Human Copywriting
This blog’s dedicated to human copywriting.
Recently, I’ve written quite a lot about AI copywriting regarding its dangers and impact on the quality of content marketing.
This time, I want to talk about human copywriting and how we use our brains, emotional intelligence, empathy, and cultural awareness to generate content your customers want to read and engage with.
The face of human copywriting
Being a professional copywriter involves a lot more than researching a few facts and stringing a few coherent sentences together.
I promise not to ramble on about the science of writing or anything like that. This one is about how, as a copywriter, I get into the head of my client’s customers. But first, I have to understand what my client wants.
Human copywriting starts at the beginning
The easy bit is to learn about the product or service (and associated features and benefits), the values of my client, and the tone of voice that’s required. Mind you, that last one can be difficult because the terms ‘friendly’, ‘informal’, ‘witty’, ‘quirky’, ‘professional’, ‘approachable’, and ‘conversational’ can mean different things to different people.
I’ve lost count of how often a client has asked for an ‘approachable and conversational’ approach only to be told ‘, No, that’s far too casual; that’s not what I want at all.’
It’s all in the questions
The best way to get to the bottom of what my clients want comes down to a three-pronged attack:
- Read
Don’t just ask what tone they want; ask to see examples of what they like. Then read it, read it again and again until you are completely immersed in its style.
Many big businesses will already have tone-of-voice guidelines in place. But the smaller ones may need a bit of help.
- Listen
As you talk to your clients, listen to what they say and how they say it. Their turn of phrase and choice of vocabulary will help you when it comes to developing a style that they are comfortable with.
- Read some more
During the project, you’ll probably be exchanging a lot of emails. Again, read these carefully and see how your client tends to phrase things and use it in your copy.
Of course, that doesn’t mean to say that everything you write will be perfect the first time. You may use words that they don’t like, but minor tweaks like that are to be expected anyway.
But what does the customer want to hear?
You’ve now got the basics covered. However, the content you write must deliver what the customer wants. And that could be at odds with what your client wants.
When it comes to the meat of the content, the only thing that matters is giving the readers what they want.
How do you do that?
The first stop is the product or service you’re writing about. You already know what it does, how it does it, and the colours it comes in, but that’s not good enough. Your primary focus is why does it do it; in other words, what benefits does it offer the customer?
The why relates to the challenge it solves. It is the aspect that will convince the reader to buy (or get in touch).
Take the mighty Apple as an example. It sells shed loads of products because its marketing shows that it offers the latest technology and’s also easy to use, of exceptional quality, and really cool.
Show me an AI copywriting tool that can do that!
My last word (promise)
It all comes down to one thing: you’re selling to a real person with feelings. Until AI has evolved so much that it can empathise and feel, it can’t and won’t generate the emotional response that professional human copywriting can create.
Sally Ormond, the human copywriter, is ready to help your business make an authentic impact.