Ever sit down to write something for your business and get stuck staring at a blank page?
It can be hard to go into writing ‘cold’ and, if you aren’t a copywriter and spend most of your waking hours in writing mode, you might find it hard to get the creative juices flowing when doing the copywriting for your business.
That’s where a ‘copywriting file’ (our version of a swipe file) comes in.
This is a handy little doc which holds all sorts of gold nuggets for your business, from blogging topic ideas, to great headlines or marketing ideas, along with your customer avatar so you always know who you are talking to!
So, how do you create a copy file and what goes in it?
Here are the top 5 things you need to start off your file…
ONE. Your customer avatar/ideal client… whatever you want to call them, this needs to be the profile/s of your target audience. Read these before you write anything in order to ensure you are talking to a specific audience and targeting their associated problems and needs.
TWO. Your businesses vision or mission and values. These should be at the heart of everything you do. Is a value ‘Generosity’? Amazing – do your blogs, website content or ads feature that value? How can you incorporate that into what you are creating?
THREE. Your ‘brand words’. You can break these down into two categories.
- How do you want your business to be perceivedby your customers? Are you fun, friendly, genuine, creative and generous?
- How do you want your customer to feel? Welcome, free, wild, sexy, understood or healthy?
Keeping these words in mind will help you create a cohesive brand ‘voice’ when writing – and also helps you create offers and headlines which align with who your brand is trying to be
FOUR. Your content ideas; aka. your VALUE. This is where you list what you have to offer your clients in terms of social media content, blog topics, offers… anything you can give as a business (information or otherwise) to nurture and attract your customers.
- What topics can you talk about that your ideal audience are interested in?
- What campaigns have you run in the past and what are your ideas for the future?
- What problems do your customers have and how does your solutions/service/product solve them?
List what categories of content you can share on social media; how-to’s, tips, behind-the scenes photos or videos, etc.
Putting the above in back-and-white means that next time you are drawing a blank, these will help kick-start your idea-generation machine
FIVE. Inspiration. This is an important one to help your ideas and words start flowing! Include creative and funny Ads or headlines, look at what your competitors are doing and take notes on the words and ideas they use. Find stories or poetry that inspire you, relevant information from your industry or creative ideas in general… it doesn’t even need to have anything to do with your business, as long as it inspires your creativity.
Can you see how our 5 tips might just help with ‘blank page syndrome’?
This is an invaluable resource for your business – and also an amazing help when onboarding anyone into your company to make sure you are all on the same page when talking to customers or creating copy or any marketing.
Need some help with your blank page syndrome and your business marketing copy?
Get in touch – we’d love to help!
Happy ‘Copy File’ creating!