It’s the year 2024 and most everyone has heard about copy or content or copywriters. But what exactly does the mysterious copywriter do? Ok. So, maybe mysterious is a stretch, since it’s all in the name.
Copy refers to the branded content that aims to persuade a target audience to convert. It’s the “got milk” of it all. You see words in an ad, on a website, or even on a social media post–that’s copy.
A copywriter is someone who, well, writes copy. Why is that important? Copywriters distill and present information to your audience in ways that follow your brand voice and cause an action. Copywriting is big in the marketing world and has been since there was written language and things to sell.
Copywriting is a cornerstone for marketing in quite a few different ways, and to understand how copy works, we’ll highlight a few ways copywriting is pivotal:
- Brand Voice and Identity: Copy helps define and communicate a brand’s voice, personality, and values, creating a consistent experience across all marketing channels. Your brand’s voice is what sets you apart in the pack. It’s what makes you different, and makes your business unique. Strategic copy captures that voice and identity. It helps communicate your vision and your values. Plus, it can add a little extra flare.
- Customer Engagement: Through compelling storytelling and targeted messaging, copywriting engages potential customers, keeping them interested and invested in what a brand has to offer. This is something that marketers have always known: stories stay with people. Copywriters excel at weaving the story of why you’re the best into the fabric of your copy.
- Conversion and Sales: At its core, copywriting aims to convert readers into doers. By highlighting benefits, addressing pain points, and offering solutions, copy persuades consumers to take action. Whatever your conversion might be, whether it’s sales or services, copy is there to hook people and make sure they convert.
- SEO and Online Visibility: In digital marketing, copywriting is integral to search engine optimization (SEO). By incorporating relevant keywords and crafting valuable content, copywriters improve a website’s ranking on search engines, thereby increasing visibility and traffic. It’s not all about keyword stuffing. In fact, good copywriters avoid that. You aren’t just adding content, you’re adding content that is optimized for your brand and for your conversion goals. (And, yes, I know that was a lot of keywords.)
Copy is a tool to be used. It takes strategic understanding to be executed correctly and efficiently. Copywriting goes deeper than the ability to write well. There are a few steps that make sure a copywriter is giving you the best copy they can:
- Understanding: Effective copywriting starts with understanding. They work to understand the brand and the target audience. The combined knowledge of brand and target audience ensures that copy resonates on a personal level with the audience and will perfectly reflect the brand. Understanding target audiences includes getting to know their preferences, challenges, and behaviors – then demonstrating how the brand can give them all their wildest dreams. Or at least let the audience know why they’re the perfect plumbers for the job.
- Setting Clear Objectives: It’s important that your copywriter knows your marketing plan and objectives. It’s their job to get people to convert, so they need to know those objectives ahead of time. Copy can be tailored to inform, persuade, or entertain. A good copywriter just needs to be pointed in the right direction to get the right message across.
- Crafting the Right Message: Building on the understanding of the brand, audience, and marketing objectives, copywriters craft messages that effectively communicate the value and benefits of the brand or product. These messages also speak directly to the audience’s interests and needs. The groundwork needs to be done for the message to be clear.
- Employing Persuasive Techniques: Copywriters use all of the tools in their rhetorical arsenal to get the message across. This can take the form of emotional appeals (cue Sarah McLachlin’s “Angel”); humor (people running into doors because they’re just that clean); social proof (this testimony is not from an actor); and urgency (Act fast!). Copy is more than just words and descriptions. It’s all about evoking a response. If copy isn’t making you react in some way, it’s not good copy.
- Optimizing for Channels and Formats: Different marketing channels (email, social media, blogs, etc.) require distinct copywriting approaches. This is yet another layer of understanding that copywriters have to bring to the table. Where is this message being delivered? People react differently when they’re reading a blog than when they’re reading an email. The same goes for each individual social media platform. The product and services might be the same, you still have your target audience, but now you have to tailor your message to the platform to ensure your message is as impactful as possible. This platform understanding goes a long way in maximizing engagement and effectiveness.
Copywriting is a critical component of effective marketing. It bridges the gap between a brand’s value proposition and its audience’s needs. By using all of the tools available to a copywriter to craft messages that resonate, persuade, and convert, copywriting creates tangible results. In the landscape of digital marketing, the demand for skilled copywriters who can navigate the complexities of consumer behavior and online communication continues to grow. Copywriters must stay on top of all the different digital marketing platforms to make sure when they get a brand and marketing plan they can deliver the best messages possible. Yes, it can be a crowded marketplace, but an effective copywriter knows how to stand out and connect with your business’s audience on a meaningful level.
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