In an increasingly digital market, everyone needs to be a copywriter. Image by www.member365.com.
The power of words is often underestimated. Yet when it comes to advertising, it shouldn’t be. Storytelling is at the heart of branding, especially in a digital world. That’s why so many companies hire copywriters to convey who they are in creative, engaging ways. In order to stand out in today’s saturated event market, brands need to harness the power of words to convey their unique essence to the public.
These days, it pays to learn how to write your own copy- and write it well. The right copy can bring your event to vivid life and make customers want to engage with your brand further. After all, the goal of most events is not to simply sell tickets- it’s also to convert customers, get them to become VIPs, and generate social media mentions and shares. If you want to spread the word about your brand, it should be worth sharing! That’s where good copy comes in.
Personify Your Brand Through Copy
The first thing to remember: Write for your audience. That’s why it’s so important to get to know your audience on social media, through polls and surveys, and via interactive events that generate live data. When considering who your customers are, you’re not just looking at demographics like age, gender, and income status. These form the groundwork for the understanding you need, but take it a step further to look at the more nuanced information that makes people who they are. Think psychographics: Lifestyle, attitudes, values, aspirations, and other psychological criteria.
Ask yourself: How does my target audience speak? This will tell you what tone and words they are likely to relate to. Consider culture and where they live; this information says a lot about what their attitudes, core values, and interests might be like. Being in continuous conversation with your audience via social media, interactive events, polling, and surveys helps you avoid too much generalization and get to know them more personally.
Does your copy flow like a conversation with your audience? (Hint: The more you converse with them digitally and in person, the better you will be able to answer this question). Do your words offer them a way to solve their problems? Is that solution better or different from the solutions offered by your biggest competitors? Your copy should convey these points concisely but powerfully.
Consistency is Key!
Your brand’s tone may change with the times, but its personality should be a staple- that’s how companies build trust and loyalty. Image by www.activecampaign.com.
A general rule of thumb: Be consistent. In order to stand out and attract customer loyalty, your brand’s voice needs to be powerful and constant. This makes it easier for your customers to form a vital emotional connection with your brand. Essentially, you want to personify your business. For example, if your brand is artsy and has a funky aesthetic, a conservative, overly formal tone won’t match its personality. Furthermore, it will likely bore potential customers.
However, speaking to a more conservative, serious crowd in a fun, trendy tone just because it’s popular won’t resonate. If your brand isn’t super tech-savvy, avoid using a lot of technical slang or content that they won’t fully grasp. It goes on and on. With branding, you want to think more in terms of expressing your business’s unique essence than following trends.
Voice and Tone- The Same, but Different
Knowing who you are as a brand- and how to express it- is key. Image by www.inc.com.
We realize that marketing involves speaking to a constantly shifting cultural and emotional landscape. Current events, popular media, and industry-wide trends affect people and their buyer behaviors. With that in mind, it’s important to adjust your tone according to the immediate social climate. That’s why it’s so imperative to engage in a continual conversation with your audience about relevant topics.
A lot of event businesses make the mistake of focusing on what their audience thinks over what they feel. Both are absolutely essential for an effective marketing strategy- and writing excellent copy is part of that strategy. But feelings are especially important because people base connections on them. So even if your brand expresses ideas and values that are similar to those of your target audience, that’s not enough to make people feel the connection you need. So when homing in on relevant topics, ask yourself how they feel about these topics.
You can do this across social media channels as well as through live data and post-event polls and surveys. When you’re consistently cultivating personal relationships with clients, you learn what they care about and how to better serve their needs. As a result, you learn how to improve events based on these interactions- and you also know how to communicate with your audience. A vast majority of these communications happen via digital copy.
Medium also matters. Talking to your audience on social media obviously requires a less formal tone than converting with them via business emails. So again, you want to cultivate a consistent voice for your brand. But with copy, the tone should vary situationally.
Captivate With Taglines, Headlines, and Slogans
A tagline, headline, or slogan introduces your brand, so make a good impression. Image by www.searchenginejournal.com.
When viewing an event page or ad, the tagline is one of the first things people see. Therefore, you want your tagline to convey strong branding. In other words, your tagline should describe your event in a way that is true to brand. Nike famously implores consumers to “Just Do It”. This simple slogan packs a powerful punch. It speaks to the bold, action-oriented persona of the popular sports brand. It also gives a direct command- just do it, as in just buy the sneakers. The tagline also has a motivational subtext, inspiring customers to go for their dreams, and do it wearing Nike sneakers.
Sound cynical? It should- kind of. Branding requires giving serious thought to the words and tone that will speak to your specific audience. How else could brands make the kind of personal connection that fosters brand loyalty? However- and this is important- we don’t recommend writing copy that doesn’t resonate with you personally. If you’re just writing what you think customers will want to hear, it will fall flat.
Instead, dig deep and think about what inspired your event. Why are you creating it? What is the main benefit your attendees are meant to receive? What problem does your event help people solve, and how is your solution better or different from competitors’? Whatever your passion and purpose is, let your copy reflect it. Think about the value you are offering, and sum it up in your tagline.
Now let’s talk about headlines. Headlines can appear in several places: at the top of an event landing page, a social media page, an email, or blog post. They’re what immediately draws the eye when a prospective attendee lands on your page. Never before have companies had such vast opportunities to see how their audience interacts on a casual basis. This gives you know knowledge you need to craft a headline that uses the language they speak and builds rapport.
However, avoid getting so caught up in language that you forget to offer value. Most people are inundated with much more digital information than they can digest on a daily basis. So if they don’t think they’ll receive any value from clicking on a link, they won’t. They might subconsciously make the decision to bypass a headline that doesn’t jump out at them.
Again, think about who your target audience is. If they’re a largely experiential group like millennials or Gen Zers, use your headline to inspire them. If the purpose of your event is to educate people or further professional development, capture them with a headline that teaches them something new. Is your event meant to entertain people? Then make sure your headline is upbeat, funny, or entertaining. It’s really that simple. Many times, event creators over-complicate it by trying too hard to be clever. Yes, plays on words are catchy, but the most important thing is to offer value in a language that speaks to your target audience.
All effective content includes a call to action. Sometimes it’s a good idea to include a CTA in your headline. Simply put, CTAs implore your viewers to take action. Therefore, it makes sense to lead with a verb and let users know what value they will get if they click on the link.
And keep it short and sweet! Did you know that Google only displays 50-60 characters of a subject line? Thus, it’s a good rule of thumb to keep your headline about that long. Obviously, you don’t want users to have to click on the search result to see the entire headline. Most people won’t do that. Your job is to grab their attention at first sight. Intrigue them- make them want to know more.
SEO Matters
SEO can make the difference between being centerstage or sitting on the sidelines. Image by www.bitrix.com.
No matter how great your headline is, it won’t interest people who don’t see it. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your event page is one of the first that shows up when people search online. You’ll need to know which keywords are used most often in relevant searches.
Firstly, you need to be sure that your event comes up when people search for it. For example, if you were featuring the indie band The American Music Band at a venue in San Francisco in August, you’d want your event to show up in search results for “The American Music Band SF August or “The American Music Band” plus the name of the venue.
You also want your event to show up when people search relevant topics. In this case, some of these searches might include “SF concerts in June” or “concerts” plus the name of the venue. Some topics are harder to rank high on search engines because they’re so popular. Searches for concerts and other popular event types are competitive and harder to appear in. In such cases, it’s a good idea to research the most popular and moderately popular keywords associated with them. If possible, include both in your headline.
In Conclusion
We talked a lot about copywriting strategy. Now that you know the basics, remember to always share your content across social media channels. The platforms you focus on will depend on who your target audience is and where they spend the most time on social media. Sharing event copy on these digital platforms helps get you in front of massive audiences for no cost. Yes, well-placed ads can make you much more visible to your target audience, but you don’t always need them to be successful. Knowing how to write effective copy and having access to social media can be more than enough to grow your brand and attract the audience you want. Happy writing!