Part Three: Digital Copywriting - The Importance of Psychology and Sociology

Hey, good to see you. I hope you’re well.

This post is the third in a mini-series exploring exactly what makes a good Copywriter. The first post provided an overview of each quality required of a good Copywriter. The second post zooms into one quality – an understanding of UX/CRO. This third post focuses on another quality – knowledge of psychology and sociology.

Research is very important to a Copywriter.

The more we know about our target audience, the better.

On any project we work on as Copywriters, it is important for us to understand human psychology and sociology.

What makes people tick? Why do they do what they do, and buy what they buy? What influences their decision making? What societal and cultural pressures are they under?

In understanding psychology and sociology in a wider sense, we become a lot more intelligent with our writing. We also become more adaptable – able to see life from many different people’s perspectives and write to them accordingly. Such true versatility is highly-sought.

User Research

Subsequently, we also deepen our appreciation for specific User Research when we are working on a project. The more zoomed-in detail we know about our target audience the better.

If we are lucky as a Copywriter, a team of User Researchers will already have conducted comprehensive user research and have created well-informed Personas and User Journeys.

Both of these work products/deliverables act as Design guides for those working in UX Design, Graphic Design, Web Design, and Web Development – and they are extremely useful to Copywriters!

For a Copywriter it is great when there is a lot of existing user data as we may not always be allocated enough time to do as much research ourselves as we may wish.

Understanding Psychology and Sociology

When such abundance of data is not available is when our general understanding of human psychology and sociology kicks in and provides sufficient insight to support great Copywriting. Lots of research data is best, but next best is to have comprehensive understanding of psychology and sociology – especially with a sales focus.

If we do have this understanding, then we will always be able to write great copy – even with minimal insight into our target audience.

It almost goes without saying that the more experience we gain as a Copywriter the easier the ideas generally flow. Studying psychology and sociology does provide somewhat of a shortcut, but with copywriting, there is no exact substitute for experience.

The best and most effective/efficient combination is to continue to study psychology/sociology as part of your continuous professional development (CPD) while working as a Copywriter.

The Road to Becoming a Good Copywriter

Hopefully it is now becoming clear to you in your own mind how to become a really good copywriter. It may sound daunting to have to learn UX/CRO and now also psychology/sociology and still probably more to come.

It really isn’t. It is maybe four to five really good books and some application of your learning. The thing is – you don’t need to be a ‘good’ Copywriter to be paid as a Copywriter!

When I say ‘good’ I am meaning really good – capable of standing out and excelling in the industry. You will be able to find Copywriting work without being ‘good’ at it.

This information is, I suppose, for the more ambitious minded who really want to become excellent at what they do and really make an impression with their words.

If you came to this series without much of an idea of what it takes to be a good Digital Copywriter – you are now already well on your way to knowing realistically and accurately what it takes.

There is more to come!

Keep tuning in for focused and targeted advice designed to get you up to speed with the reality of being a good Digital Copywriter as soon as possible.

Thank you for your time and interest.

See you again soon!

Steven Cook

www.contentdesignsolutions.co.uk