A B2C cup of tea

Sometimes, when I meet people they offer me a cup of tea.  It’s simple but it makes me instantly warm to them.  This is odd because I prefer coffee.  

It tells me something personal about them (that they have tea) and the mere fact that they offer it to me lets me know that my happiness is important to them.  No matter what they’re about to say, I’m listening because I want to appease them in return.  I’m not saying I’ll do anything.  But almost.  So am I being tricked?

Well most of the time no.  The other day when Jake, my old flatmate, gave me a cup of tea he was just being friendly.  And the same goes for the endless cups of tea I’ve received from my girlfriend.  But why does the hairdresser always offer me a cup?  

Well, offering a cup of tea is an instantly recognisable friendly gesture in this country.  It’s a useful way to get customers onside.

But how is this related to copywriting?

Well, B2C copy doesn’t always jump straight in with an offer or a product.  Quite often there will be a friendly sentence, or even paragraph, preceding.  This is the readers’ cup of tea – it builds rapport, shows personality and creates a sense of trust.  Copy for ads or virals often follows this strategy, sometimes virtually ignoring the product or service being sold until the end. 

And it’s not just words that help us do this.  Take this recent (and very popular) TV advert for John Lewis for example.  The build up is a series of clips following a child getting more and more excited for Christmas. Then, only at the end do we learn the selling message, ‘for gifts you can’t wait to give’. 

Whilst the Hairdresser’s weapon of mass seduction is a nice cuppa, ours may come in many forms. And it’s a copywiter’s job to think about the overall customer experience when beginning any piece.

Whether we use words on their own or with imagery, we always need to give our customers what they want. A friendly intro won’t sell without benefits, just like a cup of tea is no use without a good haircut.  So whilst we can take our time to get to the big reveal, when we get there the USPs need to be clear.  A confused customer is rarely a happy customer after all.

SEO Copywriter or Content Strategist?

We read a thread on LinkedIn about the role of Copywriter vs Content Strategist which was sparked by this article.  For many people a Copywriter is someone who simply writes engaging copy rather than someone who is involved at a strategic level.

The majority agree that a content strategist is something different…  What that is exactly remains a bit blurry. 

Firstly, lets try to distinguish the role of an online Copywriter?

Based on the comments we’ve been reading it can be anything.  From someone who is given a brief and writes engaging, grammatically correct copy to someone who writes grammatically correct, engaging copy to a brief... Hang on... That’s the same thing.

So are we content strategists then?

We don’t think so.  From The Copywriting People’s point of view an online copywriter is more than just someone who writes copy.  A Copywriter identifies and incorporates key words for SEO purposes.  A Copywriter recognises business goals and marketing objectives. 

Ok.  So what is a Content Strategist in our opinion?  Well… we’re not entirely sure.  But we’re fairly certain it involves numerous space age tools (like the kind we see on CSI) and months spent at the client’s site – all chargeable time of course.

If a Content Strategist does in fact use incomprehensible tools then we’re right and it is the job of the online Copywriter to analyse, strategise and lure the reader.  But CSI and its many tools are fictional.  So if a Content Strategist is only human where does that leave us?  What are we and has our job title changed? 

 

When working on digital media we work in two ways.  Our clients either give us a list of key words and we incorporate them into the text – traditional copywriter duties.  Or we can go ahead and define which key words should be on each page, incorporate them into the headings, links and text; and ensure a consistent tone of voice across the full marketing suite – which are typical content strategist duties right?  But I think we’ll just call it copywriting…

If anyone can answer our many questions please let us know.  We’re quite clearly going round in circles on this one!

And if we are doing content strategist duties, where are our space age tools?!

Top five tips for copywriting to an audience that doesn’t want to listen…

I said…

Top five tips for copywriting to an audience that doesn’t want to listen!!!

The grammar is technically correct, the language flows and structurally it’s sound.  So why aren’t the calls flooding in? 

No one is reading.

Let’s be honest, most of us don’t want to read about utility pipe manufacture.  Or why one fire alarm is better than another – even when we really do need one!  So it’s important to spend some time making sure your material attracts and keeps the right audience.

Here are our top five ways to reel them in

1. Before you start writing do your market research.  How old is your target audience?  What are they interested in?  Will they necessarily understand the technical terms of your business?  Once you can answer all the questions, you can start to write effective targeted copy.

2. Know your competition.  What are you offering that they can’t?   Whether you’ve got a special offer on or you have the biggest sales force in the UK – make sure your audience knows why you’re different. 

3. State the benefits.  This is the key to keeping an audience interested.  It’s not what you’re doing or how you’re doing it that encourages a reader to pick up the phone.  It’s whether they can get the highest quality or best deal that counts.

4. Use ‘you’ and ‘your’.  Make it personal.  Let your audience know you’re talking directly to them.  Customers buy from you because they believe your products or services can make a real difference to them.

5. Always write short and snappy sentences.  Keep it focused. 

A "blog"

At TheCopywritingPeople we are especially finicky when it comes to using the correct grammar and punctuation.  However we love it when other people get it wrong!

We found this example of incorrectly used quotation marks on this hilarious blog.

The author here clearly has a point to make – unfortunately it is a boring one.  So quotation marks have been used to emphasise the “important” bits. 

Unfortunately though, it just seems sarcastic.  What exactly is this “Student Lab”?

Ah the fun we have over lunch!

And it’s one: nil to the written word - long copy is back!

Lately I’ve noticed a lot of consumer brands using long copy to sell products.  Whilst B2B companies have being doing this for many years, consumer brands tended to use bold imagery and simple slogans.  Not any more.

As we discussed in our previous blog we mentioned that a post recession consumer is looking for facts.  They want a company and products they can trust.  Well it seems that even huge brands like Easy Jet are using long copy to entertain and inform their customers now. 

A recent advert, which won a national competition with CBS, cleverly disguised place names in a staggering ten lines of monologue.  Underneath each place name was a price.  It grabbed my attention for a number of reasons.

1. Firstly because it took me back to a play I devised at University.  I’d decided I’d had enough of being ‘serious’ so I cleverly disguised band names into a scene we were writing.  I stuck it to the man (our very nice but solemn director, Dan). 
2. Secondly because from a distance you can only read the main body of Easy Jet’s advert – and it isn’t until you get closer that the strange squiggles become prices. 
3. Finally, most holiday adverts feature desirable imagery.  Easy Jet has opted to use long copy to display clear facts.  No image.  No slogan. 

I wanted to take a closer look...

Upon closer scrutiny, I discovered that the advert both entertained and informed me.  Who’d have thought you could get to Sofia for only £35.99?