2 Ways to Really Connect With Your Customer in Your Copywriting
by Bruce Carlson
Published on this site: May 20th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
One of the least talked-about areas in copywriting education is
voice. This is probably because its tough to set general rules
for something thats so personal to each of us. After all,
the same things go into building your copywriting voice that go
into making you who you are!
Personality, upbringing, environment, education, audience, purpose
all these and more go into forming your voice, no matter what kind
of writing youre doing.
In this article, Id like to try to tackle the subject of
voice in copywriting. Ive identified a couple of areas that
I believe are the most important when it comes to making your voice
more credible when writing copy style and tone. By improving these
two areas, you'll connect with your customer in a much more genuine
way.
In my conversations with successful copywriters and marketers,
I find that practically every one of them has an uncanny ability
to communicate on a gut level with their customer or prospect. And
that is one of the main keys to their success.
How do they do this?
By removing internal editors, and writing as if they were speaking
to a friend.
When you sit down to write, you need to make a psychological leap
and forget everything you ever learned about writing in school.
Yes, I know that youve got those ghosts of English
teachers past sitting on your shoulder and whispering in your
ear about how you should write. But those internal editors need
to be tossed out.
Instead, you need to write like you talk. This is much easier said
than done, and requires some practice and work. If you have a hard
time doing this, one possibility is to record yourself speaking
your sales message first, and then to transcribe it afterwards.
That way youll get the spoken spirit of the language.
Youll still need to edit it though, to get rid of hesitation
markers like ummmm, uhhhhh, etc. You dont want those
sounds in your copy
But more than anything, writing like you talk means being informal.
One thing I see with novice copywriters is that, even though they
might start to get the idea of writing like they talk, theyll
still speak formally, as if they were giving a (dull)
public speech.
Its true that ad copy from 50 years ago, especially direct
mail sales letters, may have been a bit stiff and formal. And there
may still be times when a certain level of formality is needed,
depending upon your target market. But with Web sales copy, and
especially with email copy, informal is the right way to go.
Informal style means breaking a ton of grammar rules. Which is
what you do when you talk, anyway, at least in conversational speech.
Use contractions (like cant and wont and Ill
).
And fragment sentences. And you can start sentences with and.
Or with or.
And you can tail off sentences with ellipsis markers (those three
dots)
Which is also a good way to show hesitation when writing,
by the way, since you cant use the hesitation sounds you normally
use in speech.
And you can have sentences that have only one or two words. Like
this!
And you can use really short paragraphs to express a quick thought.
Or a bit longer paragraphs to express a longer thought.
There are also things you can do with language. Like using
special terms or jargon used exclusively within a specific
marketing niche.Customers know immediately if you're "one
of them." Jargon and specialized knowledge help give
them the clue for that.
Theres an awful lot you can do. And youre really only
limited by that internal editor/critic. So the sooner you throw
that critic out the door, the better.
Also, when writing like you talk, you need to be able to keep a
warm tone. One way its put by sales professionals is to imagine
that youre making a referral to a friend rather
than making a sales pitch to a customer. The examples
youll usually hear copywriting educators use for this are
the kitchen table conversation or the barstool conversation.
The best way to develop this warm tone is through identification.
Getting to really know your target market (or tarket,
as Lorrie Morgen-Ferrero calls it) allows you to identify first-hand
with their hopes, dreams, wants, and needs. This comes from study
and research, although a certain amount of intuition comes in handy
too.
You really do need to be able to put yourself into your customers
shoes in order to be a good salesperson, whether in print or face-to-face.
As the old saying goes, Become your customer. They need
to become real in your mind as real as that person sitting across
the kitchen table.
There are plenty of ways to identify with your customer or prospect.
Reading the trade journals or magazines they read is a good place
to start.
But what this skill really amounts to is empathy. Identification
and empathy are two peas in the pod.
In business, you develop empathy simply by putting your customer
first. By actually caring about your customer and making it
your avowed goal to help them. By going the extra mile to
find out what it is that keeps them awake at night. By becoming
obsessed (in a good way) with bringing them a product that
will solve a problem and make their life easier.
And by listening.
How do you listen to your customer when they're not there?
The same way you would if they were there. By asking a question.
And then listening for the answer. From inside you.
Whenever you write sales copy, you need to continually ask
"So what?" after every single sentence you write.
The person sitting across the kitchen table or next to you
at the bar is a skeptic. Which is normal and healthy!
By keeping your customer's possible objections in mind every single
minute you write, you establish a kind of dialogue. And that's when
your customer will really get pulled into your copy. That's when
they'll say, "Hey, she's talking to me!"
You'll be getting that empathy. And with it will come that warm,
familiar tone.
So practice writing like you talk, keeping in mind that you want
to be informal and familiar. Get to know your customer better so
you can identify better with them and build empathy.
Eventually you'll get "over the hump" and your "right"
voice will start to come naturally.
And that's when you'll start to see a steep rise in your sales
numbers!
Bruce Carlson is a veteran freelance writer and educator
living in Finland. Visit his website at http://www.dynamic-copywriting.com
and sign up for his free jam packed newsletter The Dynamic Copywriter.
|