Speaker 1: This week, I am giving you an inside peek at my pre-copywriting process. Keep watching to learn my five research tips for how to write sales copy that converts like crazy. Hey guys, it's Alex, and coming in hot this week is another video by request. Over the past few months, many of you have commented asking me to spill the tea on how I go about the research phase of copywriting, or in other words, how I find the best and most relevant information to add credibility, authority, and accuracy to my sales copy. Now, one of the biggest misconceptions about copywriting is that we just sit down and start writing the second we get a new project or client. Not true. In fact, the biggest chunk of copywriting time actually goes into research, customer mapping, and market analysis before you ever start writing. Having a clear grasp of the business you're writing for and its target audience is absolutely critical to write copy that convert. And I get it, guys. When you're new to all of this, it can be really overwhelming to figure out exactly where to start. And if you're not careful, you can spend hours and hours and hours navigating through millions of content pieces and online resources to find research to back up your hook and offer. And that's why my team and I decided to prepare this handy guide for you. In fact, this is based on a bonus training that I created for my students inside my copywriter coaching program, The Copy Posse Launchpad. And if you want more guides and tutorials to ignite your copywriting business, you know what to do. If you're not already part of the raddest copywriting crew on the internet, go ahead and hit subscribe below. And if you are already part of the posse, thank you. Welcome back. Give me a thumbs up below to let me know you're here. And now, here are my five research tips to help you write insanely better copy. Tip number one, Google it the right way. I know, I know, you're thinking, duh, Alex, everyone knows how to use Google. And yes, you're probably right. I mean, show me someone with access to the internet who has never done a Google search before and the next round's on me. So as you already know, Google is a fantastic tool to dig up data and references for the market you want to write for. But if you're not careful, it will lead you down a rabbit hole of information, not all of it legit, that can completely suck your time and the conversions and credibility straight out of your copywriting. So you got to make sure to use the good old Googs in the right way. Yes, research can be a much quicker process if you know exactly how to utilize this search engine. So here's the tip. When researching the niche, sub-niche, or product you're writing for, use Google's phrase match parameters in your search. And yes, I'm going to explain that. So for example, say you're searching for industry stats for the yoga niche for a female audience. If you type in, say, yoga stats women, you're going to get search results that contain any variation or any part of that keyword phrase, as well as any related topics. Now that's considered a broad keyword search and can make it more difficult to find exactly what you're looking for as you're scrolling through yoga products and yoga reviews and yoga blogs. You get the idea. But if you add quotation marks around that search term like this, you're telling Google that you only want to see search results that contain those words or any close variations of that phrase. So this really helps narrow down your research to get targeted search results. Pretty cool, right? All right, now moving on to tip number two, search online marketplaces. A great way to better understand the market or niche you're writing for is to check out what other brands are doing to sell similar products and services. A little competitive research goes a long way to define a clear and distinct USP in your messaging. Your USP is what makes your product or the product you're writing for better, simpler, easier, faster than the other guys. Now one of the best ways to do that competitive research is to check out online marketplaces like ClickBank, Udemy, Coursera, Shopify, Alibaba, Etsy. You get the idea. All of these online sites have already done the job of categorizing products by niche or topic. So all you got to do is search under your niche category to shortlist, browse, and review competitor sales pages. So for example, when I was conceptualizing my course, the Coffee Posse Launchpad, I turned to Udemy to see what other copywriting courses were offering to make sure that I designed a USP that was competitive but unique. All right, moving on to tip number three, reference authority sites. So there are a ton of credible resources and sites online that have likely already done research and curation for you. So find the authority sites in your niche and see what information they share to keep your research relevant and fresh. I love referencing the marketing blogs by businesses like HubSpot and OptinMonster and Digital Marketer, just to name a few, to find lists, stats, and case studies to reference in my copy and content. And here's another important tip, given how fast brands and markets evolve, make sure you're not referencing content that's any older than a couple of years. The good news is, authority sites need to continually update their content to stay an authority site in the mind of Google, so you can usually trust that their information is up to date. And while you're at it, make sure to bookmark these sites in an info folder in your browser because you never know when you're going to want them handy. Okay, tip number four, use Facebook's ad library. So this is such a juicy tip and it's something that I do all the time. So if you want to see what other brands and businesses in your niche are doing in terms of Facebook advertising, instead of browsing through your feed, endlessly waiting for an ad to pop up, just head on over to their Facebook ad library. Yes, every single brand that advertises on Facebook has a public ad library that offers a comprehensive and searchable collection of all the ads they're currently running on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Say what? Yes, this is Facebook's way of holding their advertisers accountable for transparency in their marketing. So all you got to do is visit a company's Facebook fan page, then navigate down to where it says page transparency and click see more. Then on the pop-up window, click go to ad library. And once there, be sure to filter for all under the geographical targeting dropdown menu or else it'll just default to your home country. And there you have it. You get to see each and every ad, active or inactive, that company has ran over time. So this is an awesome way to get to do some research and inspiration from some of the most creative and effective Facebook advertisers out there. Plus, it'll help you identify what other brands are doing to optimize their Facebook ads over time. And guys, needless to say, this is for inspiration only. It is not a swipe file that you can use to steal ad copy. If you steal what other people are doing, you are not a copywriter, but a copycatter and it's just not cool. All right? Okay, now tip number five, ask your customers. Guys, I am telling you the best source for copywriting research is your existing or your client's existing customers. Why try to guess what your audience wants when you can get it straight from the horse's mouth? It is definitely, and trust me on this, worthwhile to survey your existing customers or prospects and ask them how you can best serve them. This is also a great way to create rapport and build trust with your audience before a big promotion. Some of the most successful copywriting campaigns I have ever done started with a very simple survey to the email list asking subscribers about their number one challenge they needed the most help with. In fact, my Copypossy Launchpad was 100% based on feedback that I received from my email list. Knowing that my audience's number one challenge was creating a portfolio that would help them get clients, I created a program geared towards helping you learn and write highly paid copy assets and create an irresistible portfolio. By the way, I have finally, after many of your requests, made the recordings from my closed door Copypossy Launchpad program available. You can find out how to get your hands on those in the description below and I hope these research tips will help you get started on the right foot as you embark on your next copywriting project. Do you have any tips that you've used or heard of before? Share them with me and the rest of the Copypossy by commenting below and guys, keep the requests coming in. I absolutely love hearing your suggestions and sharing the techniques and strategies that I've used to build a successful copywriting business from the ground up so you can do the same. Next up, check out my video on how to get inside the mind of your customers. You can watch that right here. And as always, thank you so much for watching and subscribing. I will see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now.