It's not uncommon to see people scared of the jargon and terminology of the marketing world. And copywriting, being the baseline of advertising campaigns, is no different.
Here are some common and basic terms which you must know to learn this skill in depth -
ACTION - Any step which you prospect takes which can be measured by you through analytical softwares (like clicking a button in your email, making a purchase out of your website)
ADVERTORIAL - A piece of advertisement which is written in the form of content.
BIG IDEA - The single idea around which your entire copy revolves (for example - if your big idea is a story about two men and how one of them was benefited because of your product, then your entire copy should be based on that story only.)
BULLET - Small, bite sized parts of copy focusing only on the features, benefits and necessity of the product.
CALL OUT - A part of the copy that focuses on the ideal prospect, to get their attention on it.
CALL TO ACTION - An action which you demand from your reader. (Like in the previous article, I put a call to action to visit my other blog posts)
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION - Getting new customers on-board of your business.
CLICK THROUGH RATE - The percentage of people who clicked on the link, button or any CTA mentioned in your copy.
CLOSE - Final part of the copy, which encourages readers to take action.
COLD - For the audience who has never seen your ads, products or services. They are completely unaware of this.
COST PER ACQUISITION - The total cost of the campaign / the number of acquisitions made by your copy.
CROSS - SELLING - The act of presenting your buyer with another similar product which they are buying / already bought before.
LIFETIME VALUE - The average amount of revenue which the customer will generate over their entire duration of relationship with the business.
DEMOGRAPHIC - Groups of customers based on age, gender, ethnicity, political alignment, country to figure out common desires.
DIFFERENTIATION - The act of making your product/ service unique from existing solutions or products.
DIMENSIONALIZATION - The process of making the messages in your copy feel more ‘real’ for your reader by presenting them as situations they can easily recognize or imagine - typically used to make benefits more vivid or to show your understanding of their current problems.
DIRECT MARKETING - The act of communicating advertising material directly to a pre-selected audience.
DIRECT RESPONSE - Used to refer to any advertising material that aims to provoke an immediate action from the reader i.e. direct mail, Facebook ads, sales pages, marketing emails.
IN-DIRECT RESPONSE - Type of copy that eventually leads to a purchase over time by building trust and awareness.
DOWNSELL - Used to refer to a lower-priced offer that’s presented to the customer after they’ve purchased the initial offer but refused a subsequent upsell
EXCLUSIVITY - Making your reader feel that they are a part of a very small, privileged group of those who know about this offer.
FUNNEL - A general term for any kind of structured marketing campaign that can be measured at each stage and aims to move people towards, through, and beyond the point of sale
LANDING PAGE - A web page that’s targeted at a particular audience whereby the visitors ‘land there’ after clicking on a link that’s promised them some kind of specific information
LEAD MAGNET - A piece of content that can be accessed by a reader in exchange for their contact information like an email address.
MARKET SOPHISTICATION - Refers to how similar a particular market is with advertising within the market (we all are very familiar with weight loss ads, but not many of us are familiar with NFTs and DAO ads)
OBJECTION, CLAIM, PROOF, BENEFIT - A formula for dealing with objections in body copy: start by by acknowledging or assuming a specific objection, state a claim to counter it, provide proof to prove that claim, and reveal an associated benefit with that claim being true
OPT-IN - An option for prospects to submit their contact information in order to be kept updated or to receive a lead magnet - usually via a form on a landing page or by ticking a checkbox when checking out (“I would like to receive promotional messages/emails” checkboxes)
SWIPE FILE - A copywriter’s collection of advertising material that they’ve found to be interesting or effective - many people use this to ‘swipe’ from; in other words, they take inspiration from the ideas in their swipe files and try to identify what’s working based on the obvious success of some material
VALUE PROPOSITION - A clear statement which sums up the benefit and result a business is promising based on the use of their product.