Create killer marketing copy
Article Date: Nov 09 2007Too often, marketing campaigns fail to elicit a market response. Don’t let yours be a statistic.
Writing clear and concise copy is essential if you want your marketing message to be heard and understood. Ensuring that you achieve the maximum return for your efforts requires extensive market research and a sound understanding of marketing techniques.
Your success will depend on your ability to produce copy that is pitched correctly for your target audience. Kursha Woodgate, managing director at marketing consultancy Mexia Communications, believes there are two things to consider: the type of client the copy is aimed at, and how or where they are going to read it.
Online retail catalogue network Catalink.com markets to a range of mail order businesses, selling them space to advertise their wares on its website.
‘In the early days it was an uphill struggle,’ says Ginna Clark, the company’s founder, ‘because there was a lot of scepticism about the internet in the industry, which is still present. We try to pitch what we’re doing so that it appeals to everyone, focusing on the benefits to our clients.’
Nigel Temple, author of How to Get Clients to Come to You, says: ‘If people aren’t buying from you, or if they aren’t buying in sufficient quantity, it may be because you haven’t thought enough about the unique selling point of your product or service. It can be tempting to focus on the technical side or unique features of your offering, but people respond better if you talk about what your product or service will do for them.’
Unless you are writing for an initiated technical audience, the use of jargon will make the copy more difficult to digest – TLAs (three-letter acronyms), for example, are confusing and remove focus from the body content. Just because you and your team are familiar with them, it doesn’t mean that your intended audience will be, especially if you’re trying to attract new customers.
Considering the format for your campaign is just as important as the body copy itself. A different approach is required when producing copy for different mediums. Press releases, for example, highlight the most newsworthy pieces of information to grab and, more importantly, hold the reader’s attention. The purpose of the marketing campaign will always inform the method.
‘As a general rule, it is better to keep copy short,’ says Woodgate. ‘The visual side of writing is as important as the copy itself, so breaking up the information into easily digestible chunks with sub-headings or bullet points will compel the reader to carry on.’
Clark agrees that reams of text can be pretty daunting: ‘A picture can speak 1,000 words and can help to complement what you’ve written with something visual. We try to keep the copy short to entice the client in the first instance, using images too, and then always follow the offer up with a call, which I think is very important.’
