Copywriting is at the heart of all great marketing campaigns – it is what makes your audience want to engage with your content and campaigns.
Copy comes in many different ways, whether that be a social media post, a caption on a video, blog writing or a campaign. The writing needs to be consistent with your brand guidelines, use engaging techniques and contain the right tone and information to ensure it is seen by the right people.
Our content maestros at Audience will cater writing specifically to your brand and have put together a guide on why copywriting is essential to successful marketing…
WHY DO YOU NEED COPYWRITING?
With so many effective marketing campaigns and social media booming with inspiration, what makes your brand stand out?
Copywriting is at the heart of the answer, creating brand awareness and driving traffic to your business through fun and engaging copy. Crafting excellent content for your website, advertisements and press releases is one of the main ways to show off your brand values and personality.
You can think of copywriting as a call-to-action, but on an even bigger scale as copywriters are trying to get your audience to react, think, respond or learn more about your campaign. Think about the adverts you can’t get out of your head - the jingles you hear on the radio or slogans that you automatically associate with a specific company e.g. ‘Just Do It’ or ‘Every Little Helps’. Those are all examples of brilliant copy, which has stuck with an audience and has created and developed brand awareness.
WHAT MAKES GOOD COPY?
Good copy can be very challenging, in a world where almost everything has been thought of or created, standing out from the crowd and establishing a specific phrase or post that captures your brand is difficult.
This goes without saying, but you need to have great grammar and spelling for your copy to be good. It’s surprising how many grammar mistakes or spelling issues you see on brand campaigns, and this could be very off-putting for interested customers. Making sure your copy is well written and has great punctuation is key, and having multiple people overview it is also a good idea.
Persuasion is at the heart of good copy, after all, creating these campaigns and social media posts has an end desire – to sell, inform or entertain. Identify the focus of your campaign, newsletter or post and use persuasive language to reel in your audience. Triggering emotions and creating a need for your services is what will make someone reach out.
Last but not least, determine a clear call-to-action (CTA) and ultimate goal. Think about what it is you want to achieve – if you want more followers on Instagram, incorporate your page and where to find you within your copy, if you want someone to get in touch and fill out a form, ensure that they know exactly where to find it and what they should expect next. Creating clear goals and expectations will make sure the engagement you have created doesn’t go to waste.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF COPYWRITING
Copywriting is a vast industry, almost everything we see and hear within companies is written by a copywriter, whether that be jingles, posters or campaigns, so knowing what type of copy you need and what that contains can help you out in the long run. Here are a couple of the most popular types of copywriting…
1. SOCIAL MEDIA COPYWRITING
The social media industry is thriving, and for most of us, social media is where we go to search for a product, service or company, therefore social media copywriting is extremely important if you want your social platforms to succeed.
Using SEO-rich information and engaging captions on your posts will drive more traffic and in-turn increase sales/demand for your services. Including SEO within captions, online blogs and creating content which you know people search for will make it more likely for your social media channels to be visited.
Most businesses use more than one social media platform to reach their customers so knowing the tone of each one, how to cater to that specific audience and what type of content (e.g. video/photographic) is most popular, is key.
2. CONTENT MARKETING
‘Content’ usually refers to information on websites such as blog posts, articles or product pages, which are usually longer and contain more information than just a one-off social media post.
Content marketing is mostly online nowadays, however, some is still done in print such as leaflets and posters. Content marketing should be informative and educational, with your business bringing something back out to the community. Effectively, you want to teach your audience, whether that be letting them know your brand values, or exploring the services you provide in detail and what they mean.
This content should be easy to read, entertaining and relevant to your business.
3. MARKETING COPYWRITING
Marketing copywriting essentially focuses on one of two things – selling or buying.
If your business profits mainly on a customer selling/buying something through your platform, then effective marketing copywriting is how you can lead them down the hole of connecting with you. The goal of writing is to connect with the target audience and show why your services are what the customer needs.
Creating awareness for your products, where to find them and what the services provided entail will give the customer a chance to explore your business and interact.
HOW CAN YOU GET STARTED WITH COPYWRITING?
Now that you know what copywriting is and you might’ve identified which type of copywriting it is that you want to apply to your business, you need to start planning how to begin copywriting.
Identify your audience’s needs and what you think will be most effective when it comes to copywriting. If you usually focus on social media, then begin with more engaging social posts, maybe start blogging and article writing and expand on the feed posts you’ve already created. If your main form of marketing is via leaflet drops or posters, start creating a plan on how those can be more entertaining and create excellent copy for them.
Then, set goals on what you want your copy to achieve and how you will hit them targets, documenting challenges or pieces of copy that haven’t done as well as you thought so you know not to repeat them again.
Applying all of these tips to your business and copywriting plan will ensure that your writing is engaging your audience and achieving the goals you’ve set.
At Audience, our content experts will produce writing consistently with your brand guidelines and ensure it is seen by the right people. So, if you need a helping hand with copy or any written work, drop us an email at hello@getaudience.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help!
