The most effective copywriting focuses on the customer, not the company.
Several of the articles on this site deal with the importance of organising marketing copy around benefits rather than features. Benefits are the good things that will happen for customers as a result of using the product or service. Another way to think about this is in terms of where the principal focus of the marketing copy falls: on the company, the product, or the customer.
Imagine the moment when a customer first sees your marketing. We could think of it as a kind of conversation between the company and the customer. They are talking over a table, and on the table between them is the product being sold. Because the conversation is really taking place through a marketing medium such as a website, advert or brochure, it's a fairly one-sided affair - the company is doing the talking, and the customer is listening. When the company has finished talking, the customer will decide whether or not to buy. Alternatively, the customer can get up and leave at any point, regardless of how much information the company has managed to get across.
Now imagine a line stretching from the company through the product and on to the customer. This is shown below (with apologies for the wingdings):
We might call this line the 'self-sell continuum'. The focus of marketing copywriting can fall anywhere along it. At one end is the company itself. The more copywriting focuses on this end of the continuum, the more selfish it will be and the less it will sell. As it moves nearer to the customer, the more it will connect with the target audience, and the more it will sell.
Several easily recognisable styles of marketing copy can be placed on the self-sell continuum:
- Starting from the left, purely selfish copy is all about the company: how long it's been trading, who runs it, where it's located, its principles and vision. Unless these points can be translated into benefits, they've got no place in true marketing copy. This is the stuff that goes in 'About us' on websites, so people don't have to read it unless they want to. Some company facts do constitute indirect reasons to buy - being a market leader is strongly persuasive, and a particular location might help customers access your product - but most don't.
Most company facts don't constitute reasons to buy
- Slightly less selfish is content that falls on the company/product boundary - how a product was developed, the thinking behind it and so on. This might add some value, but it's background at best. There's a danger of falling into self-congratulation.
- Material on the product itself is good, but remember that a straightforward factual description will only sell to those who are already very clear about what they want and why. Lists of features are for those who have a well-formed interest in the product before they start reading. It might work in material aimed at hobbyists (B2C) or purchasing professionals (B2B). Otherwise, this content is ready to be re-expressed as customer benefits in order to sell harder.
- Copy about the interface between product and customer concerns how the product can be bought, how and when it's used, what it does and so on. This is where customer benefits begin to enter the picture, particularly if the text explains why the various attributes are good for the customer, or how they will help them.
- Finally, and most powerfully, we come to copy that focuses purely on the customer. This content starts with customer concerns or priorities and goes on to explain how the product will help them, in words they'll understand. Effective copywriting spends most of its time here - inside the head of the customer.
Companies who produce their own copy often start by describing themselves and the product. That's perfectly understandable for people who are closely involved, but it highlights the importance of getting a fresh perspective on the copywriting process. As a newcomer and an outsider, the copywriter's job is to move the emphasis to the customer by (politely) interrogating the copy plot through questions such as:
- How does that help me as a customer?
- How does that affect my decision to buy, or not to buy?
- As a potential customer, why should I be interested?
- As a newcomer to the product/service, what do I want to know most? And what do I want to know first?
The end result should talk directly to the customer's own priorities
When it comes to actually writing the copy, any points that are too company- or product-focused should be recast in terms of things the customer wants. If they can't be made directly relevant to the customer, they should be dropped. The end result should be text that talks directly to the customer's own priorities, linking them clearly to the product.
To confirm that this is so, it can be helpful to compare the number of times the text mentions 'you' as opposed to 'we' or 'us'. Ideally, there should be at least twice as many mentions of the customer as of the company. At the very least, the copy should generate a strong sense of addressing an imagined reader and their concerns. Often, it's helpful to bring a specific individual to mind, or imagine one, and address the copy to them.
Marketing may be a one-way communication, but as with any other conversation, acknowledging the other person's point of view is more likely to get positive results.