Copywriting: It's Not about "I"

It's all about your customers, but it takes time to figure out who those people are and how to talk to them. Here's a quick fix that works for everyone!

One of the most important rules of copywriting is to focus on your customers rather than yourself. For faster engagement and easier conversion, show customers that you fully understand their interests, lifestyle patterns, preferences and buying habits. In my opinion, this is also a more human way to deal with people in business, and can result in a more authentic buyer-seller relationship.

One easy way to find out if your existing copy is achieving this goal is to take out the "I" and put in the "you." Literally. Go through your text. Wherever you see an "I", trying rewriting with "you."

For example, "I love hiking in the woods and taking photos of the gorgeous scenery. This print reminds me of my travels."

Possible change: "Do you love hiking in the woods? Here's a wall-size reminder of the beautiful scenery you've come across in your travels."

Note that if you can't make an "I" statement into a "you" statement, it might be that it's interesting only to you, not to your customers.

To take things a step further, you might consider changing your approach altogether in certain cases. For example, if you sell photos as above and your typical customers are actually art lovers not hikers, talk about that instead. "Peaceful images of nature that will bring a sense of calm and beauty to your home." 

Try it out, and see how it works! Also browse the blog for other tips on copywriting, social media and SEO.