As a small business owner, you end up wearing many hats. Writer is one of them.
Writing copy is a vital part of marketing your business but it can be difficult to know where to start if you’ve never done it before. Thankfully, writing copy is a creative endeavour so with some key ideas and a bit of creativity, you can start on your copywriting journey with ease.
To start, it is essential to think about the overall message you want to give your audience. There’s two parts to this.
One, you need to identify your audience. What age demographic does your business cater to? Where do they live? Do they have children? Do they have pets? What psychographic information do you have about them? What do they read? Where do they eat? What sports do they like? What are their goals and values.
Two, identify the key elements you want to include in your writing that sets you apart from your competition. These can be things like eco-friendly products and services, a family-oriented business environment, pet-friendly locations. The possibilities are endless!
The next step is to identify the pain points that customers might have. Pain points are usually problems your audience experiences and can be things like the pandemic, seasonal changes, annual events, or day-to-day life inconveniences. You can be as serious or as playful as you like but the main focus should be on relatability and how you can solve the problem your audience experiences. If you own a coffee shop, you can talk about the Monday blues and how coffee can get you through your day. If you own a building and maintenance company, you can talk about the safety precautions you take to keep clients safe during the pandemic. Once you are writing, remember to keep your message clear and your writing short. You do not need to write entire essays to make your point. Clear, consistent messages to your audience means that they will read and understand your marketing. Only writing as much as you need will feel more enjoyable to your readers too.
Good planning is also a part of the writing process. If you’re using email and social media to market your company, make sure you plan out your posts in advance so you can keep your message consistent over multiple posts and you don’t bombard your audience. If you have an event coming up or an important promotion, post about it over the month not through multiple messages just before the event! Your audience will feel overwhelmed and then stop reading your copy, making all that hard work for nothing.
Here is an example. I own a coffee shop. Most of the customers that enter my business are coffee drinkers, young people, and business people. My coffee shop uses sustainably sourced coffee cups and utensils, ethically sourced coffee, is pet-friendly, and offers a variety of drinks and food for vegans and for people with allergies. On my website, I have a couple of paragraphs and infographics that tell customers all of these key elements to my business. In emails or social media posts, I can talk about how great it is to work in a coffee shop or take pictures of the canine clients that come in (with permission from the owners of course). For my audience, they know I am a local coffee shop that they would like to support because I am supporting the environment and I am an inclusive coffee shop. For my pain points, I could have emails or social media posts about fair trade month, it is importance, and why my coffee shop supports fair trade companies.
If in doubt or if writing copy on top of everything else you need to do has become too much, you can always hire a copywriter. There are many excellent companies or freelance copywriters that know exactly how to capture your audience and make your written marketing super effective. If you need help, please reach out to us.
