Are you playing hide and seek with readers of your copy?
Nov 7, 2014Copy to capture an audience from Cornwall to Scotland
Nov 17, 2014
No one expects you to be a magician. Or a mind reader.? Knowing what customers are likely to expect doesn?t involve the occult. It simply means knowing your customers. It?s your copy that shows you?ve at least done your homework, not written random words in order to fill up the space.
It?s not rocket science. If you have something to offer you have to know the market for it. Not simply statistics and guesswork. But knowing the ?who? as well as the ?why.? It?s people who?ll become customers so it stands to reason you have to know what makes them tick.
The best way to achieve that is to become one yourself. Theoretically at least. As a customer you?ll look at things from a completely different angle than the person selling it. It?s natural your copy will point out the things you want people to know. But it?s just as important to include the things they?ll be looking for. Not necessarily the same thing.
Their main aim will be to find out what?s in it for them. They?ll be looking for certain specifics whatever you?re offering. And you have to put yourself in their place to find out what they are. Take shoes for instance. Most people won?t buy a pair at random. They?ll look for the right size, colour, style and material first. Not to forget the price of course.
They?ll want to know those details as soon as they arrive. How else will they know what you have in stock? They?re not likely to go searching about the stockroom for themselves. Not when they can go somewhere else where the hard work has already been done for them.
The same applies if you?re offering a service. It?s all very well waxing lyrical about what you do, but you also have to include how it will benefit those using it. Remember it might all be new to them. They?ll need reassurance that it?s what they?re looking for.
Copy shouldn?t just be about self promotion. It?s showing you?re on the same wavelength as the people reading it. Not by using hollow words but proving you?ve looked at their experience with you. And tried to make it as painless and trouble free as you can.
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