Writing is an essential part of our day-to-day communications in business, and yet for its importance, most of us are overly hesitant about writing to anyone that extends beyond the audience of our email inbox. However, any marketer worth half his salt can no longer deny that when done well, written content can do wonders for your business: such as turn a brand into a legacy, create a robust marketing strategy, generate leads, skyrocket your profit margins and win the loyalty and affection of key audiences, to name just a few.
At Wordsmith, we love to make words dance. So we’ve gathered up intelligence from our trusted group of word aficionados to explain why every brand (big or small) needs to have writers creating wonderfully rich, spellbinding content. Don’t worry – you can thank us later.
1. It builds a strong online presence for your business.
Whether you know it or not, your business is a brand with its own distinctive personality. When you Google your business, what pops up? The text in your search results create the first impression your audience will have of your brand. Is it a good one? Is the content you’re sharing across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites consistent with your marketing values and objectives? Recent research from The ROBO Economy (Research Online Buy Offline), showed that 82% of smartphone users consult their phones on purchases they are about to make, and 45% read consumer reviews before making a purchase. So the question is, can you afford to let your online reputation develop a life of its own? Or is it more effective to create a realm of great content that takes control of the narrative?
With the proliferation of social media, it has become essential for marketers to embrace the power of blog content. Your customers no longer want to hear from you via your stilted CEO quotes and annual report figures – they demand a more humanised approach.
Your blog content not only draws in customers, it also has a remarkable impact on your Google Search rankings. Studies from Tech Client show that there is a 434% higher chance of being ranked on search engines if your website features engaging blog content. More blog content offers more opportunities to add internal links, which in turn creates more pathways for Google’s crawlers to pick up, helping to evenly spread PageRank throughout your website.
Evolving from purely text-centric, static webpages to an incredibly diverse variety of content that includes enticing copy, imagery, infographics, videography and more, this cost-effective approach to content creation isn’t going anywhere. With a whopping 55% of marketers putting blogging as a top priority in their inbound marketing efforts, smart businesses are leveraging this tool to get more clicks, visitors and leads, with even large marketing giants, like Coca Cola following suit.
Coca-Cola is well renowned for their big budget international advertising campaigns, but blogging also plays an important piece when it comes to crafting their online narrative. Offering rich content and stories that align with their corporate objectives, Coca Cola is brilliant when it comes to responsive engagement through their blog posts and delivers a diversity of views from customers, employees and partners. Establishing their online presence through their blog, adds a human element to the huge corporate brand and instils in customers minds that they are in fact … the “Real Thing”.
2. It boosts the reputation of your brand.
Content creation in written form is essential to the cultivation and success of any branding strategy. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, was famously quoted as saying, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” And these words have never hit so close to home. Branding for your business lies with how your team of writers tell your brand story. Every piece of content your team produces is effectively promoting your brand’s image – and when it comes to business, image is everything. Effective branding not only allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition but it also allows you to build trust with prospective customers and clients.
Social media helps businesses to share and connect with their audiences. Instead of focusing on just the nuts and bolts of their products or services, this venue gives businesses the opportunity to humanize themselves—an increasingly important factor in marketing.
Gone are the days where photoshopped people, unblemished products and fake renders dominate advertising campaigns. Customers no longer want to see the perfect product; they want a real product, and are becoming increasingly tuned to sniff out fakes. So, whatever you do say about your company – make sure it’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as your company’s reputation depends on it.
With the increasing demand for sustainable products, one company that has proven their worth through engaging, credible content is outdoor clothing and gear retailer Patagonia. Living and breathing sustainability from the beginning, the company has written clear mission statements on how they as a business strive to protect the environment and inspire social change. Patagonia constantly adapts their product ranges to be more sustainable and provides customers with the facts to let them make more informed decisions before purchasing.
In their Fair Trade campaign, the company asks customers, “How is your clothing made?”. The hard-hitting, emotive storytelling video peels back the layers of clothing warehouses to highlight the injustice that faces many clothing workers. But Patagonia are here to disrupt the game when it comes to negative consuming patterns, by working with Fair Trade Certified factories in order to create a stronger demand for Fair Trade Clothing.
Unlike most garment factories, Fair Trade Certified factories pay higher wages and provide a higher standard of living for workers. The campaign video trailer and supporting social media content shine a spotlight on what they’re doing to make a difference, effectively boosting their reputation as a brand that is a force for good. And the results speak for themselves, with their inspirational video garnering 107,000 Facebook views, 1,400 likes and 62 comments in one week alone.
Anchoring its brand firmly in environmental activism, Patagonia consistently demonstrates through content that it takes an unconventional, mission-driven approach to retail success, explains European marketing director Alex Weller.
3. It helps to establish great relationships.
44% percent of consumers say they will buy again after a personalised shopping experience, while an astonishing 40% bought something they hadn’t planned to purchase as a direct result of personalised messaging. So however you slice it, you have to admit that tailoring communications in the form of emails, video content, blogs and how-to-guides all help to establish great relationships with your customers. And at the heart of it all lies your trusted copywriters.
If a business doesn’t know their customers’ likes or dislikes, it comes as no surprise that audiences would jump ship to another brand to gain a sense of that personalised connection. Customers don’t just want personalisation – they expect it, at every touchpoint along the customer journey. Successful content marketers understand that communicating with their customers is more than just mass email blasts. Instead of bombarding customers with nonstop offers, brands should use customer analytics and audience segmenting to tailor their written content.
With a bit of data analysis, for example, you can use your insights to figure out what products or services a customer may be interested in purchasing in the future. Then, you can alert them to relevant special offers and related products/services that they will love or give them opportunities to “level up” on services and save.
However, not all of your marketing communications should be focused on trying to sell something. With personalised emails achieving a 6.2% higher open rate than those that aren’t, it’s time you got on the band wagon, and put your writers through their email paces.
Why not diversify your personalised emails by gently reminding customers how to get the most out of their products, whether through special features or self-care they can do to maximise the longevity of the product? Keep things personal by wishing customers a happy birthday, anniversary, or alert them to their family’s milestones – so it shows you really do know them. If your written communication isn’t always about pushing that hard sell, the relationship won’t seem so one-sided and as a result will feel more genuine to the consumer.
Uber understands the importance of clever copywriting when it comes to their email marketing campaigns. They understand that their customers are busy, so they keep their messaging simple and to the point. Email subscribers are alerted to Uber’s promotions and hot deals like any other brand, but they’ve tailored the copy so it’s concise, with a very clear Call To Action. For customers who want to learn more about Uber’s Calendar Integration, they can click through to follow a more detailed (but still pleasingly snappy), step-by-step explanation of how the deal works.
Uber excels in ensuring that all of its written communications and marketing assets are refreshingly simple and tell the brand's story. Maintaining brand consistency is essential to them, especially when it comes to their tone of voice, so users know what they’re getting when the company communicates with them – another subliminal way Uber instils loyalty.
4. It exudes your expertise to your clientele.
It’s not enough for brands to be producing and churning out great products/services. To stay ahead of the competition, brands need to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. When generating material, content writers should always be self-aware and consider how they can add value to the conversation.
The brands that succeed in becoming thought leaders in their area, are those who provide their customers with uniquely valuable insights and knowledge that showcases their expertise, while also solving customers problems. Tapping into the wider community, thought leadership content is a highly influential and provocative way to provide content of substance and up to date information about major developments in your industry that your customers and clientele are only too eager to consume, believe and share.
A 2017 study by Edelman and LinkedIn shows that nearly half of business decision makers believe that thought leadership helps companies command a premium for their products and services, while 30% remove companies from consideration after engaging with poor thought leadership content. Today, thought leadership is considered to be a craft of its own, with its own art and science. And it comes in many shapes and sizes. Some of the best brands out there use digital tools and data insights to share their topics with informational videos, webinars and digital eBooks.
Taking note from the king of content and data insight, Google launched “Think with Google” to position themselves as a thought leader. This brilliant platform offers a one-stop shop for industry research, marketing insights and emerging consumer trends. Showcasing their big data, Google’s research library includes informational infographics, planning tools and interactive videos for content marketers and brands around the world to learn from.
Allison Mooney, Think with Google’s editor-in-chief and the head of trends and insights for Google Marketing, explains the thought process behind this innovative platform, “We spoke with a lot of our partners about how we could best help them access the same data, analysis, and insights that inform our own strategies, and Think With Google was a result of those conversations.”
Before you think about launching thought leadership content, dig a little deeper to discover what questions your audience or clients have – can you create a platform of content that provides insightful answers? If so, this may be the perfect way to give something to your community. Bringing your point of view to the table has the potential to increase brand awareness and visibility, open up two-way conversations and collaboration with important thinkers in your industry, and most importantly build credibility and trust with consumers and clients.
5. It conveys courtesy.
Providing value-adding resources is one thing – personally thanking your customers through your communications is quite another. It is paramount to customer loyalty. Chief Growth Officer of Loop & Tie, Benish Shah, explains, “Every decision around customer loyalty is about making sure the customer understands how important and valued they are to a brand” – and sometimes, this starts with a simple thank you.
Sending thank-you postcards from the team, care packages, and satisfaction surveys are fantastic ways to show that your brand truly values your customers’ loyalty. After all, customer retention is a critical component of any business's overall strategy – studies show that it costs five times as much to land a new customer than it does to keep one you already have. So, you could say, it literally pays to be nice – and what better way to do it than with words.
In a world where brands are more concerned with closing a sale than with the happiness of their customers, genuine care and appreciation stands out. And no one understands that more than start-up brands like Chubbies – an online retailer that sells shorts, shirts and swim apparel.
Their robust and effective loyalty program puts most businesses to shame when it comes to showing their customers how much their business is appreciated. Taylor Clayton, Chubbies Senior Manager of Customer Experience and Fulfilment explains how it all started:
“Chubbies’ first customers were friends of the founders, and they made sure to treat them as such. Back then, free swag and handwritten notes were the norm as employees packed orders for their friends. Though we have experienced exponential growth over the last few years and now have a network of nearly 2.2 million Chubsters, the foundation of our loyalty program has remained the same over time. Handwritten thank-you notes, gifts with purchase and treating all our customers as friends are still the tenets of our loyalty program.”
Since their start-up began in March 2015, Chubbies has sent customers more than 125 types of unique gifts as part of its loyalty program, and it’s worked. The proof is in the ROI. Chubbies currently boasts a 70% increase in repeat revenue and a 98% customer satisfaction rating. Sometimes the pen is mightier than the keyboard.
Captivating written content is, and always will be a major contributing factor to the overall success of your business. From engaging audiences and building relationships through robust loyalty programmes to showing off your expertise as a thought leader and building a great reputation for your brand – it is the content you put out, and how you make words dance that really makes a difference. Need a hand getting started? Your friendly neighbourhood copywriters would be happy to help!