What should you say in your emails?
What should you write on your Instagram?
What words would sound best on your website?

What messaging should you use to sell your thing?

Here’s the good news: 

YOU DON’T HAVE TO COME UP WITH THE IDEAS.

In fact, you shouldn’t. 

Copywriting isn’t just writing, it’s selling.

And if you want to sell to your audience, you need to make sure you’re solving their problems. 

No-one cares about your brand, product, service, your rebrand or the ‘big surprise’ you have coming (something every scantily-clad influencer needs to know…the fully clothed ones, too).

They care if you can help them.

Don’t be tempted to think you know their problems. Actually ask them.

Because then? You can steal (or as I like to call it…*souvenir*) their words for your copy, 100% confident that you’ve created copywriting that speaks to their needs.

Here’s an example of copy I wrote for a hunting business who have clients coming to experience NZ hunting all the way from the USA. Before writing a SINGLE WORD of website copy, I sent a survey to their past clients with a bunch of questions. 

One of the questions I asked was this:

“Was there anything you were concerned about prior to your hunting experience?”

Two of the response were:

• “We are always anxious about the staff and guides. We travel great distances for a prolonged ‘blind date’ with people we don’t know.“
• “That my wife would be bored while I was hunting.”

So what’d I do? I stole, souvenired, yoinked their exact words and used them for the website.

Headline one:
Who would travel 7000 miles for a weeks-long ‘blind date’ with people they’ve never met? Hunters, that’s who. 

Headline two:
Sure, you want a challenging hunt with NZ wildlife, impressive acreage and mature trophies. But you don’t want a bored wife.

Headline three: 
Nervous about being stuck on a hunt with a dud guide? We would be too, except our skilled guides are famous for their friendsly natures, quick wits, and of course, their rugged good looks.

Using this data means that when potential clients read their website, they’ll feel like I’m in their head. 

I’m solving their problems because I know their problems.

And what’s even better, is that I’m communicating with them in their own words. (Because why would you write your own copy, when you could get the customer to do it for you?! )

So how can you implement your own Voice of Customer research (yes that’s what it’s called, no, I didn’t make up the name 🥱)

This could look like:

→A survey
→An Instagram poll
→Emailing them and ask for responses
→Organising Zoom calls with past clients
→Online reviews (pro tip: 3 star reviews are usually honest opinions, not just there to troll)
→Asking clients and customers why they didn’t purchase (the MOST valuable data there is)

So what’s the takeaway here for your copywriting?

THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES IN LIFE WHERE BEING LAZY IS THE BEST STRATEGY.

Ask your customers what their problems are, listen to what they say, and then? 

Get them to write your copy.

(genius.)