10 Killer Copywriting Tools That You Can Use To Slay Your Outreach Messages

Copywriting is no longer a fancy, confusing, out-of-this-world word, neither are copywriting tools.
I like to think of copywriting as the marketing equivalent of having a child.

Don’t panic. It’s not (that) laborious nor (that) painful. Although, there could be some long, sleepless nights involved.

But let me get back to the point.

We’re creating something that we can’t instantly feel or touch but rather something that involves a lot of nurturing, nourishing, and cherishing.

And all that only to learn to let it go. One day we must let it out in the world to spread its wings.

And then we can only wait and see if we had brought it up right. If we’ve done a good job.

Our messages, articles, blogs, social posts, ads are all our babies.

Copywriting is the magical creation of putting together words to lure your target audience in a particular direction of action which is often to buy. The process is rightly referred to as the text form of salesmanship, but there is a lot more to it than that.

If you put your focus just on the sales and you become all about numbers, people will notice it.

They will sense that you reek of desperation and that you don’t truly care about them, their business or their needs.

That’s why we changed the game.

We started using outreach, which has proven to be the best choice that I have made in my life, as a way of building a business strategy.

We started crafting quality content and a step-by-step strategy of messaging people on LinkedIn and email, in a way that they can see that our only goal is to tend to their needs. That our only concern is solving their problems.

We changed the focus from sales and pitching to nurturing and caring.

And it changed the game.

People started responding.

The copywriting process

If you’ve already embarked on a copywriting journey, you are well aware that it often feels like riding a rollercoaster.

Copy composed by a copywriter has to make its way through the following process:

• The copywriter first has to have an idea. To place the egg into the incubator.

And that’s more often than not, the toughest part. Ideas don’t come flying in, just because we need them. Sometimes it seems that the more desperate we are about thinking of a mind-blowing idea, the further we are from getting it. Funny, right?

• Then there is the research. Yes, opening up one million tabs on the laptop, reading through countless pages of text about everything and anything. The good thing is, the more you already know (and love) your product and target audience, the less research you require.
• Planning and structuring.

In order for the chick to bud out from the egg, you first need to make the right conditions for it.

That means having a clear vision of what you are going to write about and how will you actually execute it.

What’s your word count? Are the conversation starters engaging? Does the email subject line implore to be clicked?

These are all questions that you need to have the answer to while structuring a plan for your unborn linguistic baby.

• Taking shape on paper/screen.

You did it! Bravo!

I knew that you had it in you.

You put down all the right words and made magic.

But, it does not stop here.

When composing messages for outreach or writing some other content you cannot just write it and send it to people.

No, no and no!

-Editing and proofreading have to do their tango first.

Running a successful marketing outreach campaign is not just about numbers.

Not at all.

It’s mainly about words.

Words do the magic.

They bring the leads.

Words spark conversations.

Conversations build relationships.

Nurtured relationships are the equivalent of leads.

And leads bring sales.

And you want more of them, right?

What makes the outreach copywriters’ life easier?

Modern, demanding tasks ask for creative and quick solutions.

As an entrepreneur and most of all as a consultant, I found out that when I am reaching out to cold prospects, I must present myself in the best light. I must show my skills, my true colours and give people a reason why they should choose me over everyone else.

At my very beginnings, when I founded BizzBee Solutions, I tried a lot of different paths when it came down to reaching out to people.

Some of the times, my way worked. And by way, I mean being straight-forwardly and unapologetically pushy and salesy.

I’ve knocked on people’s digital doors, and I have spammed them.

I offered my services right away, I tried to oversell myself and, of course, I failed.

It took me some time to realise what I was doing wrong.

I asked myself: Would I buy the services of someone who just knocks and sells?

Does this person look like they really care for me? For my business? For the future of my business?

Of course they don’t!

They only care about upping their selling game.

Then why would I try to make business with such a person?

And then the hard truth hit me right in the face.

I was that person.

I was that pushy, inattentive, inconsiderate individual, looking only after his numbers.

Why on Earth would someone like to work with that kind of a person?!

When I realized this, I changed my ways, I changed the game and my whole world changed.

I started reaching out to people with respect, care and patience.

I listened.

I gave, so they gave back.

You know, every relationship, whether a personal or a business one, it’s about reciprocity.

You have to give something if you want the other side to give something back.

You cannot just take.

First thing I did was to change the way I approached people.

I stopped trying to sell myself right away.

Instead, I tried to build a relationship with the person I was reaching out to.

A real, caring and fruitful relationship that will last.

I tried to make the person on the other side of the line happy, so I could be happy at the end.

And you know what?

It worked splendidly well!

I came to know that when you care about people, they open up to you.

Changing the way I was approaching people meant I had to change my way of messaging them.

My messages went from cold, salesy and pushy to warm, friendly and caring.

Wonder how I changed my system so suddenly?

Well, I wasn’t alone for sure.

I had a few tactics, a couple of excellent copywriters to help me write to perfection.

And of course, if you know me, you know that I love tech. So finding the most useful copywriting tools might be one of the first things I did. There are a lot of copywriting tools that you can use to help you make your outreach messages a work of art.

Are you ready to see which ones I found to be the most useful?

The tools

For the modern copywriter, each step in the copywriting process is made less painful and in some cases more enjoyable, by the use of these killer 10 writing tools.

Let’s start this list with the one that everyone knows and probably uses.

What is it?

Is it a bird? Is it a bee?

Nooo, it’s Grammarly!

Grammarly

Grammarly’s AI-powered applications help people communicate more effectively. Millions of users rely on Grammarly every day to make their messages, documents, and social media posts clear, mistake-free, and impactful.

Grammarly is the basics if you want to write impeccable, mistakes-free outreach messages.

But that’s not all. Grammarly does not only corrects your grammatical mistakes. It also makes your writing more understandable and helps you make the right impression on the reader based on your audience and goals. In addition, Grammarly is able to check the tone of your correspondence, provide synonym suggestions to make your text more readable and precise, and even check your documents for plagiarism. With Grammarly, you can rest assured that your writing is always held to the highest standard. If you are not a native English speaker targeting an English speaking country, this tool is an outreach must!

Hemingway Editor

Hemingway, named after the master of literary brevity himself, aims to “make your writing bold and clear.”

However, it isn’t an in-depth grammar checker or writing coach, like Grammarly.

Instead, it is a minimalistic but powerful tool to improve the style of your writing. And it’s great for crafting the simplest outreach messages. At the end of the day, no one likes to read long and complicated messages from complete strangers.

How does Hemingway achieve this?

When you either paste your writing into the Hemingway Editor environment or write directly within, it highlights your work using different colours.

So what are the suggestions made by the Hemingway tool?

• Yellow Sentences: Are the long or overly complex sentences that you’ve used in your writing. In such an occasion, Hemingway suggests to split or simplify the yellow parts.
• Red Sentences: Hemingway feels these sentences meander and may confuse readers. This means that you should rework these sentences until the red highlight vanishes.
• Purple Words: This is the colour that Hemingway uses for complex words. Purple words have a more suitable, simpler alternative. Hover over them to see Hemingway’s suggestion.
• Blue Words: Blue words are adverbs or weak and hesitant language. Hemingway feels these should be omitted.
• Green Phrases: Green is for passive. Even though passive voice makes you look smarter and sound more eloquent, it’s not a grammatical structure typically used in the English language. When you can choose the active alternative, go for it!

So no need for further deliberation, the sparkle that the Hemingway editor can give your outreach messaging is as plain as day.

Thesaurus

Using the same words over and over again is never a good idea. Especially when you are writing to someone for the first time. Stiffness and lack of inspiration is something that will not go unnoticed, trust me.

People can sense the overused phrases and sentences and they will not go for them.

Being creative and having a rich vocabulary will always go a long way, but sometimes, especially if we are writing all day long, the right words just don’t come to us.

But don’t worry for a minute about that, because here’s Thesaurus to the rescue!

On Thesaurus, you can search through the 275,000 synonyms, antonyms, related words, and idiomatic phrases. You can also find concise definitions pinpointing the meaning shared by synonyms, and sample sentences showing how words are used in context.

Using Thesaurus when writing is the best way not to ever write the same old boring messages again.

But be careful! The purpose behind this is not to use technical jargon and to sound more like a human being. Not to confuse your target audience with overcomplicated messages. A definite must-have among the copywriting tools.

Readable

Writing short, precise but also caring and nurturing outreach messages is no spring breeze.

People tune out and hit the back button when they don’t understand what you write. Even if I use the most persuasive copywriting techniques, if I’m not clear, my clients will lose leads and sales.

That’s one of the reasons why we use Readable. It helps us match our copy with our audience’s reading level.

It’s one of our top conversion optimisation tools since it monitors the sentiment and tone of our content to ensure a consistent voice.

It also checks for spelling and grammar as well as for the proper use of adverbs, passive voice and clichés. It is backed up by established readability algorithms and verified by over 10,000 automated tests and hand-calculated scores.

ZenPen

Being stuck at home all day long, writing and reaching out to people usually means one thing.

You can get distracted so easily, even by the slightest of things.

You’ve hit a wall, had a writer’s block and all of a sudden, everything else but the writing starts to look interesting. Deadlines are piling up, and you are scrolling through Instagram or watching Youtube tutorials on how to make the best burger. And you’re suddenly starting to get a bit hungry.

Sounds familiar, right?

But, don’t worry, we’ve all been there.

Here’s ZenPen to the rescue.

ZenPen.io is a minimal distraction writing application where you can type all of your thoughts, feelings, articles, messages without having a ton of options on your screen. First, you read the directions, then delete them, and then start writing. Simple.

They do give you a few options, but only to make your writing more relaxed and enjoyable.

You can use bold, italics, both and URLs just by highlighting the text and selecting them from the tiny options box that appears above it.

Sensory Words

Stop writing for a second. Yes, just stop.

Leave your laptop, your pad, your pens and pencils aside.

Open up the window.

Feel the warm sunshine on your face, tickling your cheekbones.

Let the gentle spring breeze ooze its way into your nostrils.

Let yourself be caressed by the subtle warmth that this day brings.

It’s a good day to be alive, isn’t it?

You have painted the beautiful scene in your head, haven’t you?

That’s because of the sensory words.

They contain magic that can lead you through the untouched beauty of writing. You might think that sensory words are just for poets.

Let me tell you that you couldn’t be further from the truth.

They have a tremendous impact when using email outreach.

People like to paint the scene and let their imagination run free.

There’s no better way to lure them in than by creating a vivid, colourful story full of fragrances and delicious tastes.

And this lip-smacking blog article by Henneke Duistermaat titled “How to Arouse the Magic of Sensory Words (Even in Business Writing!)” gives just what it promises.

It gives copywriters the ace up their sleeve. A list of sensory words that have the potential to give prospects the nudge they need to respond to the outreach message.

The Phrase Finder

The Phrase Finder comes in handy when you need some phrases, idiomatic expressions or maybe proverbs that you want to quote, but somehow, at this very moment, they don’t come to mind.

This platform, best known as a phrase finder, gives you unlimited access to 2,000 English idioms, phrases and proverbs that we use every day, with their meanings and origins explained.

So think and doubt no more. Just follow the link and find the phrase that’s on the tip of your tongue.

Copywritely

Whether you are a consultant, an entrepreneur or a copywriter, having Copywritely’s easy-to-use SEO content checker in your arsenal will help you tremendously to check text for plagiarism, readability, relevance, keyword stuffing.

But our focus for this article is outreach, and SEO is of no particular interest. So why am I recommending this tool? Because besides the SEO related tools that it offers, it has a variety of other free tools that can be of use in crafting the perfect outreach sequence.

For example, with Copywritely, you can identify redundant phrases that don’t add any value to your text.

There is also the grammar checker, the word counter, and the readability checker. Their usefulness is pretty straightforward, so I won’t bother you with any details.

However, the Article rewriter deserves its time in the spotlight. If you feel like you’re saying the same thing over and over again, or you simply want to see how your messages might sound if someone else wrote them, do give it a try. You might even end up using Copywritely’s version.

Last but not least, there is the free to use Words to Minutes Calculator. We should always value our prospect’s time and try to make our messaging as concise as possible. With this tool, we can become aware of just how much time we are demanding from our prospect. There is a limit I believe we should not cross when talking to complete strangers.

WordHippo

You can now boost and skyrocket your outreach game by using a platform that will provide you with a long, extensive list of all the synonyms, antonyms, word meaning (with example sentences), pronunciation, and rhyming words that you may need when reaching out to people.

You don’t want to sound dull using the same words over and over again, right?

That’s why you need WordHippo in your copywriting tools collection.

On WordHippo, you just type in a word in the top search bar of the website and select which resource you want to use.

There is also a word form generator that will list all the different forms of a word, such as the plural form, the noun form, the verb form, and even different tenses for verbs.

WordHippo is mostly useful for English words, but some resource sections have other languages such as French and German. These sections will have translation and conjugation resources for the foreign language.

All of these word resource tools complement each other to give the website user a greater understanding of vocabulary.

Looks convenient, right?

AnswerThePublic

If you are planning an outreach sequence then there are a couple of things you must take into consideration first. Once you define who your ideal prospects are, you must ponder what they are thinking about. What are they concerned with? What are the hottest topics out there that need to be mentioned in a conversation if you are trying to build a business, but also a friendly relationship?

Well, think no more because AnswerThePublic has all the answers for you.

Using this platform, you are getting instant, raw search insights, directly from the minds of your potential clients.

AnswerThePublic listens the whispers into autocomplete data from search engines like Google and then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword.

It’s a goldmine of people’s insight you can use to create fresh, ultra-intriguing conversation starters. The kind your prospects would want to reply to.

This platform will enable you to get a deeper level of understanding on how people search around topics — giving you the questions and queries which you wouldn’t necessarily think of. It’s also super easy to use and digestible.

Stepping up your outreach messaging game

Using any of these copywriting tools will help you boost your outreach game. You will get the help you need to craft more engaging messages. But these copywriting tools will also help to make your messaging more relevant to your target audience. There is one thing you should always have in mind, though — create your outreach messages in a way that will resemble a real face-to-face conversation. Write as you speak. Like you are talking to someone. An acquaintance. A person with particular needs and interests. Someone longing for a real human connection, craving to be heard and understood. An individual who would appreciate talking to a real person, and not some robotic, automated machine with rehearsed and reused speech.

Good copywriting demonstrates value and shows your potential clients that your business is worth working with. The quality of your message needs to prove that you are trusted in your industry, and you are a thought-leader who will meet their needs. To do this, great outreach copy needs to accomplish several essential points. It needs to address relevant subjects, and pique curiosity, while creating and maintaining a professional image. You should try to address the needs of your audience as humanly as possible, focusing on a particular purpose and, of course, demonstrating value. Remember, the ultimate goal is converting sales, but it can only be achieved through building meaningful relationships.

Using any of these copywriting tools will not just make your life easier, but it will also get you through the process of research, organization and writing smoothly and seamlessly.

We all need a helping hand sometimes. There are a lot of copywriting tools out there, but they are mostly focused on SEO and content marketing. In this article, I chose the ones that can be of tremendous help for the outreach copy messaging. So I made this list of fantastic, free-of-charge and accessible tools that help in boosting our outreach game. Not using them would be such a waste.

Do you use any of them in your outreach?

Which ones?

Do you have some new ones to add to this list?

This article was originally published on BizzBee Blog. :)