Imagine you are at a shop.

A salesperson comes to you and pitches about a product.  they have.

Whatever he says makes perfect sense for you to be excited about the product.

He describes all the benefits you’ll get and pinpoints all your problems the product will solve.

And BOOM! You instantly make a move and buy.

Has this ever happened to you?

If not, we can tell you there are brilliant salespeople around the world that can convince you to buy their products and services, once they have your attention. And they are paid heavily for that because they make the business owners rich with their sales communication.

But isn’t this an article about Direct Response Copywriting?

You bet it is.

And the fictional story we took you through is a set up to make you understand one very important point:

Direct Response Copywriting can do for your business what these brilliant salespeople do for the big corporations, while you don’t have to worry about:

• Hiring a lot of them
• Paying hefty salaries to them each month
• Spending on their training and field practice

Because Direct Response Copywriting,  when used online, duplicates the qualities of your best salespeople, and does the selling for you without any of them having to be manual present.

Ever wondered how many times you purchase things online, just after reading about it on the product pages, or watching a video sales letter about the same?

That’s Direct Response Copywriting working my friend.

But, that’s what copywriting means isn’t it?

Selling through the art of the written word?

Then what is this Direct Response Copywriting?

Heck, how many types of copywriting are there?

How does Direct Response Copywriting differ from the rest?

Let’s find out.

Types of Copywriting

Here are a few modern types of copywriting:

• SEO
• PR
• Marketing
• Website
• Social media
• Technical
• Direct response

All these different types of copywriting are effective for specific stages of the buyer’s journey.

For example:

• SEO copywriting is for the awareness stage, where the audience is getting to know you better via your content
• Social media copywriting engages your audience with your content
• Marketing copywriting builds more interest in your audience by highlighting the benefits
• Technical copywriting is used to build trust and authority amongst your target audience
• At last direct response copywriting is where you pull the trigger, try to allure your target audience to turn into a conversion.

Direct response copywriting is used to make the reader take action. It’s the highest-paying and most effective form of copywriting. If you are a business owner, it’s of utmost importance for your business.

If you are a freelancer and love writing, you need to master this skill as it’s hugely demanded.

With that being said, let’s understand:

What Direct Response Copy Really is?

Direct response copywriting is the opposite of copies that aim for long-term results, like SEO, marketing, technical, among others.

• It’s direct
• It’s immediate
• It’s lucrative.

Disclaimer: It is most effective in the final stage of the buyer’s journey.

It entices the target audience to take swift speedy actions like:

• Download freebies or get free trials
• Newsletter sign up
• Buy product or service
• Subscribe to social media channels

Direct response sales copy is solely responsible for all the sales generated through copywriting. It is the reason businesses earn so much online.

In the content writing industry, its value is immense.

We know it because at Apna Writer we have a combined experience of 5+ years crafting and delivering direct sales copy to our clientele.

Being a business you can include direct response copywriting in your:

• Long-form sales pages
• Lead opt-in pages
• Direct emails
• Social Media Ads
• Video Sales Letters

How to Master Direct Response Copies?

Businesses all around the globe invest highly in direct sales copy because it gives instant results. So, you now have an idea of what it is and how it’s so effective in the business world.

Now let’s discuss the process to master scintillating direct response copies:

Sharpen Your Copywriting Axe

To become a great direct response copywriter, you need to put your heart and soul into learning all the basics about copywriting.

When you do that, you will be able to craft converting copies for your clients or for yourself.

While learning the principles of copywriting, also understand about:

• Strategies to craft a copy
• Emotional triggers
• Psychology of marketing

If your basics are on target, people will be glued to your copy and will take whatever action you want them to take.

You can start learning from these amazing books on copywriting:

• The Adweek Copywriting Handbook
• Copywriting secrets
• Scientific Advertising
• Cashvertising
• Triggers

If not books, you can also read various blog articles on copybloggers.com, copyhackers.com, enchantingmarketer.com, among others.

Even we at Apna Writer share our learnings and tips about copywriting in our blogs and knowledgebase. This article you are on is an example of that.

In today’s era, there is no limit to learning in different formats. So, instead of texts, you can also learn from videos, free copywriting courses, podcasts, etc, but believe us, the actual learning will come from practice and seeing how your copy performs when it is exposed to the world out there.

This way you’ll get a rational idea about direct response copywriting and why it’s one of the most powerful methods to generate sales.

Now as you are on the right track with learning, let’s focus on the next important step in Direct Response Copywriting.

Researching The Target Audience

To get your copies to convert, research is the key.

Taking a long-form sales page as an example, with a direct response copy you get one chance to convert the sale.

So, you need to be right on the money with your words.

How to make sure you are right on target?

It’s by knowing about your audience extremely well.

You need to research about their

• Problems
• Lifestyle
• Triggers

Once you are done answering these questions, now you need to relate your product/service with your target audience.

• How your product/service can bring value to their lives?
• How can it solve their problems?
• How is your offering better than your rivals?

After answering all the above questionnaires you’ll be able to craft a copy that relates to their emotions and they’ll end up connecting with it and doing what it says, i.e., to hit that buy button.

Now that you’ve done your research well, let’s understand the most important part of your copy.

The Mighty Headline

In direct response copywriting, headline matters more than anything. As per some of the greatest copywriters of all time, it’s the 80 cents of a dollar.

And rightly so, because if you don’t get your headline right, nobody will read the rest of your copy, however great it might be.

You need to hook your target reader with the headline, and if you’ve done your research well, try invoking the following emotions into your headline:

• Fear
• Curiosity
• Excitement

How you make your readers feel by your headline will make the reader decide if he wants to read the rest of the page or not.

Why emotions?

Because people buy using emotion and then justify the purchase later with logic. So let’s talk more about adding these emotional elements in your copy as well.

Sprinkle Emotions

You need to be impactful with your direct response copy and emotions are your strongest ammunition.

You need instant results.

You need people to take immediate action.

And by triggering the right emotions you can make people act as you desire.

Make use of power words, sensory words, and engaging words while highlighting all their problems and how your product/service is the best solution for them. Make your copy benefits driven so that people feel the desire to buy what you are selling.

When you’re done sprinkling the emotions throughout your copy, it’s time to get to the business of why direct response copywriting even exists in the first place.

An Offer So Enticing People Can’t Refuse

You need a great offer to make the final sale.

After all the effort your prospect has gone through from the headline to reading the copy about your product, make your offer enticing by:

• Offering discounts
• Offering bonuses
• Offering guarantees
• Offering support, etc

With an offer so great, the last step is to ask for the sale, and that is why you need:

A Powerful CTA

You don’t want to ruin all your efforts just because of a lousy CTA (Call to action). Be creative. Add kerosine to the fire that you created with your copy by telling people what next to do.

If it is filling up a form, or hitting a button, or clicking a link, or picking up the call, just ask them to perform the action straight away.

Is That It?

Direct response copywriting is used in the last stage of the buyer’s journey. It is one of the reasons people will buy what you are trying to sell.

It is a vast field of study in itself, and to master, it will take a lot of learning and practice. But if you keep in mind all points mentioned above, you already know what it is and how to craft a great one.

So are you excited to learn and practice Direct Response Copywriting for yourself or your clients?

Frequently Asked Questions About Direct Response Copywriting

What is Direct Response copywriting?

If you aim to get instant results without waiting for organic traffic to kick in, you need to leverage direct response copywriting. It is completely opposite to content aimed towards getting long-time results like SEO, technical, among others.

Direct response copywriting aims towards making the target audience take a specific action after going through the entire copy. It’s direct and lucrative.

What type of copywriting is best?

Copywriting like SEO, PR, marketing, website, social media, technical, and direct response are all important in their own aspects. You can’t figure out a general copywriting technique and name it the best. It totally depends upon your marketing strategy and the stage of your buyer’s journey.

If you want to create awareness, SEO copywriting is best. If you want instant action, a direct response copy for an ad, sales page, email, video script, etc., is best. If you want to build trust and authority, technical copywriting is best. It’s totally up to you.

What type of companies need copywriting?

Every single business, from small, medium to large scale, needs copywriting for their business. It doesn’t depend upon the scale of the business; it doesn’t depend on how many employees you have. If you are an online business and you want to achieve your business goals, copywriting is the ultimate weapon in your arsenal.

It will help you convert a prospect to your buying customers. It will help you drive that bump in your sales, profits, and revenue.

How is copywriting used?

Copywriting can be used anywhere in your online content. It is vital for your paid advertisement and emails. It is necessary for your website content.

It is helpful for your video scripts. It can do wonders for your blog articles. Whenever and wherever you want to post content for your target audience, having copywriting involved in the process of content creation is always a plus point for any business venture.

What is the largest medium for direct response advertising?

Direct response copywriting is always used in the final stage of the buyer’s journey so that your target audience takes a specific action.

The medium it is used are: Long-form sales pages, Lead opt-in pages, Direct emails, Social Media Ads, and Video Sales Letters. You can’t choose any one of these five because direct response copywriting is used equally in all these five types of lead conversion methods.

What are the key components of direct response marketing?

If we boil it down to one thing, the key component of direct response copywriting is the mindset that is required to craft a compelling lucrative direct response copy.

A copywriter needs to drill down deep inside the buyer’s persona of the target audience and be crystal clear about the desired result that a business wants with that copy. Without having a sharp and out-of-the-box copywriting mindset, it won’t be possible to craft high converting direct response copies.