How To Do Research For Copywriting

Read as much as you can

Beyond reading your clients’ magazines and seeing what works in advertising, it’s important to know your subjects so you understand their language and what resonates with them.

The best way to do this is by reading as many things as possible, including the materials that they produce (magazines, newspapers, brochures, websites).

You also can attend events or professional conferences where people from your industry are gathered. And lastly, there are thousands of blogs and social media pages which contain opinions and insights into different topics and industries.

By interacting with others in your field, you can learn something new and enhance your knowledge.

Imagine that you are your target market

Marketing is about reaching out to your audience, but it’s also about knowing who you are marketing to. You need to understand their needs and motivations before you can hope to achieve a successful result.

That’s where this concept of ‘imagining yourself in his shoes’ comes in. Try thinking about one specific person in your potential market looking at products similar to yours.

You can either take the time to do proper research or assume there’s not much difference between your product and others in your category.

But how will you know if someone else has what he wants? Chances are, he’s already thought about buying it. That’s why he’s checking online reviews for sure, and maybe even calling store owners to find out more about their experiences with the brand.

He’s interested in finding out whether it’s the best product for him. Whether it’s the right price. And whether people say great things about it.

Therefore, imagine that you ARE the consumer. What would YOU want when you were shopping for research purposes?

Conduct keyword research

Searching for specific keywords that relate to your product or service is one of the most fundamental things you can do when it comes to optimizing content for search engines.

Keyword research helps you know which words people are using to find products like yours and how they’re using them.

You use keyword research in two ways – organic searching and paid advertising.

Organic searches include Google, Yahoo!, and Bing searches. The majority of users don’t perform any type of keyword search, but if they see someone else using a word they think is relevant to what they want, they will click through to their preferred website.

Paid ads display in different places below the search results. People often mistake visual images as free traffic, while paying for ad space is not.

Traffic from paid ads is very transparent and reveals more about your target audience than personal information may. By creating an account, you have access to tools that allow you to create targeted campaigns with only a few clicks.

Create several topics to write around

Although you want to be passionate about what you’re writing, it can get tiring constantly having to create topic ideas. So, how do you save time getting started?

Create unrelated topics that tie into your content marketing campaign or business initiative.

These are topics that you plan to cover during certain parts of your marketing campaign. By creating these early, they help fill up gaps in your production schedule and keep your team busy.

By creating multiple topics, you’ll need to decide where to draw the focus of your readers. This helps make the reading experience more interesting by choosing different angles to approach each topic from.

It also gives you a set of goals to work towards (more on this later).

Write initial drafts of posts

Once you start writing, it’s easy to get sucked into your own thoughts and lose focus. If you write the first draft straight through, that’s fine, but try to save some time for brainstorming and planning.

It will help you get back in the zone when you have a rough idea what you want to write about. Plus, having an outline can make editing easier.

Don’t worry if you don’t feel like you know where to begin. It’s better to work with a topic and mood instead of a blank page.

That way you’ll at least have some ideas before you finish writing.

Initial drafts are very hand-written and take up more space than they need to. By the time you’re done writing, the text should be clean and concise.

You don’t want things that look good on paper but won’t translate well to readers. You also don’t want poorly written pieces or prose that’s too formal or complicated (even jargony phrases can distract from clear understanding).

And while most blogs are updated regularly, posting the same content every week may seem convenient, but it’s exhausting and distracting.

Focus on creating quality content each day by focusing on a single post/project vs. trying to cover everything all at once.

Choose a few posts/topics to promote

If you’re writing about a specific topic, choose several posts that deal with the subject matter specifically. You can also try promoting your past articles or issues of your own so that they establish you as an authority within your field.

It helps if each article includes headline, subheadline, and title plus a single step underneath them. Each piece should include useful information along with one or more links at the bottom.

You can create this in word processing software but it is easier using plugins.

Connect with other bloggers

If you’re at any stage of your blogging career, connecting with others is a worthy investment. Relationships that grow from sharing experiences can make both parties feel more accomplished.

You can build relationships through connections in different blogs or via Twitter or Facebook.

These are free ways to interact with other people. However, if you have a budget, there are paid options as well. Webinars can help you build connections and provide information about topics you’re trying to learn about.

Participating in online communities helps you develop trust-bridges and ties with people who will could become friends. Your time spent doing research may be better invested in reaching out to your potential followers than it is in thinking about what they might think about you.

The more connected you are, the greater your reach is going to be. That means more people willing to listen when you share ideas and thoughts.

They also like hearing how you solve problems. So spend some time developing those links and friendships. Next, organize user groups related to your topic area so you can connect with others who are working to improve their content strategy.

Find people who write good articles and give them credit. Give reviews to quality pieces you read that day. Show your teammates who helped you with these things that you appreciate them.

That way, they will know you are interested in what they have to say. You will also create a sense of

Encourage collaboration

Though you may be comfortable writing, you should also be open to having others give suggestions and ideas. In addition to helping your business grow, other people can help make your project better.

By being open to other people’s opinions, they will feel more confident contributing by giving their ideas and advice. This way, whatever idea is put forward, it will have something good added to it.

Any type of collaboration adds complexity to an endeavor. Be aware that there are two different ways ideas can get translated into action:

The first is where each person gives their own input with no real sense of ownership. The second is when everyone feels like he or she has been involved in the planning stage and all that remains is to translate those plans into action.

Even if you do not agree with any of the ideas brought up on the table, everyone must remain civil and respect one another. By showing openness to new ideas and contributions, you keep the conversation flowing and increase the likelihood that someone else will offer a better solution.

This becomes even more important in times of economic downturn or stress. When we are feeling financially stretched, we don’t need someone to come along and add expenses that we haven’t covered.

Collaboration is not just about bringing people together; it’s also about doing so efficiently and effectively. For example, research shows that groups with lower income members tend to produce higher quality work than wealthier

Distribute content far and wide

Once you’ve got distribution going, it can be hard to build up momentum again.

But once you do, it can easily spread through social media or simply passing along a link to another person.

This is particularly useful if you have an e-book that you’re trying to sell, as other people may want to buy your copy with no problems due to limitations such as bandwidth.

You also need to think about marketing long term, because although selling books might seem like a overnight job, it isn’t really worth the time in the end.

That’s why there are so many indie authors who rely on self-published books to make a lot of money–because after years of investment of effort, their work just doesn’t match the exposure they received from being published.