How to Make Your Copy P.O.P Like a Million-Dollar-Stuffed Piñata

filed under: Copywriting

Does writing website or blog copy that hits your target market ever have you feeling like a kid at a birthday party—high on sugar and blindfolded—swinging a bat at a piñata that’s hanging waaaaayyyy too high to actually be hit?

Communicating your message with your ideal market in a captivating and totally enticing way can be tough. We know. Here’s what’s probably happened so far to your copy efforts:

You’ve identified your target market, defined your ideal audience, figured out the appropriate way to speak to them, and you’ve even learned to write in human

Yet, there remains your piñata, filled with your million-dollar payday, sitting juuuust within reach and teasing you to take a swing at it. What’s missing?

The P.O.P!

The pop, pop, poppidy-poppidy, poppidy POP that’s gonna make it rain dollars on ya.

P = Personality

If you ain’t got no personality, you ain’t got nothin’, honey.
Harsh, but true.

There’s a misconception buzzing around the internet that as long as you put some “content” out there your ideal audience will come to you like bees to honey.

Um, no they won’t. They’ll bbbuuuzzzzzzz right off.
Because, newsflash: “Content” is everywhere these days. We see some “content” coming our way and we take our flyswatters out to kill that sucker like it never saw it coming. Especially content of the “informative” dry-as-dust and boring-as-plank variety.

What people need want nowadays is not content, but packaged information.

Your audience craves for content with personality that goes straight to the heart, rather than just the brain.

Irrespective of what the faceless corporate machine thinks, business can be fun and should be full of personality. Especially small businesses and entrepreneurs. After all, that’s why you stuck the finger up to the big man and got into the world of independent business, isn’t it?

So don’t let your personality slip through the cracks. Remember that you might have all the right words and all the right sentences, but unless there’s a real person with a real, relatable, and interesting personality behind the words of that information? No one will give a damn.

And to burst that piñata open? You’re gonna need a lot of hot-damns! coming your way from your audience.

O = Opinion

I know you’ve heard the saying “opinions are like assholes—everybody’s got one.” But, much like the buzz of content, it’s not true. Not everyone’s got a genuine opinion—though assholes they may have galore.

To quote Oscar Wilde:

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

(And yes, we get the irony 😉 )

What most people have are imitation opinions. Parrots on their shoulders that squawk out every regurgitated thought that ever entered their ears. Bookish smarts that speak of things they’ve never done or experienced, but have only read about.

Real opinions take guts. Because they require that you stand up and reveal your true self. Because they require that you stand by your beliefs no matter what the masses say.

For that reason real opinions are hard to come by. Scarce as hen’s teeth, as our grandma would say. And just like everything that’s short in supply (like… ahem-ahem… caviar… ahem), informed opinions are treasured and valued when found.

The key to copy that really pops and catches the eye, the attention, and the heart of your readers is having real, honest, informed, opinions on matters that you really know and have experience on.

P = Passion

Have you ever heard of people looking for their passion? Or maybe you’re currently looking for your passion? Well, the funny thing about passion is that it’s not something that can be found. Not a thing lying in a corner somewhere waiting to be discovered.

Passion requires action. We become passionate when we do something we love and enjoy—not so much because we love the thing itself, but because we love the sense of purpose and fulfillment it brings us. And unlike interests, that have to be shared to unite us, passion is contagious and universal.

When we see people doing something with passion, we can’t help but feel passionate about life, too—regardless of whether we share that person’s passion for the particular activity or not.

We’re all drawn to people who express their passion. And your audience is looking for someone in your industry with real passion that can awaken their passion.

When you write copy for your website or blog posts, you should never write simply what you know. Write about what makes your heart beat. Write in a way that makes your heart beat. Passionately. Share your passion with the world and the world will share its passion for your purpose.

Your POP now!

Your ideal audience may be hanging right above your head waiting to shower its bounty of profits upon a fascinating expert with personality, opinions, and passion. Do you have what it takes to make it POP?

What sort of copy do you find yourself drawn to? And what sort of copy would you like to represent your company? What types of personalities, opinions, and expressions of passion get your creativity alight and aflaming?