Bad copywriting costs business owners about three billion dollars a year*.

*I made this up entirely.

But that is the number I would guess after working with hundreds of business owners, writers, and entrepreneurs.

Rarely do I ever meet someone who is actually bad at what they do, yet the clients aren't pouring in.

Here's the break down of the most common problems:

1. Not enough traffic. This is a marketing problem.

2. Lots of people on your list, but they aren't buying. This is a sales problem.

3. Enough traffic, but people don't stick around. This is a copywriting problem.

You can have every fancy marketing tactic in the world, but once they land on your site, if they click away, who knows how much that specific person could make for you.

Now, you know I don't believe everyone should buy from you. Some people are straight up a pain in the ass and you don't want to deal with them... ever.

However, when you're turning away the right people, that is a huge problem.

Copywriting is a valuable skill for everyone to learn.

In the easiest form, copywriting is simply explaining how you solve problems, aka the benefit of working with you.

The most common problems I see are that either business owners don't have a specific group of people they're targeting or they talk over their customer's head.

If your best friend was visiting you in your city, you'd know exactly where to take them. You'd know immediately what kind of restaurants they would want to go to, where to go for a drink, or even what activities to do.

This is why it's important to pick a select group of people to target, because they have specific interests and problems that you solve.

Let's say you're an interior designer.

You can't try to attract just "everyone", especially when no one knows who you are. The goals of someone trying to decorate a new baby's room and someone trying to decorate a man-cave are entirely different.

The difference in copy would be something like,
"Your baby is far too special for just any decorations."
"Rooms so manly even Hemingway would want to come visit."

See the difference? Then the people you're targeting visit your website and go YES.

(P.S. "YES" is sales magic.)

Unfortunately, too many people try to accommodate everyone so their website copy says something like, "Let us help you make an individual design." UGH.

3 simple ways to get your copy kicking ass and taking names:

1. Who are you even targeting? Parents? Men? Women? Age? There are tons of ways to narrow it down, just make sure you can pick out a specific mental persona to market to.

2. What do they care about? Hard fact: Almost no one cares about you. They don't care about your degrees, certifications, trips, etc. They want to know what you do for them. This is why the #1 rule of meeting new people is to not talk about yourself the whole time.

Your ideal client has problems in the back of their mind looking to be solved. It's essential you know what those problems are and how you fit into the equation.

3. Make them see you are the person they need. Spend a little time tweaking your copy to talk about their problems, present them with the fact that you can specifically fix their problems, and point out what their lives will look like after they hire you/buy their product.

Copywriting is deeper than that, but if you even start there, you will be miles ahead of everyone else.