This article has been written by Poonam Bhatt pursuing a Diploma in Content Marketing and Strategy from Skill Arbitrage.

This article has been edited and published by Shashwat Kaushik.

Introduction

Most people struggle to find out how they can earn as writers. Or is writing even a legit career option or not? Poonam was no different. It took her almost 3 years to figure out the path to earn as a writer.

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When she realised that she could write decent words that could soothe the readers’ eyes, she started to write on her blog. Back then, she had no idea how she could earn running a blog. But still, she kept going on the journey. As time passed, a new earning stream as a writer started to uncover her path.

She also tried her hand in the book writing and self-publishing worlds and wrote her nonfiction book. But sadly, she had no idea how to sell it efficiently to make decent money for living.

As time passed, she began to explore new possibilities. One of them was ‘Copywriting’. It opened a whole new world of opportunities for her. In the hope of making a good career in copywriting, she started learning it on her own.

But it was not easy though, since copywriting is a vast field. In her journey to learn copywriting, one day she came across the term landing page copywriter, and on another day sales page copywriter. One day, it was an email copywriter, and another day, it was an SEO copywriter. She was jumping between the terms and learning all the things randomly.

Though she gained knowledge of almost all types of copywriting. But nothing concrete, and her knowledge was just in the awareness phase. And that was not enough to start her career as a copywriter. She was disheartened that this way she was never going to make a good career in copywriting.

The problem was she lacked a proper road map to become a copywriter. Her knowledge and efforts were spreading thinly across all directions. One day she was learning one type of copywriting and the other day she was learning another type of copywriting. Terms like funnel and customer journey came to her ear and she used to jump to read about them. And that was quite a random approach to learning copywriting.

Instead, what she needed was a proper road map to become a copywriter. What she needed badly was a mentor, a course that could provide her with a road map. Though she had 50% of the knowledge that it takes to become a copywriter. But she knew the rest 50% was important too. She felt like there was a gap in her knowledge that was preventing her from starting her career as a copywriter.

One fine day while watching the YouTube video, an advertisement popped up saying, ‘Do you want to earn money as a writer? Do you want to work on your term? Yes, you can earn money by writing. We can help you achieve that. Join our 3-day boot camp and see for yourself’.

As she already had a fair bit of knowledge of copywriting, she understood those words very well. They are there to address audiences’ pain points and desires, make the audience feel heard, and show them solutions to their problems.

The good thing was that she was already in search of such a program that is affordable and could help her in her journey by providing a proper roadmap and mentorship. Thus she immediately joined the SkillArbitrage boot camp. Once she attended the boot camp, she understood that they had all that it takes to advance her career as a copywriter.

They have a course offering after the boot camp. With the course, they are going to provide proper skills, mentorship, certificates, and help in finding work opportunities to establish herself as a copywriter. The payment part was super easy with the installment facility. These all worked in her favour, and she became part of the SkillArbitrage family. She took a Diploma in Content Marketing course. That is how she became part of Skill Arbitrage and got a proper path to becoming a highly-paid copywriter.

Do you see what I just did

I told you a story of Poonam’s real life. It was her journey of being part of Skill Arbitrage and getting a roadmap to achieve her dream.

What did my story do to you?

With my story, I engaged you in my message, and it became easy for me to convey it.

I wanted to convey the simple message that, ‘To make your career in writing you need a proper roadmap, guidance, and mentor that can help you accelerate while you are navigating through your journey. SkillArbitrage can help you achieve your target (of becoming a writer) faster by shortening the learning curve. Poonam had enough struggle and a long trial-and-error curve before she discovered SkillArbitrage. And if you want to avoid wasting all these precious years learning random things and trial and error, then you must choose SkillArbitrage and shorten your learning curve to become a highly paid writer’.

Why story works

We humans are wired for the story. The story opens a curiosity loop in our mind, making us hooked on it; we want to know what would be the result of the story (will the hero get what he wants, will he/she be able to succeed in her task). This curiosity keeps the reader engaged till the end and helps convey the message in a very interesting way.

The big brands use the same techniques in their campaigns. For example, Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ campaign was the best example of the storytelling. It tells stories of the athletes who overcame all the odds with their determination and succeeded. Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’, Airbnb’s ‘Belong anywhere’, and Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhones’ were a few examples of brands that use storytelling for their campaign success.

What story does

Capture the attention of readers and keep the reader engage

When we read or hear any story, it catches our attention instantly and our curiosity keeps us engaged in the story. The same information, if given in facts, can’t be done that effectively. In this fast digital age, where the human attention span is only 5 to 6 seconds long, it takes a lot to get the audience’s attention. And keeping them engaged in your information is a whole lot of work. But storytelling makes it easy to capture the attention and keep them engaged.

Convert mundane content to memorable one

A story is a narrative format where you can convey complex information through your or any other person’s experience. Stories are better to remember than boring facts. Stories make information or facts easy to understand. Thus, readers can easily remember the details for a longer time. Dried facts and figures are boring and easy to forge, while the story leaves a long-lasting impression in the reader’s/audience’s minds. And thus people can remember the brand’s message for a longer duration.

With the story at the very start of this article, I avoided the path to conveying my message with dried facts and figures that you as a reader may find boring. My story helps you engage with my message at an emotional level (because you, as a writer, must have faced the struggle of establishing a writing career). And left you with a memorable message that whenever you need help with your struggle, SkillArbitrage is the one you can choose.

Make emotional connection and create relatability factor

We buy from the people to whom we feel emotionally connected. We as a human make decisions based on emotion. People feel emotionally connected to Nike because Nike shows the struggles of the athletes that people feel emotional about and feel relatable with their journey. And most likely to buy from Nike.

When we tell our stories we establish emotional connection and relatability factors through our stories. When I showed you Poonam’s struggle in writing career you could easily relate with it, as you might have faced the same struggle. And instantly felt emotional and relatable about it. A possibility is higher that you also try to figure out more about SkillArbitrage since it has helped Poonam then it can be helpful to you too.

Build trust and credibility

Stories help brands become real, authentic, and transparent about their journey. By sharing the personal experiences they faced in their startup time or by showing the real struggle of a customer and how they solved it, brands establish trust and credibility. People love authenticity. When brands share their real stories, people love their transparency. This builds trust and credibility between brands and their audience/readers. Stories of real customer testimonials work as social proof and push their audience/readers one step ahead in their buying journey.

Differentiate your brand

In the sea of brands, it is extremely difficult to stand out. Storytelling helps brands stand out, as you are not just talking about the features of your product but also how it has changed many lives. Storytelling can help your campaign/article easily grab your audience/reader’s attention and make them engage in your campaign/article till the end.

Encourage & persuade to take an action

With storytelling, your audience/readers are fully engaged and could see your full campaign or read the full article. This way you have a better chance to persuade them to take action by making them feel heard, addressing their pain points, and understanding their core desires (with your copy). Through your stories, they now know that you have a solution to their problems and it becomes easy for you to motivate your readers/audience to take action.

Practical tips for effective storytelling in copywriting

Tell real stories

Your stories must be real. Yes, it can be an experience of someone else like your client, your family member, or your friends. But stories have to be real. It creates trust between you and your audience. If you fack the stories, you lose the authenticity. And your audience can feel it. So find real stories to relate to your message.

Start with a problem

To make your storytelling effective, start with a problem in your story. (In the story that I said in the introduction, Poonam had a struggle to become a copywriter) Human minds are wired to solve a problem. So whenever we see a problem we try to find a solution or become curious to know how it can get solved. The problem creates a curiosity loop in your reader’s/audience’s mind. This can help you make your audience/reader engage in your story.

Make someone solve the problem

There must be someone who can solve the problem. (In the story that I said in the introduction, there is a SkillArbitrage that solved the problem.) That way, the curiosity loop in the human mind that you created with the problem gets close and the reader/audience feels accomplished to read that. That will also create trust and credibility with your readers/audiences.

Conclusion

The main purpose of copywriting is the conversion, whether in the form of a survey, form fill-up, a phone call, or purchase. Much before people start reading your copy, you as a copywriter have to grab people’s attention and make them continue to read your copy. It’s the copywriter’s job that their readers are engaged till the end of the copy so that the reader can reach the CTA (call to action) at the very end of the copy.

Mere words are boring and unable to do so. Copywriters need to introduce emotional connection and relatability factors to write engaging copies and establish trust and credibility through their copy among the readers. Storytelling helps achieve the same and helps brands stand out. Storytelling makes the content more memorable to the potential customers so that when potential customers need a solution, it comes right to the heard brand.

So the next time you write any copy, don’t forget to use storytelling as your hidden weapon and see your conversion rate increase.

References

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