Taking your marketing copy from good to great

@KaraKMS Kara Stanford

How to write engaging copy

Practical tips to improve your written marketing

Kara Stanford, KMS Marketing


Initial assumptions

I’ve assumed that you:

• Know your audience

• Have determined the response you want

• Have chosen the key message

• Have chosen the right channel

These tool tips are for copy that is written – apply them to make it even better.


A tool you can master


Master that tool!

Well written copy allows your audience to:

• easily understand your meaning

• quickly identify your key points

• remember them

• 7 practical tips for mastering written language


7 Tips for Mastering Written Language

1. Be succinct

2. Be positive

3. Clear or fuzzy?

4. Swap we for you

5. Minimise sub-clauses

6. To be or not to be?

7. Spot sneaky repetitions


Tool tip 1: Be succinct

Your audience:

– is time poor

– skim-reading

– probably on a small screen

Respect this. Get to the point.

You want them to:

– understand your message

– remember it

– follow a call to action.

Make it easy for them.


Tool tip 2: Be positive

Negative (weak) Positive (strong)

Don’t worry – we’ll take care of it

We’ll take care of it

There is not a company in the UK that

has not been affected

All UK companies have been affected

Please don’t hesitate to contact me

Do get in touch…

No problem Our pleasure


Tool tip 3: Clear or fuzzy?

Can you add, “…by me” in there? Then it’s passive!

Passive (fuzzy) Active (clear)

The excellent marketing report was written by a Marketing Consultant.

A Marketing Consultant wrote the excellent report.

All the guest rooms have been styled and decorated by us.

We styled and decorated all the guest rooms.

It has been noted that [Person] noted that

The complaint was submitted on… [Person] submitted a complaint on…

It’s broken I broke it (said no child, ever)


Tool tip 4. Swap we for you

• Highlight “we” or “I”

• Change the sentence round

• Why are you doing that? How does it benefit them?

We You

We offer a bespoke service, tailored to our customers’

needs.

You want your needs met, so we offer a bespoke service.

We provide the best in the

market.

You need the best, so we

provide it.


Tool tip 5. Minimise sub-clauses

“My experience is that, whatever the reason, live webinars are always fraught with issues, whether it is technology failing or user error (in many cases it is the former rather than the latter) or sometimes just bad luck, so it’s always important to have a contingency plan.”


Tool tip 5. Minimise sub-clauses

“My experience is that, whatever the reason, live webinars are always fraught with issues, whether it is technology failing or user error (in many cases it is the former rather than the latter) or sometimes just bad luck, so it’s always important to have a contingency plan.”

“Live webinars are fraught with issues. I have always experienced issues of some kind. Typical problems include: technology failing, user error or just bad luck. It’s important to have a contingency plan.” “I’ve seen live webinars go wrong. It’s best to have a contingency”.


Light relief…

Q. What does Santa call his little helpers?

A. Sub clauses.


Tool tip 6. To be or not to be?

Weak Strong

When you are submitting a tender…

When you submit a tender…

We need to be focussing promotional efforts…

We need to focus promotional efforts…


Tool tip 7. Spot sneaky repetitions

Unintentional repetition is boring. Purposeful repetition is powerful.

Unintentional Change to:

Our services are provided with great customer service and giving customers what they need.

We always provide our customers with great service while meeting their needs.

Our new innovative product Our new product


Tool tip 7. Spot sneaky repetitions

Unintentional repetition is boring. Purposeful repetition is powerful.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”


7 Tips for Mastering Written Language

1. Be succinct

2. Be positive

3. Clear or fuzzy?

4. Swap we for you

5. Minimise sub-clauses

6. To be or not to be?

7. Spot sneaky repetitions


To check what you’ve written

YoastSEO WordPress plugin


To write better:

The Plain English Campaign: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/


Your questions!

Thank you…

Over to you now.