Words are everywhere. And they can make or break your brand.
Blog posts, website copy, social media, articles, emails, packaging…whatever your brand does online – or offline – will need stand-out copy. And this copy needs to represent your brand, just like your design.
The words you use and the way you use them will help to tell your brand story, build a connection with your audience and create a memorable image of your brand and its values.
Just like your copy should be, we’ve kept this list short and snappy so you can get on with perfecting your writing…
- Know your audience
Before you start to write anything, you need to know who you’re writing for. One of the most effective ways to do this is to write an audience persona.
You can craft a persona to represent your audience with a specific name, demographics, interests, goals and behaviours. By truly understanding who you’re writing for, you can tailor your copy to target them in a relevant way, says Neil Patel.
- Master your brand voice
Just as you’ve created an audience persona, you need to make sure that your brand’s personality and emotional tone is represented in your copy.
Your brand voice encompasses its unique perspective and its values and should be showcased through the choice of your words and style of writing that is called the tone. Choose your words carefully and stick with a consistent communication style in each piece that you write.
We can help you discover your brand’s narrative and tone of voice with our branding services.
- Entice your audience
Whether you’re writing a blog post, press release or social media ad, your headline should be concise and entice your audience. Sometimes, battling a shorter piece of copy comes with more difficulty, “how can I include everything in one headline?”. The answer is: don’t.
A headline isn’t there to explain every point of your piece, it’s there to grab the reader’s attention and serve as a point of reference for what they’re about to read.
- Define your aim
A lot of work goes into a piece of copy before a word hits the page. And a part of that should be figuring out the aim of the copy.
You can’t start writing anything until you know the aim of the copy – whether that be informing your audience, persuading them to buy a product or inviting them to a webinar. Your writing can then be tailored towards this goal, guiding your audience to learn something new or perform an action.
- Get rid of clutter
If you fall back into your English Literature days and start to write long, cluttered sentences, cut it back word by word. Get rid of any lengthy, unnecessary words and stick to this rule: if a shorter word works, use it.
Avoid any jargon or hyperbole, so that you don’t lose your audience with technical language or industry-specific terminology – “good copywriting doesn’t need dressing up”, HubSpot. Keep them reading with short snappy sentences and simplified language.
- Speak their language
Sometimes you can get lost in your own interests or start writing in language you’d use when talking to your own friends.
For your copy to attract the right audience it will need to be conversational and speak their language. Serve your audience’s interests and speak to their pain points. And if you keep writing with your audience persona in mind, you can’t go far wrong.
- Personalise the CTA button
There’s nothing worse than being told to do something. Your audience may be scrolling through their feed or reading up on their favourite topic, so you’ll need to make your audience want to do something.
Make your call-to-action button friendly, using words like “Get”, “Discover” or “Let’s go”. Get the CTA right and you’ve converted a visitor to a lead, meaning your copywriting efforts have hit the spot.
Sometimes the power of words is underrated. Pour your efforts into perfecting your brand copy using our quickfire checklist and create a memorable brand that tells your story and engages your audience.
Want to learn more? Here’s 8 questions to test your brand’s words.
