What is Thought Leadership in PR copy and why is it important?
Thought Leadership in PR copy is what sets companies apart from the competition. It demonstrates expertise by sharing valuable information, ideas and opinions. It’s called Thought Leadership because it shapes industry conversations which in turn build awareness and trust.
When you’re browsing through the trade magazines, some articles might stand out and capture your attention more than others. Occasionally you might find a feature about precisely the product you need and are ready to buy now, but more often than not you’ll skim through the pages to get an overview of who is doing what.
The articles that often stop us in our tracks are the ones that offer something new. Perhaps an innovative idea or an interesting insight, or it might give us a forward-thinking solution to an age-old problem.
Is Thought Leadership right for my business?
Yes!
When I put the idea of Thought Leadership to clients sometimes, they’ll feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea. They don’t think their company is big enough, they don’t think they are clever enough, or they don’t feel they have enough to say. Some don’t believe that anyone else would want to hear what they have to say because they’re not a market leader yet.
But these are exactly the kind of people readers want to hear from. If you have been in the industry for a while or you are an expert in your field, and you have an opinion or a view on the market, you can use Thought Leadership in your PR copy strategy.
Differentiation through Thought Leadership PR copy
There are not many markets that aren’t fiercely competitive, especially as, at the time of writing, the global economic landscape remains uncertain. Thought Leadership is an important strategic tool that can be used by individuals and businesses to stand out, gain trust in the market, and support success.
If you look through your industry’s trade press now, you will probably find a handful of people that appear everywhere. Individuals that are giving their opinions and often pushing boundaries in their field, or people providing expertise and guidance time and time again. They didn’t start out as the authoritative voice in the industry. Gradually, with consistent coverage, these people become increasingly influential.
The success of these individuals and companies then filters into a cycle of magazines and audiences wanting to hear more from them. They become the leading voice in their area of the market and people want to hear what they have to say.
Is Thought Leadership restricted to PR copy in trade magazines?
Absolutely not.
Longer pieces like blog posts or feature articles in trade magazines are a good place to start when it comes to Thought Leadership because you have a higher word count to explain your opinions and build a picture of your expertise. But the more mileage you can give your Thought Leadership PR copy, the better. You can break it down and use it in your content marketing for example, you can use it for the basis for podcast discussions, or e-mail marketing, or even as the subject of talks at industry events.
The only restriction to Thought Leadership is the time and effort it takes to pull these articles together. It takes time to come up with the ideas, to do any necessary research you need to back up your opinion or to help make your point, to write a full-page article or blog post, and to edit it to make sure it’s valuable for your audience and publication-ready for the magazines.
A dedicated PR copywriter with experience in Thought Leadership PR copy can be a hugely valuable asset if you don’t have the time, resource, or expertise in-house to translate your thoughts, opinions and advice into engaging copy. They will ghostwrite it too, so the article will still be in your name, so you can take all the credit for sounding authoritative, without spending hours writing the articles yourself.
A game changer for PR copy
Thought Leadership is a powerful marketing strategy that should not be underestimated by any business, no matter how big or small, well-known or not. Over time it can transform your marketing and attract the right customers, suppliers, and talent to your business.
PR copy that utilises Thought Leadership can be a game changer for companies with something valuable to say, and remember, if you are an expert in your field, you will have something valuable to say.
For help with your Thought Leadership PR copy, contact me today at [email protected]
Copywriting is one of the most powerful tools you can employ in your PR and marketing mix. When done well it captures an audience’s attention, encourages them to engage with you, and hopefully inspires them to buy from you. When PR and marketing copywriting doesn’t hit the mark though, it can have catastrophic consequences for your brand.
Long form content in particular, such as press features, blog posts, or LinkedIn articles should boost brand awareness and change perceptions in a positive way. But there are some common mistakes that can interrupt the success of your copy and make it far less effective. And in worst case scenarios, poor copy can even have a negative impact on how your brand is perceived.
Mistake #1: Copywriting for you instead of your customers
Whenever you start a piece of PR or marketing copy, you should consider who it is for. It is much easier to write about the topics you care about. But a far better starting point is considering what your readers care about.
Of course, there is a place for all kinds of copy in the overall PR and marketing mix. Brochures and websites are great channels to use to boast about your products. Readers will expect you to. But if you are writing PR copy for a trade publication, or your latest blog post, it’s worth taking a different approach.
Think about concerns or problems your customers and prospects might have. What advice would help them in the current marketplace? Is sustainability becoming more important in your sector? If so, how can you help customers comply with the latest legislation? Being helpful is worth a lot.
Mistake #2 – Assuming too much previous knowledge
Just because people work in the same industry as you, doesn’t mean they know all the same things you do. Sometimes people assume knowledge because of shared industry experience. Sometimes people assume knowledge because they have already written an article on the topic. Albeit months or even years ago. Whatever the reason, it can be a turn-off for readers.
You don’t want to be patronising in your PR and marketing copywriting, but you also don’t want people to glaze over because they don’t understand what you’re talking about. It’s far better to assume that people haven’t read that piece you published once before, or haven’t visited your website, or don’t have the in-depth technical knowledge of your products that you do. Starting from the beginning can help you to fill the sales and marketing pipeline.
Mistake #3 – Jargon overload
Here’s another sure-fire way to leave your readers feeling cold – by overusing jargon. Whether in the form of abbreviations, or overly complicated technical concepts, don’t try to sound clever at the expense of helping your customers and prospects.
Even if someone is aware of the product you are selling, it doesn’t mean they know everything about it. They might not know everything about the industry infrastructure that designs and builds it. They might not know much about the governing bodies that regulate it and the certifications that accompany it. They might not understand each technical aspect of it. If it’s relevant to talk about these things, which it may well be, start from the beginning and explain things clearly.
Mistake #4 – A lack of empathy in your PR and marketing copywriting
With years in the PR and marketing copywriting bank I have come to realise that being able to empathise with different people, whether you have been in their specific position or not, is one of the biggest strengths a copywriter can have. But on the flipside of this, it’s one of the big mistakes that are made.
To be able to empathise with your audience, you need to understand their pain points and challenges. What does it feel like to be in their position? And what can you say that is genuinely helpful in addressing those difficulties?
PR and marketing copywriting that misses the mark when it comes to understanding customers can come across as rude and uncaring. If for example your customers are struggling in a difficult market and you shout about your sales success story, or news of your latest big investment, it probably won’t endear you to them. If, however, you talk about how your success or your investment will be used to support your customers in this difficult time, it will be a lot more impactful.
Mistake #5 – Going straight to sales in your PR and marketing copy
Let’s be honest, most of the copy that comes out of a business, whether for social media, magazine articles or e-mail marketing, exists to sell. Some are more direct means of selling than others, but ultimately its aim is to raise awareness of the brand, get more people talking about it, and sell more. But that doesn’t mean you can’t give your audience something first, before you ask something of them in return.
Readers of trade press articles or blog posts are looking for advice or something that will help them with their business. Yes, they might be interested in your new product as well, but you’re more likely to generate interest and demand by explaining the pain points your product solves first, rather than jumping into the features and benefits straight away.
Tell a story with your PR and marketing copywriting and build a foundation before jumping off at the deep end and expecting them to buy straight away. At the end of the day, we’re all people buying from people so it’s about building trust.
Make your PR and marketing copywriting ship-shape for success
PR and marketing copywriting can sometimes be underestimated. People think that any words on a page is good enough to promote their business. But this isn’t the case. Poor copywriting stops readers in their tracks. It can turn off prospects and put them off of dealing with you now and in the future. Spending time and money on sourcing good quality PR and marketing copywriting is worthwhile when it comes to engaging audiences and changing perceptions.
Visit www.blogwrite.co.uk for more information
When I used to work for full-service PR and Marketing agencies, I was involved in the recruitment of copywriters to support the team, and I have to admit, it wasn’t easy. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that now that I’ve jumped the fence to be a PR and Marketing copywriter myself, but it’s part of the reason I wanted to be a writer, because it should not be that hard for businesses to get the support they need
We saw it all trying to hire a writer – we had candidates that wrote to an exceedingly high level but who delivered copy that didn’t sound anything like the spokesperson it was written for, we had writers that were not prepared to listen to feedback or make changes despite having less experience with the client involved, and we had perfectionist writers who were so focussed on getting every word ‘perfect’ they couldn’t meet a deadline.
Achieving balance in business copywriting
It is a tough balancing act writing for business. You must be able to meet deadlines. There are often strict timelines that come with copy requirements, whether with designers for brochures or websites, with the sales department to support a product launch, or with magazines for editorial features or press releases.
Writers also need to be able to write in a way that reflects the values or ethos of the company they are writing for, and more specifically write in a way that sounds like the person they are ghost writing for. The aim of writing on behalf of a business is to make their spokespeople sound authoritative and reflect their expertise, without turning people off with anything too technical.
Works both ways
So, what makes a relationship work between a freelance PR and Marketing writer and a business? I would argue that while a large degree of responsibility does lie with the freelancer to get it right for their clients, it is a relationship that works both ways and businesses need to know how to get the most out of their freelance copywriters.
You wouldn’t expect your accountant to do an outstanding job if you held them at arm’s length and only gave them some of the information they needed. And you wouldn’t expect a designer to produce a website for you without any briefing, or without at least a small amount of to-ing and fro-ing.
It can help to set some ground rules before you start working together so everyone knows what to expect. For example, how much notice should you give a writer to write various lengths of copy, how many rounds of amendments are reasonable to both sides, how quickly should you both expect to hear from each other, and what are the payment terms and conditions?
Once the ground rules are in place, keep talking! If something isn’t working on either side, bring it up sooner rather than later to see if it can be resolved. Writers can’t improve if they don’t know what they are doing wrong and businesses can’t support their copywriters if they don’t know what they need.
Stay focused on the end result
I know from first hand experience that it can be hard to find the perfect partner whether you are a business or a copywriter, but good matches do exist! And when it’s good it can be a game changer for both sides. Businesses can benefit from more flexible support without compromising on quality, and writers can benefit from ongoing work and the satisfaction of genuinely removing hassle for clients. So, don’t settle! The copy that represents you in the marketplace is too important.
Each marketing tool you use as a business requires tailored copy, but no matter which channel it’s appearing on, all copywriting should be persuasive and motivating and establish a connection with the audience – this is what brings added value.
Most people could write copy about the company they work for. As long as they have a foundational level of understanding about the company and the features and benefits of the products or service it offers, they could put some words on a page. But how valuable is that copy?
Don’t underestimate good copywriting
Sometimes we underestimate good copy because it’s so easy to read that we don’t even think about it. It gives us the information we want quickly, and we may even enjoy reading it. But when we come across bad copy, we know it. It jars and you have to re-read sentences to understand their meaning, or there is so much jargon you don’t really know what the author is trying to say. Sometimes it’s more subtle than that and the copy is just a bit boring or has been written in a way that doesn’t sound right so we give up halfway through and move on to something else that is easier to read.
Here are some top tips for how to add value to your copywriting to make sure it hits the mark every time and gets you the results you want.
Seven top tips for added value copy
Experience in your niche – it stands to reason that the more experience someone has in the specific sector of a market your business operates in, the better their writing will be. They will understand the context of new legislation or market pressures, they will appreciate the impact of product launches, and they will be able to help to identify what topics to talk about to get your business noticed and ideally position you as an authoritative voice in the market. Whoever you have tasked with writing your marketing copy, make sure they have experience in the field.
Understand your audience – don’t try and write for everyone. If you are writing a press release that is appropriate for two sectors in the same market, it’s worth tailoring the press release for both audiences. If you are writing blog posts for different audiences on your website, it’s worth sectioning the blog off for different target markets so you can tailor the copy for each one. Otherwise, you end up with a piece that doesn’t really capture the attention of any of your audiences because the message gets confused.
Talk about the benefits – this may sound obvious, but so often I see copy written by companies that are focusing on the features of their products more than the benefits. You may be excited about the specific technical features you can offer in a product, and you may understand that these features are what differentiate you from the competition, but to add value to these features you need to talk about how they benefit your audience. Be obvious about how your business can make their lives easier. This is how you will persuade them to get in touch.
Write for a specific platform – as I said in the introduction, different platforms require different approaches to writing copy. Sales brochures and web copy should be more sales focused, while feature articles in trade magazines and blog posts should be more informative. LinkedIn posts meanwhile can offer a quick and immediate insight into the latest news from a business, while newsletters can be more friendly and chatty in their tone. Being able to identify what kind of copy is needed for each platform, adds value to your marketing copy.
If you wouldn’t say it, don’t write it – a common mistake in writing copy is changing the way you or the person you are writing for, would talk in real life. Of course, when writing copy, we might need to temper a passionate opinion or meet the professional requirements of a publication, but sometimes this is taken too far, and copy is written in a way that doesn’t reflect how that spokesperson would talk in the flesh. Sometimes words are used that people don’t normally say when talking in conversation, or unnecessary jargon is included. This makes it hard for the audience to identify with the copy and therefore less likely to absorb the message you are trying to get across and less likely to engage with you.
Imagine you are the reader – I have come to the conclusion over the years, that empathetic people are the best copywriters because they can really put themselves in someone else’s shoes. Even if they haven’t had the same direct experience, they can accurately adopt the voice of the person they are writing on behalf of, but they can also precisely imagine the pain points and needs of the audiences they write for. Putting yourself in the position of your audience can help you to write the most powerful copy to build a genuine connection.
Keep writing – in order to add value to copywriting, experience matters. Not just experience in a particular niche of a specific market, as I talk about above, but experience of writing copy for different platforms, for different companies, for different spokespeople and targeted at different audiences. The more you write, the more value you can bring to your copywriting.
Making a connection
Writing copy is not a quick and easy thing to do. Even with the use of AI the amount of editing needed to fact-check, and to make it sound like you, rather than a generic amalgamation of everyone else talking about the same subject, takes time and effort. But it’s worth taking the time to do it properly rather than making do. It could make the difference between your audience making a connection with you or moving on to one of your competitors.
Having recently got a bit behind with my own marketing, I realised that I’d been procrastinating again. So yes, let me say upfront, I am not claiming to be perfect when it comes to beating procrastination! But, in the five years I have been a freelance copywriter, I have never missed a deadline for a customer. In fact, I normally deliver copy ahead of any set time limit.
So that got me to wondering – how can I come up with the goods time and time again on behalf of my customers, even when the inspiration juices aren’t always free flowing, when I struggle to do the same for my own business? And can I do something to change this?
It’s not a new phenomenon. There’s an adage about cobbler’s shoes that says although cobblers have all the skills, and all the tools needed to have the best shoes around, they often have the worst.
The same is true of marketers. Despite the skills they have to create powerful marketing strategies and put words on a page in the most effective way for customers, they often deploy little to no marketing effort for their own businesses, and their websites host the least populated blogs.
There are a few reasons for these discrepancies including the lack of fixed deadlines, and the fact they are busy putting customers first and have less time or inclination to focus on their own shoes or marketing.
How do I overcome procrastination when it hits?
Although having a clear deadline and the promise of a satisfied customer at the end of a piece of work is always enough to motivate me to get the job done on time, the ugly head of procrastination does sometimes appear when I’m doing client work too. And this is what I do to overcome it (and what I need to do more when it comes to my own marketing efforts).
I started off by saying I’m not perfect at avoiding procrastination and I’ll say it again! I need to do better, especially when it comes to working on my own marketing copywriting. I fully intend to continue to use these tactics to continue delivering ahead of deadline for my clients, and to hopefully improve my productivity when working on less deadline driven copywriting for my own business.
How do you cope with procrastination when it hits? I’d love to know. And if there are certain pieces of copy, like regular blog posts or feature articles that you always find hard to complete, e-mail me at [email protected] because even if my own blog gets missed every now and then, I never miss a deadline (external or self-imposed) for my customers!
Did you know that only 37% of brands surveyed in the 2023 State of Content Marketing report by Semrush, outsource their copywriting needs? This won’t be a problem for those who have managed to find talented writers to employ in-house or have existing employees that know a thing or two about packing a powerful marketing copywriting punch. Unfortunately, these brands are in the minority and what happens more often than not is that brands ‘make do’ with the resources they have because they don’t have the time or capacity to think about doing things differently. It’s not easy to kickstart a new business relationship but using a self-employed copywriter can save you money and make your marketing more successful.
Good copywriting has a big impact on marketing campaigns. It can make the difference between people staying on your website and clicking away, between customers and prospects liking and disliking your brand, and between potential customers following a call to action or continuing their research journey. It’s not something that should be pushed to the bottom of the priority list or done in a hurry. Even if your business is producing copious amounts of copy on a regular basis, how confident are you that it is copy that is doing your business justice?
Here are five top tips to create copy that captures attention (in a good way!).
You can’t expect people to keep reading your marketing material, whether your website, blog, feature article, social media, direct mail, or brochure, if you have written it with a generic or catch-all audience in mind. It’s far better to think about a small group of people, or even just one person that represents your ideal customer and write copy that you know will hit the mark with them. Writing for one person makes it much easier to stay on track with your objectives and what you want to achieve.
Whatever medium you are writing for, make sure you know what your angle is before you start. To pinpoint an angle, think about why your audience will want to read the piece – what will they get out of it? What new piece of information or research can you bring to the table to introduce the topic you want to cover? If you’re struggling to answer this question it’s going to be hard to engage your readers, let alone encourage them to follow a call to action.
When you’re staring at a blank page before writing a 700 word feature article or 1200 word blog post, it can be easy to fill the void by using more words than you need in a sentence. This isn’t a problem as long as you edit the piece when you’ve finished. Read your copy aloud and if you find it jars and you wouldn’t say those words in real life, the chances are it will jar for your readers. It’s OK to be more formal if the medium calls for it, but formal can sometimes become difficult to read if there are too many long, convoluted sentences. It’s far better to keep it simple and make sure your content is useful, than have pages of copy that don’t really say anything.
I touched on it briefly in the previous point but once you have finished your piece of writing, even if you think you’ve nailed it the first time, take a break and come back to read through it again later. Occasionally I’ll come back to some copy and make just one or two changes, but often it’s only on a second or third read through that I can spot a few ways to make the piece even better. It can be tempting to get the article off your desk as soon as you have fulfilled the word count, but this rarely makes for impactful copy that resonates with your audience.
If you think about the copy you like to read when researching a product or browsing trade magazines, it is probably copy that looks interesting on the page. Use subheadings, powerful images, bold bullet points, and stand-alone sentences to break up the page and encourage readers to stick with you. Of course, well-written copy will keep them engaged as well, but however good your copy is, a lot of readers will skim a page until they find what they need, so make it easy for them to get to the information they’re looking for quickly.
Quality marketing copy counts
If your business marketing copy is not having the impact you would like, it might be worth reviewing the process to try to get it back on track. Perhaps you have been pleased with the amount of copy being generated and so haven’t stopped to think about what that copy is saying and whether it is having the desired effect. I hope these top tips help to level up your copy but if it all still feels a bit daunting, perhaps I can help by delivering hassle free marketing copy for your business. Contact me today on [email protected] for copywriting support for blogs, feature articles, direct mails and much more.
Depending on your business type and even your individual career experience, hiring a copywriter might be second nature to you, or it might be something you didn’t even know you could do. In the industry I have worked in for most of my career, full-service PR and marketing agencies are in abundance, but copywriters, far less so. But when I attend networking events with other local PR and digital agencies, it’s part of the day-to-day running of their business. So, for the un-initiated, what sort of companies hire copywriters and what kind of things can they help with?
There are many unique variations of how a copywriter can be utilised in a business, but here is a selection to give you an idea.
Supplement agency deliverables
If a business has a fairly large marketing budget, they may decide to employ a full-service marketing agency to take care of all aspects of their marketing for them. The agency might work with the MD of the company, or an in-house marketing manager, to deliver a whole host of communications from PR and advertising, to e-mail marketing and social media management. However, sometimes, if there’s a wide scope of work, there are things the agency can’t help with.
For example, perhaps a company employs a B2B PR agency to place and write all of their trade magazine articles and press release, and build media relations on their behalf, while their in-house marketing team manages their social media channels. If that same company then wants a B2C blog to support their customer base, it might not be the best utilisation of time or resources of the agency or the in-house team. A third-party copywriter that is also an expert in that field, could research topics for them, make suggestions for new posts and deliver regular blogs every month to strategically suite in with the rest of their marketing activity.
It might not be blog posts that need supplementing, but it’s a great example of playing to different people’s strengths and building a team that can work seamlessly together to deliver everything you need.
Supplement in-house marketing teams
The same idea applies if you only have a directly employed marketing team and don’t use an agency. Your team might be fantastic at coming up with creative ideas for how to market your business, building relationships with magazines, and managing your social media channels. But perhaps they don’t have the time to dedicate to copywriting for longer pieces. Whether writing for e-shots, social media, blog posts, press releases or magazine feature articles, each channel requires something a bit different and rather than making do, you could supplement your in-house team resource with some additional copywriting support.
Support start-ups
When a business is first established, it often doesn’t have the in-house capacity to carry out all of the necessary marketing activities, nor does it have the budget to employ an agency. A copywriter can be an excellent interim solution, or even a sole solution in the beginning and then supplementary support as requirements and budgets increase. They will have the skill and expertise to guide you through what you need and to produce copy with impact. Whether it is populating your new website with words, establishing a business blog, or writing feature articles to promote your new business in trade magazines, a freelance copywriter can be a superb way to support your start-up business in the early days.
Marketing agencies in need of additional capacity
Copywriters are also utilised directly by marketing agencies who want some flexible additional capacity. They don’t necessarily need to employ an additional account manager or full-time or even part-time employee, but they do require some copywriting support across the accounts they manage.
I know from my own experience of working in a couple of different full-service marketing agencies, the amount of admin and juggling there is to do in agency life. It takes an inordinate amount of time to build and maintain client relationships as well as establish and nurture relevant media contacts. Add to this all the written work they need to supply across multiple accounts, and you can see why they need some extra help sometimes.
Copywriters can prove to be an excellent resource for agencies that want to ensure they deliver quality copy on time every time.
Different agencies work in different ways. Some assign copywriters to specific clients so they can become accustomed to that client’s objectives and learn what they like and what they don’t like in their copy, while other agencies prefer a scatter-gun approach to using copywriters as and when they need the additional capacity, across any and all clients. While I would argue the more a copywriter can understand the client, the better they can do their job, it’s horses for courses in terms of what works for the agency and the copywriter alike.
Marketing agencies’ own promotion
It’s quite a well-known phenomenon that marketing agencies are often poor at marketing themselves. It’s like the old tale of the cobbler who had terrible shoes. You spend so much time delivering the best service to customers that you don’t have the time to focus on your own needs. This is another area where external copywriters can offer peace of mind and remove hassle.
Whether it’s the business blog that never quite gets prioritised, or the feature articles in trade magazines to promote your wares, copywriters can take on this aspect of your marketing for you. Because you are a client to them, the work gets prioritised in a way it simply can’t be by in-house employees who have customers that must come first. And because copywriters generally only get involved in writing the copy, you still get to keep those media relationships that you have worked so hard to build, and full control over how your blog looks. In fact, no-one outside of the business needs to know that you haven’t written those words yourself.
Is partnering with a copywriter right for you?
Only you can answer this, but whether you are a full-service agency or a business wanting to market your wares, if you have identified a weak spot in your marketing delivery or know your team is pushed to the limit, it might be time to consider outsourcing some work to a third-party resource. Freelance support is flexible too, so if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t committed to a full employment contract. What have you got to lose?
If you would like a strong copywriter to join your team on a freelance basis, to help remove some of the pressure from your existing resources, I’d love to help. Drop me a line at [email protected] for a quote on any of your copywriting needs.
Let me start by saying that if you are one of the lucky few that is completely happy with the copywriting talent within your business, firstly HUGE congratulations and hang on to them with both hands (maybe not literally!), and secondly, this post probably isn’t for you.
However, if you are one of the many businesses that aren’t completely happy with ALL of the copy written for your business, read on!
Copywriting for your business – in-house vs outsourcing
Coming up with the words for your marketing can happen in a few different ways. Some people prefer to maintain full control by using existing employees to write their company’s copy for them, or sometimes in smaller businesses, by doing the writing themselves. With the advent of AI, this option may on the surface seem more appealing than ever.
With the support of AI or without it, however, coming up with the right things to say about your own business is a very difficult thing to do. Even professional copywriters find that hard. And even if you know exactly what you want to say, are you sure it’s what your audience wants to hear, or is it what you think your audience wants to hear?
The other option for producing copy for your business is to outsource to an external copywriter and here is why that might be your best option.
5 Reasons to hire a copywriter
Find your copywriter match
Despite there being so many benefits to hiring a copywriter, they only apply if you find the right person for your business. It is worth doing your research and paying your due diligence by asking to see endorsements and reviewing their previous work or their own blog, to see if you think they will be a fit. Not all copywriters are the same, but when you find a relationship that works, you can reap all of the above benefits and more from hiring a copywriter.
If you’re ready to go to the next step, you might find my previous blog posts, FAQs about outsourcing copywriting, and how to prepare for hiring a copywriter for your business blog, useful.
When it comes to marketing copywriting for a business, the most obvious starting point is talking about the features and benefits of the company’s product or service. If you’re lucky, the business will have a lot of benefits so you can find a lot to say, but when you’ve ticked off every single one, what do you do? Start from the beginning again? While repetition is a good thing, there are ways to repeat yourself that work well, and other ways that are quite frankly, boring. Finding new angles to talk about your features and benefits is a great way to keep the copywriting pipeline full and interesting!
What is an angle in marketing copy?
If you’re not sure what I mean when I talk about finding new angles, I mean finding new ways to introduce the same message. Probably the easiest way to explain this is to give you an example.
Let’s say your company sells furniture. You have talked about all the different types of furniture you sell, why the items are of such good quality and value for money, but then what? One new angle you might consider is to quote the latest home interior trends to hit the market. Or you could talk about the latest report or newest statistics on how people’s posture is affected by the furniture they use and highlight relevant products in your range that might offer a solution. Or perhaps, if you have a sustainable range, you could talk about the latest government targets, or the most up to date statistics on recycling furniture – and use that to introduce your solution.
How many angles can there be?
You’d be forgiven for thinking that you will run out of angles as quickly as you will run out of features and benefits. But the beauty of angles is that they change all the time. There are new reports and statistics being released regularly. There are national and industry news reports about different sectors every day, and the socio-economic context we’re all operating in is changing all the time.
Finding the best angle for your copy
So how do you come up with angles and keep them fresh and interesting for your audience? Here are a few prompts to give you some ideas.
Still struggling to find new copywriting angles consistently?
Hopefully this quick guide will give you some inspiration when it comes to finding new ways to talk about the good things that you do. However, if you’re still struggling to find the time and effort needed to consistently research and create new angles, it might be worth talking to a freelance copywriter. I have written for some of my customers for years and still consistently come up with new angles and new ways of getting their messages across, so they don’t have to.
If you would like some support with your business blogs, feature articles, press releases, or content for your company LinkedIn page, feel free to drop me an e-mail at [email protected] to book in an exploratory call, or receive my price list.
Tone of voice (or TOV as it’s often referred to in these acronym centric times!) is important for brands and should be reflected across all their marketing copy. But for those that don’t have years of experience writing copy for different businesses, it can be daunting to know where to start. Fear not, help from your favourite copywriting service is here!
What is ‘tone of voice’?
If you think about the different tones of voice you use when talking to various people throughout the day, you are likely to use a different pitch, volume, speed, and perhaps even slightly different language depending on whether you’re at work, home, or out with friends. Even then, you’ll have different qualities that you use in different circumstances.
Depending on your tone, whoever is listening to you will interpret what you’re saying differently. Any managers or indeed parents reading this will know what I’m talking about immediately. A deepening of the voice and the use of more stern language means things are getting serious, while a softer pitch spoken more slowly gives the impression that all is well with the world.
The tone of voice of a brand works in a similar way. The things that you say and the way that you say it will help people to build their perception of you. When done well, your audience not only understands you, but they also want to work with you too.
How to achieve the right tone of voice for your brand
The first thing to say is the sooner you can give your TOV some thought the better as consistency is important. That’s not to say it’s too late if you’ve already been in business for a few years, but the quicker you can decide which tone of voice is right for your brand, the sooner all your audiences will have a clear picture of what you’re about.
Here are some tips to get you started.
Brand personality
When you start thinking about the right tone of voice for your brand, think about your brand’s personality and what you want people to feel when they see your name or your logo. Do you want them to feel comfortable, happy, relaxed, or serious? If you’re a solicitor you might want people to get a more serious professional feel from you, for example, while a marketing agency might want to present themselves as more fun and creative. There’s no right or wrong here, it depends on what type of business you have, the ethos of that business, and how you want to present yourself.
Organise your thoughts
Once you have spent time considering your brand personality and how you want your audience to feel, the next step is to organise these thoughts. It can be useful to list your different groups of audiences first – prospects, different groups of customers, competitors, suppliers, etc. Then write a few descriptive words about how you would like them to describe you in an ideal world. Really try and put yourself in their shoes. What do they want from your type of business, and how can your brand values deliver?
Once you have this list, you can use it to write out your brand’s tone of voice guidelines. If you have an expert marketer or copywriter on board this can be more in-depth, but even if you just come up with a few sentences that accurately represent you, it can be useful to keep all parties on the same TOV track.
Be consistent
Keeping everyone on the same track is important because if you want to give your brand a tone of voice, it needs to be consistent across all your marketing communications. That doesn’t mean you need one writer working on every piece of copy because different people have different areas of expertise, but with guidelines in place, all copy will sound consistent and like it’s from the same business.
So, your business blog should sound like it’s from the same company as your website content, physical brochures, social media, and press coverage. If all elements of your marketing campaigns are aligned, your audiences will learn what to expect from you and you will be easily recognisable.
Next steps for your brand’s tone of voice
Achieving the right tone of voice for your brand is a central piece of your marketing communications jigsaw. It’s the same as making sure all your marketing materials look the same with consistent brand design. If your website looks a bit different to your packaging, which looks a bit different to your social media pages, audiences won’t recognise you easily and may scroll past or walk on by. The same thing applies with the words you use and how you use them.
If you are still feeling daunted by the prospect of establishing and implementing a tone of voice that suits your brand down to the ground, perhaps hiring a freelance copywriter that can take care of all of that for you is the way to go.
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