What is UX copywriting? A Beginner’s Guide

Every writer should know what this well-paid opportunity offers writers… [The Writer’ s Life]( August 17, 2023 "A good user experience isn't necessarily that far removed from a poor user experience. It can be small, subtle differences that can have a huge impact." – Nathanael Boehm Hi {NAME}! Most people are familiar with what an email is … or a blog post … or a social media update … So it's clear what's involved when you take on one of those assignments. But when it comes to UX copywriting — or user experience — the project itself can seem a little more vague. As a writer today though, it's imperative that you know about this opportunity … whether you specialize in it or just incorporate the intention into everything you write. UX means good … make that great … money. And it opens the door for so many other well-paid writing projects. PLUS, your job is to help readers have a better experience. Great money and a great cause?! Yes, please! 🙋 ♀️ Now, if you're brand-new to the UX writing opportunity, let's start by taking a quick step back … User experience (UX) describes how a user feels when they interact with a product or service. UX looks at the entire customer journey, from beginning to end. So a UX copywriter is responsible for all the text a user encounters when navigating their way around a website, mobile app, shopping cart, or anything else online. A UX copywriter's job is to make every online touchpoint a positive and intuitive experience for the user. Clear copy is critical in guiding the user and helping them complete their desired activities. The user always comes first for a UX copywriter. Everything they do is aimed at making the user experience the best it can possibly be. Although really, isn't that what we all should be doing when writing for companies anyways?!? Providing a good user experience means more repeat sales, more word-of-mouth business, a higher lifetime customer value, and even happier employees. Win/win/win/win! 🙂 That's why it's no surprise businesses are excited by the fact that a good user experience pays off — big-time. It's how they will set themselves apart from competitors. UX crosses every industry … Every niche … It's part of every action online — shopping, researching, signing up for something, banking, donating … Yet as I said at the beginning, most people don't know what this type of writing really IS. So today, AWAI Success Andrew Murray is here with a beginner's guide to get you up to speed with the basics. It's a great specialized skill to understand, because online companies are ready to earmark a piece of their UX budget for copywriters like you — which, according to a recent Global Markets forecast, is projected to be $3.7 billion this year. And trained UX writers can charge 30% more in fees. Of course, if you're just starting out in this world of well-paid writing and feel unsure about picking a path … [>> I want you to try this. <<]( We've created it specifically for newbies who need a little push forward … so you can get into the writing-for-money game in a matter of days, armed with some skills, experience, and confidence. THIS will get you moving forward … making money with your writing. [But you'll need to sign up for it today.]( It's your last chance to get in! To your success, Rebecca Matter President AWAI P.S. UX Copywriting Expert Heather Robson will be taking the stage at this year's Bootcamp … along with Donald Miller, Mari Smith, Brian Clark, Terri Trespicio, and many other industry experts who are coming to help you take YOUR copywriting career to the next level in just three days. [Go here now to secure your spot]( — we're almost SOLD OUT!! Midnight Deadline: $400 Writing Challenge (NEW writers ONLY!) If You Dream of Being a Well-Paid, Work-From-Anywhere Writer, BUT … - You've NEVER written a word of copy … - You've not done ANY training … - You have ZERO samples, no portfolio … THEN WE'VE CREATED SOMETHING EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOU! A BRAND-NEW training program with ONE SOLITARY GOAL … to get you paid! Today's your last chance to get in … [Go here now!]( What Is UX Copywriting? A Beginner's Guide By Andrew Murray [Woman writing on laptop computer, with an apple and a glass of water in the foreground] What is UX? If you search for "What is UX?" in any browser, you'll find all kinds of fancy definitions with large words and complex phrases. But UX (user experience) is quite simply this … the user comes first. Okay, this sounds simple at first … and maybe you think it's obvious. But it's not. UX looks at the entire customer journey, from beginning to end. Okay, great, sounds impressive. But what does this mean in practice? To find out, we'll break down the term "UX copywriting" into two sections … "user experience" and "copywriting." What Does "User Experience" Mean? User experience describes how a user feels when they interact with a product or service. Let's take a real-life example, completely away from the online world. Imagine you want to buy six apples from your local grocery store. Here's a breakdown of the interactions you might have: You drive to the grocery store, then spend 10 minutes searching for a free parking spot in their parking lot. Once you enter the store, the apples are right there in front of you. You carefully select six apples because many of them are bruised. You forgot to bring a shopping bag. But that's okay, the store provides free bags. You go to the checkout and decide to use a self-serve checkout. But it won't read your credit card, so you call for assistance. The attendant is helpful and cheerful. You walk out to your car and realize you don't remember where you parked. After wandering for five minutes, you finally find the car then drive home. Every one of those experiences is a "touchpoint," a point where you interacted with the product and/or the supplier. At every touchpoint, you experienced a range of emotions. Take another look at those touchpoints and consider the emotions you might feel, based on either a good or bad experience. We humans build a mental inventory of good and bad experiences as we progress through the touchpoints. If the good outweighs the bad, we'll likely become repeat customers. If not, we're gone forever. Did you notice something else about our excursion to the grocery store? Only a few touchpoints involved the product itself (the apples). Most interactions were with the grocery store and surrounds. But every one of those touchpoints built a bigger picture of our user experience. In fact, the apples are incidental to the user experience. Our user experience wasn't with the apples. It was with the grocery store. This is a critical point to understand. Our mental inventory of good and bad experiences is now securely filed away under the section "Experiences at the grocery store" … not "Apples." Now, let's translate this to the online world. The Online User Experience Imagine instead of driving to the store to buy six apples, you wanted to buy them online. Here's a breakdown of the interactions you might have: You attempt to log in (you already have an account), but you get the message "Something went wrong, try again." You try again, but it locks you out. You click on "reset password" but nothing happens. So, you log in as a guest instead. You try to purchase six apples, but the minimum order quantity is 12. You decide to go ahead and order them. You go to the online shopping cart then realize you need to enter all your contact details again because you're signed in as a guest. When you enter your email address, you get an error, "email address already exists." So you use your business email address instead. You finally manage to order those six (now 12) apples. They arrive the next day as promised. But most of them are badly bruised. You attempt to contact the business to arrange a refund, but can't find anywhere to do this. So, you send an email to their "Contact Us" email address. Five days later, they still haven't replied. In the meantime, they've swamped your business email account with promotions and sales emails. Okay, so that was a really bad user experience! But unfortunately, it's not uncommon. Go back and do a quick mental inventory on this experience. Would you ever shop that website again? I highly doubt it. So how can this business improve the user experience on their website? This is where the UX copywriter leaps into action! The Role of the UX Copywriter A UX copywriter's job is to make every online touchpoint a positive and intuitive experience for the user. What does this mean? Well, in the online example above, they will follow the journey a user takes and remove any obstacles. They still use their persuasive writing skills. But they don't just step in midway along the user journey and add content as most of us copywriters do. They look at the big picture. Their job is to make every interaction intuitive for the user … whether it's clear button text, simple instructions when you encounter a sign-in error, a clear ordering process, or conversational copy. They look at where the user has come from and where they're going next. They want every touchpoint to be smooth, simple, clear, and straightforward for the user. And every step of the way they're thinking, "The user comes first." A UX copywriter's content fits seamlessly into the buyer journey. If a user clicks on a button to download a free report, then that's what happens … they don't get re-directed to another landing page or encounter a "404 — Page not found" error. And if the users do encounter a "404 — Page not found" error at some point, then that page gives the user clear instructions on what to do next. Optimizing a site for UX is a bit like rolling along a smooth freeway from Point A to Point B and arriving at your destination on time, versus taking a backroad and encountering endless roadwork, potholes, and dead ends. Next time you need to drive from Point A to Point B, you won't think twice about taking the freeway again. But you'll never drive that backroad again. And this is why UX and UX copywriting are so important to any business. If you make the user journey painless, the user is far more likely to become a repeat customer. UX is about making that trip the smoothest, most hassle-free experience it can possibly be. Final Thoughts To summarize: - User experience (UX) describes how a user feels when they interact with a product or service. - A UX copywriter makes every online touchpoint a positive and intuitive experience for the user. - The user always comes first for a UX copywriter. Everything they do is aimed at making the user experience the best it can possibly be. We've only touched on the edges of the opportunity for UX copywriters here. A company which embraces UX needs everything to blend in seamlessly … from how they handle telephone queries all the way through to how they follow up with lapsed customers. For a UX copywriter, this could mean being involved in customer service scripts, social media content, content scheduling, and writing articles, blog posts, landing pages, order devices, FAQs, and so on. All around the world, smart marketers are embracing UX — and now is the perfect time to get established as a UX copywriter … and [this self-paced training program]( will quickly get you up to speed and on the path to earning 30% higher fees. What's Hot at AWAI … 👉 [FINAL CALL: Join our 4 Days to $400 Writing Challenge!]( 😎 [Five writing projects that pay $1,000 or more … and can be completed in just one weekend!]( 🙋 Want to be a detective, a scientist, a psychologist, AND a superhero? [Check out this writing opportunity!]( 👀 [Why good UX is an integral part of these three fast-growing writing projects.]( 😄 We LOVE seeing our members succeed! [Check out their success stories]( if you need a little inspiration to get started. 🤩 [How this freelance copywriter shifted to a dream role.]( "The easiest and fastest $900 I've ever made!" [Social media post about copywriting proposal success after completing AWAI's UX program] Great news from AWAI Member Rebekah Mays! She sent this celebratory note to Heather Robson, her UX copywriting instructor. Congratulations on another successful writing project, Rebekah! If you'd like to discover more about UX copywriting and the chance to earn 30% higher fees, [go here](. Have your own story to share? Email us at mysuccess@awai.com, or [post it over in the Facebook group](, so we can celebrate your win too! Free Training: Join AWAI's President, Rebecca Matter, and AWAI's Learning Chief, Pam Foster on Friday, August 18 at 12 p.m. ET for a free "client-getting" training! You'll learn SEVEN different ways you can find and attract quality clients, as well as how to … - decide which client-getting methods you'll use for your business … - overcome challenges potentially holding you back … - identify clients that are a good fit for YOU … - set yourself up for success when connecting with potential clients … - ensure clients are "presold" on hiring you … - land those all-important first paying clients without samples or experience … - and much, much more. By the end of our hour together (or longer if you have questions!), you'll have total clarity on what you need to do to land clients — regardless of where you are on your writing journey. Plus, we'll answer all your questions during our live Q&A to follow. Best of all — it's 100% free! You won't want to miss this! [Save your spot here.]( Your ALL-ACCESS Key — Just $1! 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[Go Here for More Details]( Featured Jobs You can find these jobs and thousands more on [WritersWanted.com](: --------------------------------------------------------------- UX Writer — Oxygen Full-time, Remote Write clearly and concisely across online channels, platforms, and end-to-end experiences to impact key business metrics. --------------------------------------------------------------- UX Content Writer — TEKsystems Contractor, Remote This UX content writer will be supporting the Talent platform across their lines of business in partnership with the Content Works/OneUX teams. --------------------------------------------------------------- Senior Copywriter — Clutch Contractor, Philadelphia, PA Create innovative concepts for print/digital campaigns, email, social media, direct mail, print collateral, web, and video. --------------------------------------------------------------- Trouble viewing this email? [View in your browser, here](. 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