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Messaging in marketing

Sticks and stones can break my bones…
And words can start wars, create peace, and certainly influence people to spend money

Words matter

Capturing the attention of your target audience with visually attractive marketing materials is a significant accomplishment, however once an audience is captured, copy must be clear and as effortless as possible to digest quickly. Otherwise successful marketing campaigns can go to waste if your copy doesn’t interest or hold the attention of the target audience.

Your copy, or messaging, is your conversation with the public. Almost all marketing strategies and tools are intended to attract attention so that copy is read, or enforce copy and aid in a fuller understanding. It is arguable that quality content is more vital than any other aspect of marketing – a company with the highest quality marketing materials will ultimately fail if messaging fails.

Too often businesses put the cart before the horse, and they let their enthusiasm to move forward eclipse the need to cement the company identity, mission, audience to target, and what messaging will be presented to those targeted audiences. The potential for a marketing tool by nature cannot exceed the potential of your message, and marketing tools cannot drag your message forward any more than a cart can drag a horse.

Using your copy as a tool to prevent customer dissatisfaction
Everything that you explain well in you marketing materials is something you won’t have to explain well later. The concept that vague hyperbolic explanations and claims should be used in advertising to beat competition is proven to be counterproductive from a cost and satisfaction perspective because businesses are spending more time to better explain the same material to inquiring potential customers that often feel misled to begin with.

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Marketing materials should accurately represent an offer to the public not only because it is the upstanding choice, but because converted customers that feel misled cost in time and money down the road. Additionally, vague, large promises have become associated with untrustworthy behavior and turn off potential customers looking for an honest, upright interaction with a business. Nice sounding copy that is hollow sends the message that services or products are hollow as well. Businesses should focus on what is true about their company, products or services, and offers, and communicate honesty. Value that is represented accurately will in return be valued in most cases.

Being too close to your communication style

It is common for business owners and employees to be overly close to the style of communication used in the workplace, customer interaction, and marketing materials, making it difficult to identify when a disconnect is occuring with the customer or communication is not conveying the message they feel it is. Due to overfamiliarity, businesses often don’t realize that copy that reads well to them may not to others. It is natural for businesses to form their own version of language over time, using “in house” lingo, or industry shorthand that bypasses vital information needed for lay reader comprehension.

Being too close to your messaging can lead to including unnecessary details that lose the reader or explanations that don’t begin with base level information. The familiar language that seems sensible due to repetition may confuse those that are hearing it for the first time. A third party can be helpful in identifying proper information hierarchy, necessary content volume, and appropriate language that effectively conveys the message that was intended.

Many companies have worked to create a familiar voice representative of the personality and tone of the company or the people running it. Commercial copywriting does not strive to destroy this unique voice but to advocate for the known preferences of the target audience to create balance with these conventions. It is simply unrealistic to expect audiences to research language in marketing materials to understand what is being communicated and audiences are far more likely to respond to language they are familiar with or that is universal.

Website content geared toward Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Today, search engines use complex algorithms to determine which search results should be displayed for the viewer. There are several factors that are considered in this process, but what most people don’t know is how much website content impacts which search results are displayed first. To be competitive, website copy must contain keywords located in what is considered by the search engine to be “in context”. This is fundamentally different than the “in-code keyword list” that was previously used to help search engines identify the subject matter of a website. Search engines are now so advanced that it is important for the copywriter to understand SEO rules when creating content in addition to incorporating considerations for the audiences being targeted, all while maintaining the conventions for voice and tone a company has established for communication.

Web vs Print Copy and Text Display

Designers focus on ordering and breaking up content into digestible blocks with an ordered flow. This can prove problematic if the writer isn’t working in hand with the designer to come to a consensus about information hierarchy and any visual emphasis necessary to display the most important information to the reader. It has become requisite for these niche professions to work together to create messaging that has been optimized for display in different settings without the professional goals of the designer or the writer being out of balance or diminished.

The rules for displaying text in print collateral differ greatly than conventions used for web. With print materials, the reader is focused on a single tangible material, unlike the online experience where viewers often don’t have a destination and may explore numerous materials in the same amount of time. Factors such as color, font size, line and paragraph length, and formatting become even more important to consider for the quick content digestion necessary online. Additionally, without tangible material to hold onto or take home, creating memorable content is important in order to stand out in the sea of web-available information.