Good copywriting can not only help a company define its own identity and convey its core message to its target audience, it can also educate potential and existing customers and ultimately drive sales by persuading people to buy.

But good copywriting is not as easy to accomplish as one would think. Creating strong, persuasive copy goes beyond merely writing down what a company stands for -- it has to do with truly understanding the target audience and crafting content that speaks to them and their pain points.

While mastering the art of copywriting may take years of practice, there are a few tested tricks of the trade that any writer can benefit from. Below, 13 members of Forbes Communications Council explore a few foolproof copywriting methods that any business can use to drive their sales.

Members share their top copywriting tips that they use to boost sales.

1. Always Make It About Them, Not You

Most email marketers make the mistake of starting an email with something like, "I just wanted to..." or "I'd love to get some time..." but that focuses on your needs, not your buyer's. A more effective approach would be "You recently wrote on your blog that..." or "Congrats on your recent promotion!" That's the kind of stuff that grabs people's attention. - Udi Ledergor, Gong

2. Be Authentic And Consistent

Consistency in your brand, tone and voice is key. You need every single employee in your company to understand and be educated on your brand, tone and voice. If all the brand campaigns, marketing emails, website pages and solution briefs have one voice but the release notes, outage and renewal notices all have different tones and voices, you will not be seen as authentic. - Seema Kumar, servicechannel.com

3. Make A Personal Connection

Remember there is always a person receiving your marketing message. Even if you are in business-to-business marketing, the goal is to connect with an individual. Align your messaging with what will actually resonate with recipients, which often involves more than clearly articulating your value proposition. Communicate how you will have a direct and positive impact on the recipient and make that personal connection. - Tom Wozniak, OPTIZMO Technologies, LLC

4. Keep It Conversational But Concise

Keep your copy short and sweet. Effective messaging is achieved best with concise, punchy and powerful language. Moreover, when thinking strategically and working to inform or persuade your audience, use conversational language geared toward your targeted demographics to drive engagement and ultimately, sales. - Maura Kennedy, Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano, LLP

5. Speak To The Individual Customer

Rather than speaking in broad strokes, you must use copy to make every potential customer feel as though you're speaking directly to them. That includes everything from the nouns and pronouns used (i.e. "your") and their particular business to including particular content or items they've shown interest in previously. - Jason Wolfson, VuPulse

6. Have A Call To Action

Always incorporate a call to action in your sales copy. This is what you need to really seal the deal and push your audience to take that next step. A call to action will also help you track the success of that particular copy or marketing piece, whether thats a dedicated number, promo code or trackable booking link. - Dana Baasiri, AIC Hotel Group

7. Match The Voice Of Your Audience

Copywriting is not one-size-fits-all. For copywriting to be effective, you need to articulate that content in a way that resonates with the reader. The delivery is just as important as the content itself. Consider the language and jargon of your audience, and mirror that voicing in your copywriting. By matching their voicing, your content will resonate as familiar, informative and authoritative. - Devin Henry, Nomadic Real Estate Investments, LLC

8. Play Devil's Advocate

Put yourself in your customer's shoes and explore any concerns they may have about using your products or services. Now address these concerns and add positive advantages to working with you. Allow your counterarguments and positive additions to serve as a guide to help you create copy that will naturally lower their subconscious resistance by the time they reach your call to action. - Karla Larraga, Champions School of Real Estate

9. Serve Up Value And Actionable Advice

The sales pitch is dead. Yes, your site needs a strong value proposition. You should even talk up those products and/or services. But within reason. Consumers are bombarded with sales pitches every 10 minutes, and they have stopped listening. Instead, deliver content that your target audience finds useful -- content they can consume and run with to solve a problem, fix something or ponder deeply. - Stephen Seifert, Seifert Media

10. Lead With What They're Feeling

Great copywriting is the output of truly understanding your buyer's story and their pain. That's why it's so critical to lead with it. And with research telling us time and time again that consumers buy on emotion, leading with it in your marketing will be the difference between eliciting the kind of emotional response that causes a buyer to click through rather than continuing to scroll. - Yoni Solomon, G2 (formerly G2 Crowd)

11. Leverage AI Tools To Streamline Copy Editing

We're living in an amazing time where there's a tool for everything. With tools like Grammarly and the smart compose feature on Gmail, there's no reason to have unnecessary mistakes in correspondence. Make it a company policy to leverage these tools to help your team present your brand with excellence and professionalism in written correspondence. - Holly Tate, Vanderbloemen Search Group

12. Consider Search Engine Optimization

When mocking up copy for sales use, consider keywords your competitors are using to differentiate themselves and use them to your advantage. Gain web traction by implementing words that are currently used in your brand's repertoire -- remember, organic search engine optimization is your friend. - Harrison Eaton, Backbone PLM

13. Make The Copy Accessible To Your Team

Copywriting is a natural skill for some but a labored skill for others. Regardless of wordsmithing skills, document automation software can help all employees deliver crisp and impactful copy to your customers. Ensure that the entire sales organization has access to best-practice content to build pitch presentations or send compelling business emails, pre-crafted by your best copywriters. - Lucy Mehrtens, Templafy

See the rest here:
13 Foolproof Copywriting Tricks To Drive Sales - Forbes