What your brand is saying is just as important as how it’s being said. If you want consumers to take notice and relate to your content, make sure you’re incorporating the following copywriting techniques.
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With the times
You’d have to be living under a rock — more like a massive boulder — to miss what’s going on around the world these days. From the global pandemic to movements for equality, we live in unprecedented times. So your content better acknowledge that in some way, lest you sound tone deaf or worse. The best copywriters are able to tie in current events with the brand’s values, showing that the company understands and cares about what’s going on. However, even though something is a hot topic, it’s still important to avoid approaching it using methods that are foreign to the brand’s persona. Whether it’s providing helpful solutions or sharing an uplifting message, the content must be genuine for it to work.
By now, we’ve all seen dozens of ads, emails, blogs and social media posts from brands highlighting the ways they’ve addressed concerns during these troubled times. The best copywriting examples serve as a way for brands to reflect and also try to give back to their customers. A note on this kind of messaging: while trying to spread cheer during these times is great, we’d recommend staying away from attempts at humor. Also, try to avoid using sensitive words like contagious, viral, killer, deadly, protests, or spread.
Know the platform
Adding methods and platforms on which to share your content is great. From social media sites and emails to push notifications and blogs, there’s no shortage of outlets through which to publish your copywriting. However, you can’t treat them all the same if you want to optimize their impact on your audience. This isn’t just because some are made for long form content and some for short, though that’s one aspect of it. Consumers have different expectations for the types of content they’ll find on each platform, so yours better live up to that. You need to understand the reasons people use each platform. For example, on Facebook they might prefer fun or lighter articles, and head to Twitter for news-focused pieces. Try to keep the same brand voice across all platforms, but tailor the essence of the content to the platform where it’s being posted.
Get to the point
Not only are readers’ attention spans for content getting shorter, but so are the devices consumers are reading it on. Gone are the days of laptop dominance, and most folks aren’t going to scroll forever on their phones or tablets to figure out what your bottom line is. So make sure your content is short, sweet, and most importantly—adds value. Research has shown that attention spans are decreasing by 88% each year, so don’t expect this trend to change. Your subject line or headline has to sell the content from the start, no matter how great it otherwise is.
If you’re not able to distill your main point to one sentence, that could mean it isn’t concise or clear enough. The New York Times sends out a briefing email each morning where they sum up all news articles into one paragraph at the beginning — one sentence for each topic. The Times does much of the initial heavy lifting, summarizing each article and allowing the reader to choose what they want to scroll down and read.
Focus on pain points
You might have the best products or services in the world, but if you can’t explain why consumers need them, it hardly matters. Writing about your features won’t do you any good if people don’t understand why they should matter to them. Instead, use a problem solving
approach with your content to discuss issues consumers might have and how your brand can help.
Case studies are a great example of this type of writing, but you’ll want to make sure the studies tell a story, rather than coming across as a sales pitch. In this example from Level Green Landscaping, the study points out the common concerns of property owners (the company’s target audience) and how their services resolve those concerns. Some brands call this type of writing “success stories”, making them sound less scientific and more conversational—which leads us to the next trend.
Start a conversation
When consumers switch between social media and brand sites, they shouldn’t get whiplash from an extreme difference in content. Sure, a Facebook post is a different beast than a blog, but the brand’s voice should sound the same for both—and that tone needs to be conversational. Your copywriting should come across like a conversation between friends, not a sales pitch or endless monologue. Relatability helps build trust with your audience, especially in a world where social sites are making this the new norm. It helps to read your content out loud to make sure it sounds natural and flowing.
About Us pages can easily become traps for poor copywriting because, well, a brand’s history and details can be boring. With their Our Story page, Baronfig proves that there’s at least one way to make it interesting and conversational. They broke the text up with visual elements, which always helps, and they kept it short and sweet.
Educate to engage
Consumers would much rather spend their time learning something instead of being lectured at— or worse, being sold to. Again, it’s all about bringing value to your audience. The content can answer questions about the buying process, or shed light on common misconceptions. The main goal is that it teaches something.
Mint.com is a good example of a brand that keeps its audience informed. Money management can be a tricky topic to both understand and explain, but Mint jumps right in to provide valuable insights with blog topics like this one:
Content should be fresh, engaging, useful, and tailored to your audience if it’s going to be successful.