Anastasia Voll, Venveo’s Content Manager, joins the show to discuss 7 copywriting hacks that can drive your brand awareness to get leads to take action. More About This Show The Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast helps industry professionals find better ways to grow leads, sales and outperform the competition. It’s designed to give insight on how to create a results-driven digital marketing strategy for companies of any size. In this episode, Zach, Beth and Anastasia offer expert content insights from actual building material manufacturer campaigns that have worked well. _________ Imagery and content writing are two of the biggest things that impact a person’s online experience. But as a manufacturer, you may struggle with writing well because you’re so close to your product. Your content should understand the questions people have and how your product applies to individual projects. Good copy helps deliver information to your audience that they’re actually looking for. These 7 copywriting hacks are super fast and will help your marketing become much more effective across the board. #1: Tell a Story People are wired to understand stories; it’s how we’ve communicated important information across centuries. When you tell a story to your audience, however, it’s important to position the person you’re speaking to as the hero — not you. Focus on how you’re going to help them win their story and their problem. Communicate your value proposition for your product. The cornerstone of your story should be your audience’s pain point. Show them how your product solves the issues that are keeping them up at night. Your copy should also be conversational in order to engage people. You can’t just talk about yourself; otherwise, no one will listen. Here’s a quick exercise. Look at your homepage and make sure it’s easy to understand what you make, what problem it solves and why it’s better than your competition. Next, check out your blog or news section. Does it focus solely on company news, like a new CEO, what trade show you’re attending or what award your company recently won? If so, you’re putting yourself at the center of the universe, instead of your audience. Switch to writing how-to’s, resolutions and product comparisons. #2: Begin and End with the Most Important Points People’s attention spans focus primarily on the first and last sentences of content so it’s vital that you open and close with your most important points. Catch your audience with the heavy hitters in those places, and they’ll better remember your brand and products. Using this tactic in emails is particularly helpful. Make sure you have a great opening line and close. People don’t often remember fluffier sentences in the middle. Start and end well, and you’ll drive people to click the links in your emails. #3: Use Specific Numbers and Data Using numbers and statistics adds a ton of authority to what you’re saying to your audience and can especially help your traffic when used in headlines. Manufacturers who provide inspirational content, for example, can use headlines like “25 applications of this product” or “17 design ideas for your kitchen.” People can wrap their heads around this type of information pretty easily and gets them excited to click for more. Audiences also love statistics, which resonate well across the board. Stats make you sound authoritative, setting the tone that you’re an expert so that people don’t think you’re just making up what you’re telling them. #4: Use Personalization Whenever Possible Your copywriting should talk directly to your audience. For example, in subject lines, you can include the recipient’s city or address the email specifically with their name once they click to open. These details make your audience feel like you care about them specifically; not that you’re talking to thousands of people like they're all the same. Knowing details about your audience is also a key component of copywriting. Do some audience research and make brand personas so you have an ideal person in mind that you’re writing to. These details can include gender, age, work, marriage, kids, what they care about. You can even make a fake name and use a stock photo so you can have a specific person in mind when you’re writing. This helps your copy feel more authentic. The more you personalize content in email, the more your open and click rates will go up. Even with multiple audiences, make sure you’re not just personalizing their name, but the content as well. Architects, for example, have different pain points than contractors, so tailor that message to relate to each one separately. On your blog, you can even write different articles for different audiences as long as you differentiate in some way, such as with a drop-down on the main blog page or a phrase in the title. #5: Repeat Statements to Become More Trustworthy A recent study asked participants to rate how much they trusted a statement. Some statements were stated once, while others were stated multiple times. The outcome was that people consistently rated repeated statements as more trustworthy. Similarly, the more someone sees an ad or statement, the more trustworthy that becomes. We inherently trust what’s familiar to us. That’s why your copywriting should reflect a consistent brand messaging experience across all channels. It helps prospects gain trust and feel like they know you. Even if you provide different content to different audiences, your voice should still be the same in every touchpoint. #6: Use Trigger Words Words like “because,” “to,” and “therefore” show justification in your content and help connect phrases for your audience. A frequent mantra we use at Venveo when reviewing ad copy is, “Don’t make me think.” These trigger words tell your audience exactly why they should do something. Here are some examples: “Contact a rep to get an exclusive design consultation.” “Download your free report to access this information.” This small hack can result in a huge increase in your conversions. #7: Include a P.S. Line in Emails Copywriter Ray Jutkins says that 79% of people who open his emails read the postscript first. At Venveo, even if Zach’s P.S. has nothing to do with the email, he still gets tons of responses from people. This simple, yet effective, hack works so well because it’s a direct response and helps you end with an important point. We hope these seven hacks help you generate more traffic and clicks on your emails, blogs, ads and more. If you want more hacks, or have questions about the ones we discussed, we’d love to help. Send us an email at [email protected] to chat about how good copy can help your business.
Anastasia Voll, Venveo’s Content Manager, joins the show to discuss 7 copywriting hacks that can drive your brand awareness to get leads to take action. More About This Show The Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast helps industry professionals find better ways to grow leads, sales and outperform the competition. It’s designed to give insight on how to create a results-driven digital marketing strategy for companies of any size. In this episode, Zach, Beth and Anastasia offer expert content insights from actual building material manufacturer campaigns that have worked well. _________ Imagery and content writing are two of the biggest things that impact a person’s online experience. But as a manufacturer, you may struggle with writing well because you’re so close to your product. Your content should understand the questions people have and how your product applies to individual projects. Good copy helps deliver information to your audience that they’re actually looking for. These 7 copywriting hacks are super fast and will help your marketing become much more effective across the board. #1: Tell a Story People are wired to understand stories; it’s how we’ve communicated important information across centuries. When you tell a story to your audience, however, it’s important to position the person you’re speaking to as the hero — not you. Focus on how you’re going to help them win their story and their problem.
Communicate your value proposition for your product. The cornerstone of your story should be your audience’s pain point. Show them how your product solves the issues that are keeping them up at night. Your copy should also be conversational in order to engage people. You can’t just talk about yourself; otherwise, no one will listen. Here’s a quick exercise. Look at your homepage and make sure it’s easy to understand what you make, what problem it solves and why it’s better than your competition. Next, check out your blog or news section. Does it focus solely on company news, like a new CEO, what trade show you’re attending or what award your company recently won? If so, you’re putting yourself at the center of the universe, instead of your audience. Switch to writing how-to’s, resolutions and product comparisons. #2: Begin and End with the Most Important Points People’s attention spans focus primarily on the first and last sentences of content so it’s vital that you open and close with your most important points. Catch your audience with the heavy hitters in those places, and they’ll better remember your brand and products. Using this tactic in emails is particularly helpful. Make sure you have a great opening line and close. People don’t often remember fluffier sentences in the middle. Start and end well, and you’ll drive people to click the links in your emails. #3: Use Specific Numbers and Data Using numbers and statistics adds a ton of authority to what you’re saying to your audience and can especially help your traffic when used in headlines. Manufacturers who provide inspirational content, for example, can use headlines like “25 applications of this product” or “17 design ideas for your kitchen.” People can wrap their heads around this type of information pretty easily and gets them excited to click for more. Audiences also love statistics, which resonate well across the board. Stats make you sound authoritative, setting the tone that you’re an expert so that people don’t think you’re just making up what you’re telling them.
#4: Use Personalization Whenever Possible Your copywriting should talk directly to your audience. For example, in subject lines, you can include the recipient’s city or address the email specifically with their name once they click to open. These details make your audience feel like you care about them specifically; not that you’re talking to thousands of people like they're all the same. Knowing details about your audience is also a key component of copywriting. Do some audience research and make brand personas so you have an ideal person in mind that you’re writing to. These details can include gender, age, work, marriage, kids, what they care about. You can even make a fake name and use a stock photo so you can have a specific person in mind when you’re writing. This helps your copy feel more authentic. The more you personalize content in email, the more your open and click rates will go up. Even with multiple audiences, make sure you’re not just personalizing their name, but the content as well. Architects, for example, have different pain points than contractors, so tailor that message to relate to each one separately. On your blog, you can even write different articles for different audiences as long as you differentiate in some way, such as with a drop-down on the main blog page or a phrase in the title. #5: Repeat Statements to Become More Trustworthy A recent study asked participants to rate how much they trusted a statement. Some statements were stated once, while others were stated multiple times. The outcome was that people consistently rated repeated statements as more trustworthy. Similarly, the more someone sees an ad or statement, the more trustworthy that becomes. We inherently trust what’s familiar to us. That’s why your copywriting should reflect a consistent brand messaging experience across all channels. It helps prospects gain trust and feel like they know you. Even if you provide different content to different audiences, your voice should still be the same in every touchpoint.
#6: Use Trigger Words Words like “because,” “to,” and “therefore” show justification in your content and help connect phrases for your audience. A frequent mantra we use at Venveo when reviewing ad copy is, “Don’t make me think.” These trigger words tell your audience exactly why they should do something. Here are some examples: “Contact a rep to get an exclusive design consultation.” “Download your free report to access this information.” This small hack can result in a huge increase in your conversions. #7: Include a P.S. Line in Emails Copywriter Ray Jutkins says that 79% of people who open his emails read the postscript first. At Venveo, even if Zach’s P.S. has nothing to do with the email, he still gets tons of responses from people. This simple, yet effective, hack works so well because it’s a direct response and helps you end with an important point. We hope these seven hacks help you generate more traffic and clicks on your emails, blogs, ads and more. If you want more hacks, or have questions about the ones we discussed, we’d love to help. Send us an email at [email protected] to chat about how good copy can help your business.