Brilliant "how to" episode with copywriting expert Joel Klettke. It's a step by step walk through of how he approaches customer research, and then uses it to create copy.
Joel always gives away a ton of helpful advice. 💯
Lessons learned
- Even if you think you know your customer, you don't. They change over time, you have biases. It's important to get into their shoes to understand them and break some of the assumptions.
- Reviews and testimonials mining is a great place for research. Even if you don't have your own, look at competitors and other products solving same solution.
- You're looking for frequently mentioned pain points, benefits of that solution, hesitations / anxieties, outcomes.
- Pull out recurring themes. Use a text analyzer to check for frequent words.
- Look for sticky copy - phrases that punch you in the gut 🥊. New ways of looking at the product that grab attention and create visuals in the mind.
- On competitors, look for the negatives, the frustrations. If you can solve those frustrations it’s an opportunity to ensure your messaging highlights it.
- If you can get on the phone with real people then it's even better. You'll get richer insights in a shorter period of time vs survey or mining reviews.
Interview them about the Before, During and After:
- Before: How they solved solution before, what led them to the solution like yours, what frustrations were they experiencing.
- During: What criteria did they use to evaluate. What surprises about working with you, what frustrates about working with you.
- After: What results have they been able to achieve.
- All the research goes into building out the right page structure and using the right messaging to grab attention.
Every part of your copy has just one job:
- Headline: hook and grab attention
- Sub headline: expand and provide context for the headline
- Headings: context for people who scan. If you could only read them, could you walk away with the gist of what’s on offer
- Write the copy like your reader needs to pee. You’ve got to keep them there. Keep their attention.
- Every line needs to have a good reason to be there. Going through copy and ask “Does this need to be here?”
- Add specificity. Ask “could I be more specific? Is there a better example, better way of bringing this in”
- Copywriting process - something that universally holds true... You should always come back to it and review later.
- Think of pulling the page together as building lego. Write blocks of copy and assemble them later. Blank page can feel daunting.
