How to Write Compelling Copy in Your Marketing: Part 1
Why It Matters and Finding Your Brand Voice
Copy is sometimes the underdog of the marketing world. Images, video, even graphics – these are eye-catching and memorable with colours and characters. And often marketers spend more time creating those elements than thinking about the copy itself. But having strong writing, that is aligned with your audience, represents your brand and gets your message across, is a vital part of your marketing. And a skill that should be developed.
In this two-part article series, we’re covering how to write compelling copy in your marketing. This first article will focus on why it matters and how to find your brand voice. The second article will give you our top 10 tips for writing compelling copy. Let’s dive in.
How to Write Compelling Copy Part 1: Why It Matters and Finding Your Brand Voice
Why Copy Matters
Copywriting is part of every element of your marketing – from emails to podcasts, from socials to blog posts. And getting it wrong can be tremendously damaging to your brand. Errors, spelling and grammar mistakes and just plain bad writing can decrease the time visitors spend on your landing page by 8%. Worse, they can increase the bounce rate by 85%. Even when it comes to ads, bad copy is a killer. It can reduce the likelihood that users will click on your ad by up to 70%.
Good copy can also have a tremendous impact on your brand. But in a good way. Compelling, well-written, audience-aligned copy can draw 7.8 times more site traffic. And 56% of marketers believe it produces better brand recall leading to higher engagement rates. When it comes to your marketing, these are all good things.
So, how do you write compelling copy for marketing? It all starts with your brand voice.
Finding Your Brand Voice
When it comes to how to write compelling copy your brand voice is the first and most important element to instill into your copy. It gives all your writing and marketing a consistency that enables your brand to be immediately recognisable and memorable. Over time, you’re able to build on this identifiability to become an authority in your area or industry. But what do you do if you’re unsure of your brand voice?
Step1: Pull together some of your best content
The first step is to pull together a representative sample of your content. Pick the best content – the content that resonates with you and that has performed well. Collate these pieces and look at what elements make them stand out and unique. This is the basis for your brand voice.
Step 2: Describe your brand voice
With just a few key words, describe your brand voice. How would you describe it to someone else? You might choose words like personable, fun, joyful, conversational or savvy. Be sure to choose those brand traits that help you stand out from the crowd.
Step 3: Create a brand voice chart
Now that you’ve defined your brand tone of voice, you just need to give it specifics. How will you use it in your content? What are the dos and don’ts?
List them out on your brand voice chart (example below). This ensures that you and every member of your team has the instructions they need to keep your brand voice consistent and authentic.
Example: Brand Voice Chart
Step 4: Train your writers
Distribute your tone of voice information to all your writers, whether they’re copywriters working on your blog posts, digital marketers creating PPC copy or even VAs working on your monthly newsletters. Every single person that writes a word for you and your brand must be implementing a consistent voice for your brand. Training is vital, and working with real life examples and content is the best way to ensure that the training works.
Step 5: Keep your brand voice fresh
Review and revise. It’s vital that you’re consistently reviewing your content and your brand voice to see what’s working – what customers and clients are responding to – and what’s not. Once you understand this data, make changes to your brand voice, and your chart. Pass these changes onto your writers as well to ensure that your fresh brand voice is coming through to your clients and customers.
Coming Up!
Now that you’ve got your brand voice nailed down it’s time to get writing. In the next article in this two-part series we’ve pulled together our top 10 tips for writing compelling copy to set you well on your way.