Let’s back up, however, and ask ourselves one fundamental question before going further: what is marketing copy? According to Indeed, marketing copy is “content written to promote or sell a product or service or to persuade readers to take a certain action.” Copy is writing. Basically, strong marketing copy rests on the ability to convey a persuasive message quickly to an audience.
Make Sure Your Marketing Copy Reflects Brand Guidelines
Your marketing copy should fit within your brand guidelines.
The first key to creating powerful marketing copy is to know your brand guidelines. Yes, writing grammatically correct sentences with the right font and graphics is important, but before any of that, there must be consistency in how you present information. Do you have a concise representation of your brand guidelines that you can base this on? If not, here are a few, quick essentials to establishing these guidelines:
- Brand essence: This is the feeling you place at the center of all that your company does and wants to achieve. According to HubSpot, brand essence “…defines what a brand stands for, shapes the overall identity, and aims to invoke a particular thought, feeling, or emotion in consumers. Typically, it’s expressed in two to three words.”
- Brand pillars: Brand pillars define you even further than the essence. They are not only what you communicate to your audience, but how your audience sees you. HubSpot defines them as “the values and characteristics that make up your brand. Your brand should be about how you communicate your message to the world. Brand pillars help you do that by defining the fundamental points that set your company apart from your competitors.”
- Brand archetype: Iconic Fox provides a very thorough explanation of each of the brand archetypes. Essentially, they represent all personalities a customer or brand can have. They state that to use them effectively, “The trick is to identify your customer’s personality, then align your brand with the archetype that would most appeal to a desire within your customer.”
Once you have found what you think is your brand’s archetype, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is that where you want to fit?
- Do you think that is the kind of work you want to be doing?
- Is that the way you can most ideally impact your audience the way you want to?
The good news is that if you find any uncertainty in these answers, you can change your archetype or tweak your brand to better fit your vision.
Establish A Target Audience For Your Marketing Copy
Marketing copy should be written with your target audience in mind.
The next thing you want to do is establish your business’s target audience. For this, make it as specific as you can.
For example, if you are an outdoorsy company that is trying to sell a new kind of traction-savvy flip-flop, you might say that your target audience consists of young, middle-class men that enjoy mid-level hiking and are always on the cusp of new trends. The point here is that just saying “hikers” isn’t enough. Consider every aspect of who your marketing target is. Who do you imagine walking around with your product?
Establishing your target audience is critical because it directs your voice in everything your company writes. Defining a specific target audience allows you to reach not only the people you have defined but those that want to be like them or those that fit one or more aspects of the traits.
Establish A Voice For Your Marketing Copy
Once your target audience is established, your brand is almost ready to start writing the marketing copy. But first, you need to make sure you have an established voice that your audience can recognize.
CoSchedule breaks down brand voice as “the personality and emotion infused into a company’s communications.” Overall, the idea is to make sure that everything is consistent and makes sense cohesively. Every piece of writing that leaves your business should adhere to the tone you created internally – which should, in every sense, reflect your brand essence and pillars.
By following this method of creating a company voice, you have the potential to make your product or service highly recognizable to any potential audience member or consumer. This creates a strong brand for your company because the deeply rooted message you established affects every aspect of what you do.
Do’s And Don’ts Of Copywriting
Keep in mind the do’s and don’ts of copywriting.
Now that you have everything you need, you can confidently go forward and develop marketing copy that is genuinely reflective of what your company does, aspires to do and stands for.
What are some tangible things can you do to write marketing copy that stands out? Backlinko’s guide to copywriting discusses tips to consider:
- Write like you talk (read your copy out loud to check for this)
- Use short sentences
- Write in active voice
- Write for skimmers
- Include a strong call-to-action
- Create a sense of urgency
We’ve covered some copywriting “do’s” but what about copywriting “don’ts”?
Even with all the tools to create the best marketing copy product, it is easy to fall into sticky situations when it comes to writing for your business. Wordstream shares common copy mistakes that copywriters tend to fall into:
- Weak headlines and subheads
- Lengthy sentences
- Too much jargon and buzzwords
- Ignoring or overdoing SEO
Now that you have all the tools, you’re ready to go write perfect marketing copy for your company and target audience. The work that you put into your brand will reflect in the writing that you produce, as long as you stay true to your essence and pillars. Use them to create copy that engages and creates trust with your target audience and beyond.
Contact Us!
If you need help with writing marketing copy for your brand or have other questions about marketing or social media, contact us at Three Girls Media for a complimentary consultation. We have a full staff of seasoned marketing professionals who are eager to help you reach your marketing goals!
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