When was the last time you sat down and had a good look at your marketing copy?

Did you write it years ago and are still trying to derive business from it?

For many businesses that we come across, writing copy tends to be tackled once and then copied and pasted across every single marketing material they produce. We look at their website and then funnily enough the same copy crops up on their corporate brochure, flyers, social media and any other advertising that they do. I guess you could put this down to laziness but I’m going to be a bit more charitable….it’s because they don’t know how to do it any differently.

The way you write copy for your website, brochures, adverts, mailshots, press releases etc needs to be different based on what each piece is trying to achieve and who the target audience is. I know that it’s tempting to repeat your copy but if you want to maximise on the return of your marketing then I’m afraid you do have to give it a bit more thought.

Before you attempt to write any of your marketing materials there are a number of questions that you need to ask yourself:

Objective

• What’s the point of it?
• Generate enquiries?
• Generate sales?
• Generate web traffic?
• Reference point?
• Provide news/info?
• Build brand?
• Develop image?
• Does it need to fit in with other marketing?
• What’s the call to action?

Features & Benefits

• What are they?
• Which one is the most important?
• How is it different from what your competitors are doing?
• What problem does it solve?
• How does it work?
• How much does it cost?
• Will it save you money?
• Do you have any testimonials?
• How efficient/economical is it?
• Is it environmentally friendly/easy to maintain?
• What variations are there – size/model etc?
• How do people buy it?
• Is there any after sales service?
• Do you offer guarantees?
• Is it award winning?

Target Audience

• Who will buy it?
• Who will use it?
• Why do they need it?
• How will it change their life?
• What is the customer most concerned about?
• What motivates them?

Tone of Voice

• Formal?
• Informal?
• British or American English?
• Conversational?
• Corporate?
• Personable/Authentic?

This is why copy and paste simply won’t cut it.

If you don’t have the know-how or time to answer these questions, then you should consider hiring a copywriter. For advice about how to write your marketing materials then please contact us now.