30 Copywriting Tips for Financial Services Marketers

Today I am presenting you with my top 30 copywriting tips and ideas you use continuously to create charismatic and persuasive marketing campaigns.

As a direct marketer, you need to generate a lot of copy to generate leads and produce sales orders. To the point that eventually you will either burn out or run out of ideas. Unless you have a swipe file to get fresh ideas from.

And that’s exactly what this article will be for you – a swipe file with sixty exciting ideas that you can put into motion when running a campaign.

I’ve divided the ideas into six groups – for each of the marketing campaigns we produce at FSC. But that doesn’t mean they’re strictly for that specific campaign. You can try advertising tips for your content writing. Or SEO ideas on your direct mail packages. And that could create a new, inspiring marketing campaign that could generate lots of revenue for you.

The sky’s the limit when you use creativity properly. And that’s where I want to help you.

Now, drawing from all the knowledge I’ve gathered in over ten years of marketing studies – as well as my experience as a direct response copywriter – here are the top 30 copywriting tips for direct marketers.

Advertising Copywriting Tips

Use your advertising to promote any product or service you offer – from newsletter subscriptions to advanced wealth management. These tips will help you produce ads that will get the attention of your target audience.

Bring attention to a threat for the audience: Create a bit of anxiety within the market by asking “how safe are you/your family/your customers from a possible threat?”

Draw an appealing picture to the audience: Let the audience know how your offer can make their lives easier and better.

Make a promise to the audience: What can you do that is relevant to the audience and very few others – if anyone else – can do?

Include a mental image in the audience’s minds of what they’ll look like if they make these mistakes: No one likes to look or sound ignorant or stupid. Yet sometimes we do it without knowing so. If you can help your market stay away from making horrible mistakes, do so.

Offer two benefits, instead of just one: Go the extra mile. If your market expects you to solve one problem, then see if you can solve two for the price of one.

Direct Mail Copywriting Tips

Advertisers designed the direct mail campaign to sell directly to the consumer. To have a conversation (through the sales letter) about what the consumer wants and how the advertiser can provide. These ideas will help you do just that.

Delve into the fear that comes with the loss of control: Few things bring more stress to a human being than a situation spiraling out of control. Use your knowledge to calm down the audience and teach them how they can regain control of the situation.

Tell a story: Nothing can create more empathy than a tale that describes exactly what the audience is going through constantly. Tap into your inner creative to draw a picture that keeps the prospect hooked.

Promise multiple tactics to simplify a procedure: Give the audience multiple options to make a task simpler.

Highlight tips from the absolute best in the field: Present the most valuable lessons you have learned through your professional journey to your audience. And let them know exactly who taught you each lesson to earn some cred. That’s something I like to do with my aside posts – you must credit your sources, so you don’t come out as a know-it-all or content thief.

Help the audience avoid all the pain and embarrassment by telling them what no one else will: Become a mentor to your market. Tell them what no one else must guts to. And then explain why they’re wrong, as well as how to remedy the situation.

Digital Copywriting Tips

Online marketing offers you some great tools and the opportunity to generate new leads, as well as communicate with your client base, 24/7. Here are some tips that will make your marketing efforts stand out amongst the clutter that is the digital world.

Offer irresistible teasers from experts in your community and industry: Highlight quotes from industry leaders not only shows you’re well-read. It also lets the audience know the basis from where your offers come.

Leverage people’s curiosity about successful people on a large scale: Most people know that celebrities are successful. But they don’t know the X‘s and 0’s behind how they made it. Share that insightful information with your audience and let them know that they too can achieve a higher level of success.

Show your readers how to use one of their tools in a new and amazing way: Time to put your geekiness on display! Offer demos of innovative ways to use a product or procedure – along with the results your audience can expect.

Address people who don’t want to settle for just being good: If you’ve had the thought of becoming a guru or mentor to your industry or community, here’s the first step you should take. Talk to those members of your audience who want more out of life and present them a platform they’ll be willing to follow.

Offer a resource list: Promote an article your audience can bookmark and come back to repeatedly. So, they can slowly learn everything they need to know from one central depository of information.

SEO Copywriting Tips

SEO and sales-conversion copywriting are essential to the success of your website, microsites, and any other online presence you own on the internet. Here are some tips that can take your web pages over-the-top.

Name the audience and give them a reason to read: Know exactly who you want to address and the exact message you want to deliver. A clear brand message is of high importance when it comes to producing effective website sales and marketing copy.

Promise your audience a simpler life: Know what your audience is looking to get from you – and make a clear promise that you can deliver. If you can do so.

Leverage the audience’s natural desire to be successful: Can you help your community to boost profits or reach a larger audience? Then make that the focus of your web copy. Take every chance you can get to say, “I will help you succeed”.

Teach the audience how to apply your ideas: If you only present an idea, you are a salesperson. If you present an idea and teach your audience how to make the most of it, then you are an advisor. Be an advisor to your industry – it’s an easier way to lockdown that sale anyway.

Help build a strong connection between your audience and their audience: This one is for you B2B services out there – remember that your marketing isn’t about you. It’s about helping your client connect with their client. So let the market know how you can help them do that.

Content Writing Tips

You should look at your content marketing campaign as an extension to your customer service team. Use to spread ideas and philosophies, to build strategies and choose tactics, and to (subtly) promote your product, services, and company. I’m going to give you some ideas that can help you strengthen your content marketing campaigns right now.

Describe the symptoms of a problem or threat: Help your audience foresee an upcoming attack by pointing out warning signs that give away the arrival of such threats.

Educate your audience: This is a big oversight for companies because they think they need to show off everything they know. And that is not the case. If you are one of those people who get annoyed at a customer who calls for help on (what you consider) the most basic of things, then this tip is for you. Just teach your markets the 001’s and 101’s so you don’t have to spend billable time doing so.

Present can’t-miss facts to the audience: Sometimes a market can be difficult to understand for a layperson. If that person falls within your target market, you should try and help them understand what you do with key facts about your craft. Make them perceive the value behind what you offer with the results your work has generated.

Announce the latest happenings to your audience: Let your market in on the state of your company. Let them know of new hirings and firings, changes in procedure, new brand messaging, upcoming offers, and anything else you consider as important for the people to know.

Teach your audience how to do something in an easier, calmer way: Spread some Zen, man! Educate people on how they can perform certain tasks intuitively, without that much conscious effort. For example, a stockbroker can give away basic information to investors on how to know which stocks are ripe for the picking – so that when the time is right, investors (intuitively) will call the broker to buy.

Social Copywriting Tips

Social media offers you the opportunity to expand your market to global levels, as well as proving your brand as a force in your field. Take these copywriting ideas to drive engagement and get people to go beyond what you post on your social platforms.

Expose the lies of a certain group of people: No one likes lies. And if your competition is taking that liberty with your audience, then it is high time you expose them for what they are – LIARS. Just make sure to back up your claims with facts.

Bring valuable information to your audience: Much like a content marketing campaign, social media gives you the chance to display your ability. Share your articles, videos, and podcasts on your social platforms so you can expand their reach.

Point out how to solve a problem that’s spinning out of control: What matter turns your target market into a complete frenzy? If there is a way – basic or advanced – that you can help your audience in preventing them from getting to that frenetic state, let them know.

Offer simple tips that the audience can implement in a few minutes: Not everyone owns the knowledge you and I do. So, why not build it for those who need it through social media? That way, you can spend more billable time on solving your clients’ toughest situations.

Use the obsession of self-awareness to your advantage: You don’t like to look or sound dumb. And neither do I. Nor do every single member of your audience. If you can point us in a couple of sentences on a social post something that your audience is doing wrong, and how to fix it, they will thank you for a long time. And you might earn a client or two for life.