Creating persuasive copy, although not entirely necessary for every business looking to market themselves more successfully is something that every content marketing expert should at least have some idea of how to do. Having it as a skill in your content marketing strategy is only going to benefit you, your prospective employer or business in the long run. Persuasion breeds sales. There's no getting around that fact.

Creating great persuasive copy though, as evidenced by the sheer amount of ineffective copy that fails to engage or draw people in, can be difficult to do. When you fail to get people to emote, you're unlikely to get them to convert. Great copy does the opposite. Here's how to go about crafting it.

Informal, Conversational, Non-Intimidating

People don't want to read things that require a glossary of terms to simply understand it. They want content that is accessible, easy to read or skim over, engaging like a familiar interaction and informal enough to not feel like they have to break out of their relaxed stupor and suddenly put their serious hat on. How you choose to relay your message or craft your content is as important as the topic and discussion itself.

Structure, Formula, Abstraction Only When It Works

Usually people are most taken in by things they at least associate with or feel some level of familiarity or comfort with. When it comes to copy people have certain reading expectations just as they have expectations that a story will follow linear form and good will overcome evil at the end. These connotations are as present in good copy just as they are in literature or film.

Only go abstract and break convention if you feel safe doing so and you feel as if your target demographic will appreciate it. Often the tried and tested route is exactly that because it works. Most of the time people don't appreciate being shocked out of conventionality and will likely react negatively to whatever your offer might be.

Break It Down

Most content is battling in a sea of other content that it is absolutely imperative that readers can quickly access it, get engaged by it and leave feeling better off for having consumed it. Fail to do any of the aforementioned and your prospects are likely to go elsewhere in the ocean for the content that does exactly that.

Break your content down for people in an easy-to-read, scannable way. Provide subtitles, headings and lay-out the most pertinent, pressing points in the opening sentences. Go for lists, go for bullet points and go for smart captions that help reinforce the tone and topic of the piece and help improve your chances of conversion.