering copywriting was her jam. Since then, her business - Copywrite Matters - has not only survived but grown while she's moved between Australia, England and the USA, and had two kids.

She co-hosts the popular copywriting podcast, Hot Copy with Kate Toon and is regularly featured in the media such as Copyblogger, Business Insider, Amy Porterfield's pod and The Copywriter Club.

Here are the highlights of this episode:

2:26 Belinda’s ideal Client: In copywrite matters, I serve writers of copy. And as you read out, part of that group is inspiring a copywriter. But I also help entrepreneurs and business owners who write their own copy for their business. Basically, the true line is writers of copy. They write it for themselves or others every day. People who love to write, they love marketing and they love to learn.

2:56 Problem Belinda helps solve: The two main challenges around copywriting are skills and confidence. For business owners and entrepreneurs, writing a copy is often done out of necessity. It's not financially or feasible to outsource every single piece of copy a business needs. A business needs a copy every single day. And a lot of the time that falls to the business for all members of the team. Part of that is because, as I said, it's not feasible to outsource but also a part of it is that the business owner and the management team knows the business, they know the customers, they know the brand really well. And there can be some uncertainty about handing over the message and handing over the control of that. It's skills and confidence and that's something I help with. Because there's also a big disconnect that happens when we sit down to write, and it's something quite amazing that happens to everyone, even me as a professional copywriter. Our high school English teacher gets in our mind with their red pen and starts judging us. And the results are, a business owner writing a copy that's not very good because they don't really know what to say. And a business owner writing copy that doesn't sound like them because they kind of edit and judge themselves as they write. But in those two areas; skills and confidence can really bring a lot of structure and passion to their marketing.

4:45 Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Belinda: It often shows up as procrastination, leaving writing the copy for the marketing. Leaving the email, leaving the social post, leaving that new flyer until the very last minute, until absolutely it must be done. It shows up as it takes a long time to write which is often why we leave it at the last minute. We are going to open up the Word document, we stare at that, rather mean judgmental cursor for a long time because we don't know what to say. It shows up as our marketing ending up being a string of consciousness; there's no structure, there's no purpose to our message. And something I've already mentioned, our copy ends up super dry and formal because we're worried that it won't be professional. And that stops us injecting our own passion for our business and our customers into the copy. And the last symptom is that we're 'mean' to ourselves as we write. So, I think those are the ones that really show up.

6:11 What are some of the common mistakes that folks make before finding Belinda and her solution: I think the first one is really a myth that writing is a talent. A lot of people say things like "oh, I'm not a very good writer, it's not a talent that I have" and the truth is, writing like anything else is a skill which means you can learn it. You can learn it, you can practice it, you can get better. So, that's the first one. The second one is thinking that you need to know all the grammatical rules in order to be a good writer. To be honest, I have a proofreader who proofreads all my work. I'm not very good at where semicolons go but I don't let that stop me even as a professional copywriter. Again, business owners know their customers, their brand, and their business better than anyone else which puts them in a uniquely powerful position to write great copy. But the big mistakes; not planning the copy out before you begin. Basically, opening up a document and starting at the top. And when you take these steps, mapping it out and having some structure, you save so much time and you get so much clarity and focus.

7:25 Belinda’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): It's mapping the copy out. And I want to quickly break down what that copy means. It means taking a couple of minutes whether that's 5 minutes or even 25 minutes to think about who you are writing to, what problem that they are having, what stops them from making progress, and where they want to get to. It's really important to be clear on that. But then you also want to be clear on how you can solve that problem, and the action you want them to take. Just creating a little list of bullets, covering some of that structure will mean that you're not writing from a blank page. But it will give you message clarity and focus because when you write copy or you create marketing that tries to appeal to everyone, you actually end up appealing to no one. Just taking a few minutes at the beginning to be clear on who you are talking to and how you solve their problems and what you want them to do at the end will make such a big difference. 

8:42 Belinda’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): It follows on from these ideas of structure and mapping. It's a copywriting framework and in my guide, it's called 'Smart business owners guide to copywriting'. If you go to my website copywritematters.com and there's a LEARN button and you'll see 'free guide for business owners' and it's a free download and it actually goes through my 'go-to' copywriting framework which gives structure to the PAS (Pain-Agitate-Solve). The guide goes through that, there's an editable brainstorming template that helps you get a lot of ideas and get it out of your head. I called that an 'ideas buffet' and it's so important to beat the blank page. It comes from a lot of emails from me to help you dig in and unpack what you're learning. And it's just about taking the pressure out of writing copy.

9:48 How can we bring clarity so that we're speaking to our ideal customer in our copywriting? It's so important to do that. I want to share in what I called 'The rule of one'; it's a copywriting theme that I didn't make up but basically you want to keep focus on one customer avatar in your piece of copy. You want to focus on one big benefit, you want to make one clear irresistible promise, you want to speak in one consistent voice, you want to have one 'great hook' (that's your headline), you want to make one offer and you want to have one clear action. And when you work through that framework, if you can map that out before you start writing you will have the kind if copy that someone reads and says "this is speaking to me, I know exactly what to do now."