Write better marketing messages with these tips from CopyCon

Our Sales & Marketing Executive Anna went to the ProCopywriters’ Copywriting Conference and came back starry-eyed, motivated to write better copy. Read her tips on how to apply top techniques to your marketing messages.

You want your business to grow, so you craft your marketing messages carefully. But are they saying what they should be saying? Or is something missing while other elements should be trimmed?

I learned a few tips on writing a stellar web copy from the pros at the CopyCon. Six talks, with about a dozen of great insights in each, made for plenty of material to draw inspiration from.

Kicked off by Joanna Wiebe’s sharp conversion copywriting talk, featuring Mister Rogers teaching Canadian kids how to be nice (and write a better copy, apparently), the day was packed back to back – with lunch and enough biscuit breaks to fuel my spinning brain.

Hyped by the opening talk (and all the sugar throughout the day), I decided that two more talks stood out for me: Behavioural Biases and Behavioural Insights for Copywriters… notice the pattern here?

So let’s dive into getting your marketing messages in shape with these five tips from the Copywriting Conference:

Clarity is better than chocolate

This might be a subjective (and controversial) statement, but you get the point. Just like with a user-friendly website design, you want your marketing content to push the audience to do what you need them to.

So be clear about what you want to say because clarity is more persuasive than anything else. Being straightforward will make you more credible, earning your customer’s trust.

Read more about why you should bother with clarity in this sexy beast of a blog post.

The power of simplicity

A wise man once said that the real trick is to be able to explain complex ideas in a simple language.

Sure, your profession might call for industry jargon, especially if you’re in the fun world of B2B. Before you decide to throw in complex terms and difficult words, think about who your audience is and what will they see. Will they get it, or will they think you’re trying to confuse them?

By trying to impress the reader, you often risk being misunderstood. But don’t just rely on my word. Let’s throw an award-winning research behind this.

Professor Daniel Oppenheimer won the Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for his paper Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly. The work proves that, contrary to popular belief, simple writing makes the author more intelligent than complex writing.

So simplicity > padding your message.

Read more about avoiding wordy nonesense in this blog post from last year’s CopyCon.

It’s all in the framing

The same piece of information presented differently can be interpreted in a completely different way. If you were on a low-fat diet, would you choose the product described as 25% fat or the one that’s 75% fat-free?

Houston Airport used this technique to address the issue of unbearably long waiting time for baggage claim. The airport switched arrival gates, cutting their wait time and replacing it with a longer walking distance instead. It turned out travellers were happy to spend the same time getting to their assigned gate than simply waiting.

Equally, we’re more likely to respond to a message set in the present, not future; a direct call that addresses “you”, not “us”; and a possibility of a concrete gain, not loss.

Numbers

We all relate to stories, but we’re more likely to respond to quantitative data and statistics because it makes us feel like we’re in control. Data-enhanced storytelling is a hit because it makes the audience feel they’re basing their choices and judgements on concrete data, not a “feeling”.

By giving your audience numbers and facts to include in their decision-making process, you respectfully recognise that they’re mature adults perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions. Personally, I like that kind of respect.

“Everybody’s doing it”

The psychology of conformity occurs when an individual is being socially influenced to change their behaviour in order to fit in with a group. Basically, it’s peer pressure.

We’re herd creatures who like to think we’re all unique and original, but really – we’re still part of a group and we subconsciously enjoy that. Countless experiments, including this one from 1962, have found that we’ll conform to the social norm because we seek social approval.

Brands use this theory in marketing in different ways, betting on the “everybody’s doing it” approach, or using a single influential persona to vouch for their product. Either way, there’s definitely something behind this, or we wouldn’t be so reliant on what people say in reviews and word of mouth.

Do your marketing messages need freshening up? Contact us today to have a chat about how we can help with your content and strategy.