Every time I think about subjects like this, the whole “burger analogy” pops into my head. I think I might have mentioned this before, too. Remember the movie “Office Space?” Well, out of all the lines in that movie that stick with me, the one about how “People can get a burger anywhere. They come here for the atmosphere and the attitude,” is the one that sticks in my head when I start thinking about how my copywriting company staff and I can work to give every client a unique voice in copy.
There are some things that your copywriter can (and should) be doing for you in the creation of the copy, but there are other things that you’re just going to need to implement on your own in the delivery. Here are five things that I’ve found work well together in developing and defining your brand voice with copy.
1. Communicate Your Values
This goes way beyond making statements about your commitment to quality and customer satisfaction on your “about us” page. Believe it or not, people generally don’t care as much about the quality of the product as they do the quality of the seller. Your copy needs to communicate these values in a way that goes beyond the words.
For example, you can’t tell people that you pay “metticulous attention to detail” when you don’t know how to spell “meticulous” or use a spell-checker to catch the error. If your copy is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, it detracts from your message and it detracts from the believability that you maintain a commitment to excellence. A commitment to excellence deserves excellent copy to back it up.
It’s also much better to simply give written and visual examples that communicate your values than it is to make blanket statements about how great you think your brand is. Answer as many “whys” as you can in your copy before the question has a chance to jump into the reader’s head. If you get good at this, your readers will start thinking you can read their minds, and that creates a connection between them and your brand.
2. Communicate Your Personality
There’s a difference between being strictly business and being professional. Professionals know when to let their guards down and show their softer sides. If you are a naturally funny kind of person, it’s all right to inject humor into your copy even if you’re selling bonds and securities.
This is especially vital if you or your business is customer-facing. What people see of you online needs to translate to what they see in person. Whether on an individual or corporate level, the personality of your brand needs to shine through in your copy if you want to build trust with your customers.
3. Be Consistent
Your website has to have consistent branding right down to the copy. Keep your typefaces and font sizes the same on every page. Have a uniform scheme for page setups that includes font sizes for headlines, segment headings, highlighted text, and body text.
Use consistent brand language in your copy as well. That doesn’t mean you can’t use synonyms to express a specific idea (in fact, I almost always recommend doing just that), but don’t go so far off-script that it looks like you don’t know how you want to communicate your message, either. This is a huge problem that many businesses run into when they hire multiple copywriters to write different parts of their websites.
My advice is to find one writer or custom writing service that you like and trust and stick with them. Odds are the same writer or group of writers will be assigned to your project long-term, and that will help them assimilate into your branding strategy well over time.
4. Be Real
Tell your story the way it has played out up to now. Don’t worry about how exciting it is. People appreciate believability, but they also like a good story. The trick is to figure out a way to take your story and make it compelling. The best way to do that is to be as down-to-earth as possible but emphasize the parts of the story that communicate the needs your product or service fulfills. Moreover, it should emphasize your passion for meeting those needs.
Yes, it’s your story, but the most effective telling of that story will be the one that tricks the readers into thinking the story is about them. If you can find the common ground between your experiences and the customers’, you’ve found the sweet spot. Keep your story real and the relatability factor will increase exponentially.
5. Be Involved
It’s not enough to just have content written for your site. It is important to scrutinize what other people who don’t work with you or know as much about your brand as you do have to say about you. This is why I always recommend that if you are going to hire a copywriter you should first sit down and think about a few things.
First, you should definitely define your ideal avatar. This will help immensely in the creation of good copy.
Second, you should clearly define for your writers what you intend to accomplish with your copy. What is the goal here? Conversions on a product? Consultations on a service? Basic website traffic? The possibilities are endless, and each one affects how the copy will be written.
Third, if your copywriter doesn’t provide any kind of style guide for you to fill out, prepare one in advance. There are loads of resources out there to help you.
Whether you do your own writing or hire a copywriter to do it for you, keeping these five strategies in play will put you at a particular advantage when it comes to defining your brand through your copy. All of them matter, so make sure you are gauging your copy against each and making changes where needed.