It’s the age of visual
media. We’re in 2018, and we’ve all had our fair share of moments when we feel
closer to the Jetsons than ever. Have you seen that video of a baby riding a hoverboard like a total pro? That’s the world we live in.
The future is now, and it has arrived with millions of videos just like that
one. The digital landscape has reached a visual saturation point that is
difficult to ignore.
But what about written
content? Is the joy of reading in as much peril as my high school English
teacher predicted?
Here are 5 big reasons
why you should still invest in great Copywriting:
1. Individuality
If your current
habitat is anywhere near a marketing agency, you may have heard the refrain
that visual content – mainly photography and video – is “it” right now. The
problem is that this refrain is already stuck in everyone’s head – be they
marketers, content creators, photographers, Facebook moms, or whoever. Everyone
already knows that no one will engage with you on social media without a
compelling visual of some kind.
The caveat to this is
that nearly everyone has a smartphone with an ultra-sophisticated camera. The
other day, I scrolled past an image of a young woman with an enviable figure
posed in resort attire on a sprawling beach. She was bathed in the morning
sunlight and looked like she was living in a dream. I didn’t “like” it. I’d
seen twenty photos just like it in the previous five minutes.
It’s not that it
wasn’t a great photo – it’s that the post lacked storytelling.
At this point, we’re pretty used to being spectators to the lives of beautiful,
interesting people. But what sets apart a compelling photograph from a stock
image? It’s the narrative, the excitement, the human element. And that’s
something that copy gives you – it’s an opportunity to give context. And
context is powerful.
2. Clarity
We’re fortunate to
live in a place where the literacy rate is close to 100%. But not everyone who
can read is necessarily born to write. A copywriter is to language what an
accountant is to numbers: you want someone who knows what they’re doing to be
taking care of that job. A copywriter isn’t only there to make sure your ads
and blog posts are free of spelling and syntax errors – though that certainly
is a part of it. A study by RealBusiness in the UK concluded that 59% of respondents would not do business with a company if they
had obvious spelling or grammar mistakes in their marketing materials.
A copywriter’s craft
also involves reading copy from an outsider’s perspective. A copywriter worth
their salt should be re-reading copy while mindfully pretending they’ve never
seen it before. Then, they should be consulting someone who genuinely hasn’t
seen it before. After that, they should be seeking feedback and editing the copy
until the reader has no choice but to take away the right message.
That matters, because
putting the wrong message out there – even based on one person’s interpretation
– can cost you a lot. It can cost you money if the message is an unclear
promotion end date, or an obvious typo on an expensive print job. It can cost
you time if that message beckons in fifty calls per day from confused
customers. Or, worst of all, it can cost you your reputation if the message is
interpreted as offensive or plain stupid.
3. Brevity
Most of you probably
didn’t make it to this bullet point, which only proves the point I’m about to
make. At this stage in history, people’s attention spans have fully
goldfish-ified. Microsoft did a study back in 2015 that showed the average
adult attention span was about eight seconds. Now more than ever, gold-standard
(goldfish-standard?) copy is concise. You need to catch – and keep! – your
audience’s attention in as little time as possible, so keep it short. How can
you get your point across if your reader left to watch a video of a baby riding
a hoverboard five minutes ago?
4. Personality
If you haven’t heard
this piece of marketing scripture, here it is, free of charge: your brand is what other people think of you. Think of the people you like to be around. What qualities do they have that
draws you in? Chances are, most of those qualities are personality attributes.
Maybe it’s their quirky sense of humour, or their fresh perspective on life, or
their passion for their field of expertise – a captivating personality
establishes the value of the person’s thoughts and opinions. The same principles
apply to brands. In marketing, we call this the brand “voice” – the unique way
a brand expresses their personality. Wendy’s is a great example of brand voice. After decades of getting pummeled by
competitors like McDonalds, Wendy’s decided to change their strategy and adopt
social media marketing in a major way. They didn’t play it safe – they
developed a “voice” for their Twitter account that matches their target
audience. It’s young, it’s sarcastic, and it’s not afraid to get in the odd rap
battle. Their posts started going viral, and Wendy’s won a completely new
audience by completely abandoning conventional communication tactics and being
totally original.
5. Opportunity
It’s easy to forget
all the ways you need to communicate with your audience just to make a single
sale. You have to name your product. You have to tell your audience that your
product exists. You have to educate people on how your product works, and you
have to do it before they stop caring and move on. Your website is where all
these responsibilities intersect. As you add more and more copy to your website
that conveys this information, you benefit your business two-fold. Not only
does your audience have all the resources they need to make purchase decisions,
you’ll also be improving your search engine rankings by filling your site with
keywords. These keywords are how search engines like Google form an
understanding of what your site is about, which helps the engine draw a
connection between a search query and your website.
And that’s not all –
most brands today are interested in creating long-term relationships with their
customers. In addition to all the above, you must also inspire curiosity while
continuously building trust if you hope to earn brand-loyal customers. This can
only be done with thoughtfully crafted copy. Copy lets you create the world in
which your product and your customer live happily together. Perhaps that looks
like a blog post, where you recount a time when your financial services
heroically saved a client thousands of dollars in customs fees. Or, it could be
the caption on an Instagram post, telling the inspiring tale of how a
customer’s life was transformed by your fitness program. Imagery captures the
eye, but story is what captures the heart and mind. Ideally, your customer
should start to see your product as an opportunity to improve something in
their life.
So, Do You Copy?
In today’s digital
age, people have become very aware of – and resistant to – their role as ad
targets. There are simply no safe bets when relying on antiquated marketing
tactics, and this is especially true of copy. Traditional ads are falling out
of favour, yet engaging branded content has never been more valuable. So, craft
it carefully. Give it thought. Be critical. Write, and re-write. More of your
campaign success is riding on it than you might think.
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Thanks for reading!
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