Finding just the right word in daily conversation is hard at times. Finding the right words for the perfect marketing message is even trickier for even the most experienced and skilled of copywriters. Every time your company communicates with an audience – via your website, newsletter, direct mail piece, email, blog, press release, video, etc. – how well your content is received (and shared) depends on why and how you wrote it.
Before typing or putting one word on paper (yes, some of us still like fleshing out ideas on paper with pencil), our copywriting team always starts with making sure we have the fundamentals of the business, their audience and the end goal in mind. Let’s start with an exercise… write down the features of your service or product. Is it faster? Stronger? More affordable? Best customer reviews on the market? Now write down the benefits. In other words how those features benefit your customers. Faster, so they can do more (insert the appropriate verb here like work, spend time with family, etc.). Stronger, so your product or service lasts for years to come. You get the picture.
The benefits are the heart of your copywriting. And your content marketing takes off from there.
Good content versus great content
Good content addresses a need, but GREAT content proves you understand the readers’ point of view and underscores why they need you even worse than they ever fathomed. It makes your brand irresistible. It takes your steak-and-potatoes product and reminds readers just how mind blowing both are when cooked exactly right and served together with a bottle of A1 and some Lawry’s.
Great content is also never, ever boring. If you want your content to be a core driver for leads or even to improve SEO, it has to break the cold, steely shackles of every-day writing. Great copy jumps off the page and smacks you in the mouth, and it doesn’t apologize afterwards. It isn’t loud or garish. It isn’t offensive or overly self-promotional. But it IS spectacular, from soup to nuts, with no dead space or filler in between. It digs at your core, beneath the surface that most copy doesn’t even bother to scratch.
Great content speaks to the audience in their language. When you sell fermented grape juice, but everyone calls it wine, that’s the verbiage you stick with. Use their language as your keywords. People search for “wine” and not “fermented grape juice” so save yourself – and your audience – from disappointment.
Great copy is an extension of your company’s culture and values. If your company’s brand reflects hip, ultra-cool services and products, your copywriting should mimic that vibe. If you have a conservative style, copy should emulate that as well. Selling hip using conservative copywriting will only disconnect your brand with your customers. Customers are buying more than a product or service, they’re buying into an experience that you’ve created and must maintain. The tone and voice of your copywriting are your keys to living up to the experience customers expect from you. Think of it this way. Would Apple be Apple with hordes of devoted customers standing in lines for days in advance of a new product release if its messaging was written like IBM’s? Um, no…
Know your customer (really, get to know them)
You know your business, so hopefully you know exactly when and why customers buy your product or service. A fantastic example is the message you get from your favorite florist, restaurant or hotel reminding you of your anniversary. They get their business and they get you. And if their message is crafted appropriately, hey, they might just get a little more of your hard earned cash when the big “A” date rolls around.
Sometimes it’s more about knowing people in general as opposed to knowing your specific customers. No one likes the person who rambles on and on about how great he or she is. The same goes for your copywriting. Speak directly to your reader. Use “you” and include him or her in the conversation. Don’t talk at them; talk with them. Don’t be afraid to show some emotion either. Humans are emphatic by nature. Empathy goes a long way whereas bragging or preaching gets you nowhere fast. Great content is rarely about “you.” In fact, great content is never about you.
The more you can appear to be communicating on a personal, one-on-one level, the greater chance there is that prospects will see you as an authority in your market. That’s not going to happen unless there’s great, thoughtful, you-won’t-see-this-anywhere-else copy backing the message.
Using drug companies as an example
Two words: pharma companies. Yes, many big pharma ads are misleading. But it wasn’t that long ago that the public had never heard of a specific drug unless it was doctor prescribed. Today, Viagra, Humira, Chantix and the like are common vocabulary. Commercials bypass the doctor and go straight to the buyer, who in turn schedule appoints with physicians, telling them they have a problem instead of the other way around. Drug companies create or point out a problem in consumers’ minds, show they manufactured a drug as the solution, and broadcast advertisements brimming with empathy.
There’s great lengths gone to by all of these companies to ensure the actors you see and the situations that they’re in feel real. They’ve ensured that you see yourself when you watch or read (or that you see who you think you’d be if you just didn’t have to pee so often, or if you had a little more coverage on your burgeoning widow’s peak).
If you can’t create it, have someone else do it
What if you you’re just not sure you’re up to creating consistently great copy, or if you need an outside perspective? Especially in a small business environment, sometimes we’re just too close to be objective. That’s why EAG is here. We help make sure your content is on point, timely and written specifically for your (future) customers. And it’s done with punch.
Sometimes it’s not just about being objective, it’s about having the time to create great content and then share it with the masses in ways that generates likes, shares and engagement. That takes time, resources and relationships that many small businesses just don’t have.
If you’re looking for a content partner with fantastic copywriting services to take your brand’s message to the next level – or to get it on the right level for your customers – contact us today.