For companies of all sizes, website copy, email campaigns, blog posts and marketing collateral can all be lead generators if created with due diligence and with an eye to careful positioning. Before a potential customer makes a purchase, most look you (or your brand) up online. So first impressions do count, and it isn’t just about how you look. Copy weighs in equally during these make-or-break moments. So how does your brand sound? Is its voice and story clear and understandable?
Writing effective and remarkable copy is part art and part science. It’s an art because crafting and blending words together well does require a particular aptitude. To be creative with words, knowing how to shift and morph their order to create a cadence that is persuasive or compelling (or both) takes dedication and a significant amount of patience. Writing is also very much a science because the innate nature of storytelling in and of itself, no matter what your brand’s product or service is, exists in a world of trial and error, success or failure.
When it comes to writing messaging for or around your brand, it is paramount to tell a story and share what is unique and different about whatever it is you are selling. There are so many things vying for our attention in our tech heavy 24/7 world that you MUST be able, in as succinct a way as possible, capture the essence of your brand and it’s point of view that it then demands further conversation or investigation. If you don’t master that, you have lost customers right out of the gate.
Too many brands don’t place an important emphasis on the words that they choose to represent them, they view them as cosmetic and focus most of their efforts on visual appeal.
Your copy/content has to sizzle without leaning on superlatives or being too gimmicky. Your copywriting needs to draw people in, change perception, dissolve objection, evoke or provoke into action. You need to make your audience curious by triggering just the right emotion(s). Sounds like a lot to ask but it is the reality of today’s marketplace.
In a nutshell, when writing copy you have to form a complete puzzle with the words being the pieces. Think of any great book you have read, the stars are the words themselves that birth dimension and emotional impact and keep you from putting it down. Writing messaging for your brand is really no different. Be strategic with every sentence or chosen word/phrase that you utilize, it is precious real estate. There is no time to lose customers because of a dull message. You have to immerse them in wonder, discovery or engagement (or hit a pain point or two) from the get-go.
Words are your brand’s messengers. Take the time, whether doing it yourself or by hiring a copywriter, to formulate your brand’s copy to be not just informative but irresistible and one-of-a-kind. Your content/copy needs to feel organic and authentic in order for it to make your brand shine and grow. Does your brand’s writing convey value, encourage connections and result in people saying “I’m in”? Ask a few people you know for their opinion/feedback. Take a moment to read some of your brand’s copy out loud to see if it packs a punch and says all the things you want it to. If it doesn’t, consider that the right words drive the right numbers so get yourself rewriting pronto.
