If you asked me which part of my anatomy I rely on most when I am generating copy – you may not expect me to nominate my ears as my most valuable asset (well, after a superbly creative brain of course). Before you begin to think that I may have missed out on a far more lucrative career in the circus, let me clarify right away that I don’t literally write with them. To be honest, while I find they function perfectly well as auditory receptors, they are poorly designed for gripping a pencil or tapping away at a keyboard.
What use are they to me when it comes to writing then? Well, being partially-sighted means that I use text-to-speech software when I work - every keystroke that I input into my PC is converted into an electronic, synthesised voice – so, proof-reading takes place using my ears rather than my eyes. Interestingly, I find that having my copy read back to me this way actually has a number of advantages; not needing to follow the words with my eyes makes maintaining focus a lot easier and while listening to my unpaid assistant - who sounds like a close relative of Professor Stephen Hawking - can occasionally get a little monotonous, it is easy to spot a badly constructed paragraph, or a sentence that doesn’t scan properly.
While spell-checkers are great for highlighting spelling and grammar issues, there is no substitute for having someone else read your copy aloud – as many people as possible in fact. But if you run out of human-beings in the form of colleagues or friends willing to give you their time, you might try switching on the basic text reading technology that most computers have built in.
Sunday 31 July 2011
Sunday 12 June 2011
Has your brand found its voice?....then make sure you protect it!
Has your business found its voice?
....then make sure you protect it!
Think like a big brand
Even for a small business, thinking like a big brand is good practice. You will probably already have established a set of guidelines for your corporate identity – a Design Style Guide that sets out how your brand appears visually; logo use, positioning and size, pantone colour references, font style, spacing, point size for headlines and body copy – that sort of thing (if you haven’t, you certainly should) - but how about how your brand is heard?
Your brand is not just visual, it has a voice too. Whether speaking online or offline, all of your communications will involve the words that need to inform and persuade. Having a Copywriting Style Guide as well as a Design Style Guide for your business will help you to build and develop brand recognition.
Be consistent in your communications
Communicating with your customers or prospects will involve a wide range of touch-points; websites, brochures, marketing collateral, newsletters, sales literature, advertising and signage to name just a few. Maintaining consistency across all of these areas in how your brand speaks as well as how it looks is crucial – it will influence perception and inform actions.
You should think about creating a Copywriting Style Guide for your business now. While it may take a little time and thought, it will save you considerable effort and investment further down the line.
Don’t keep re-inventing the wheel
Whether you draft your own copy or use a professional, it is useful to have a Copywriting Style Guide for your brand. If you do outsource, it will save having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ each time you brief a writer – if you generate your own copy, it will serve as a useful point of reference. The purpose of the guide will be to outline your unique tone, style, language and give examples of usages so that any new copy will match what already exists on your website or in your marketing materials.
Create a Copywriting Style Guide for YOUR business
There is always the option to have a guide professionally drafted for you by a copywriter, but if you have the time, you might want to have a go yourself. Here are some of the basic areas you will need to think about including;
• Objective overview: Each communication will have specific objectives depending on what you want it to achieve (a website, for example might need to convert browsers to buyers) - but there will also be general principles that you will want to apply to all communications. and you should set these out.
• Audience: Your writer will want to know as much as you do about the audience they are writing for. You should include any information that will help them understand the audience profile; gender, age, lifestyle, socio-economic position, what else they may read and any other relevant facts.
• Tone of voice: This area will set out the style of writing and tone to be used including the narrative position which might give instructions such as ‘conversational’, ‘active’, ‘formal’, ‘welcoming’, ‘use first person’, ‘use third person’ and so on.
• Language: It will be important to convey the level of language and how it should be used. Examples of what guidance may be given here might include; ‘write from the reader's perspective’, ‘should be suitable for reading age level of 12 years’, ‘use short and simple sentence structures’ or ‘avoid superlatives and anecdotes’.
• Specific terms used: You will probably have a selection of words, terms, and phrases you use in your particular business sector. Provide your copywriter with a glossary they can reference. You might also have an in-house style for some commonly used words and probably some acronyms you frequently make use of. These preferences will need documenting.
• Examples: Showing examples of work that has been done before - and that you are happy with - will be valuable back-ground reading for your copywriter and will help make the process easier. You should try to include;
o Page structure example - you may have an established format (particularly with a web page layout)
o Headline style example
o Body style example
o Bullet-point example - how, when, what to bullet
Setting out guidelines does not mean that they are fixed in stone; it’s inevitable that things will evolve over time – you may develop a new strapline or there may be a shift in the audience you want to appeal to. Your Copywriting Style Guide can simply be adjusted in line with these developments.
Your brand has a voice – make sure you protect it!
....then make sure you protect it!
Think like a big brand
Even for a small business, thinking like a big brand is good practice. You will probably already have established a set of guidelines for your corporate identity – a Design Style Guide that sets out how your brand appears visually; logo use, positioning and size, pantone colour references, font style, spacing, point size for headlines and body copy – that sort of thing (if you haven’t, you certainly should) - but how about how your brand is heard?
Your brand is not just visual, it has a voice too. Whether speaking online or offline, all of your communications will involve the words that need to inform and persuade. Having a Copywriting Style Guide as well as a Design Style Guide for your business will help you to build and develop brand recognition.
Be consistent in your communications
Communicating with your customers or prospects will involve a wide range of touch-points; websites, brochures, marketing collateral, newsletters, sales literature, advertising and signage to name just a few. Maintaining consistency across all of these areas in how your brand speaks as well as how it looks is crucial – it will influence perception and inform actions.
You should think about creating a Copywriting Style Guide for your business now. While it may take a little time and thought, it will save you considerable effort and investment further down the line.
Don’t keep re-inventing the wheel
Whether you draft your own copy or use a professional, it is useful to have a Copywriting Style Guide for your brand. If you do outsource, it will save having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ each time you brief a writer – if you generate your own copy, it will serve as a useful point of reference. The purpose of the guide will be to outline your unique tone, style, language and give examples of usages so that any new copy will match what already exists on your website or in your marketing materials.
Create a Copywriting Style Guide for YOUR business
There is always the option to have a guide professionally drafted for you by a copywriter, but if you have the time, you might want to have a go yourself. Here are some of the basic areas you will need to think about including;
• Objective overview: Each communication will have specific objectives depending on what you want it to achieve (a website, for example might need to convert browsers to buyers) - but there will also be general principles that you will want to apply to all communications. and you should set these out.
• Audience: Your writer will want to know as much as you do about the audience they are writing for. You should include any information that will help them understand the audience profile; gender, age, lifestyle, socio-economic position, what else they may read and any other relevant facts.
• Tone of voice: This area will set out the style of writing and tone to be used including the narrative position which might give instructions such as ‘conversational’, ‘active’, ‘formal’, ‘welcoming’, ‘use first person’, ‘use third person’ and so on.
• Language: It will be important to convey the level of language and how it should be used. Examples of what guidance may be given here might include; ‘write from the reader's perspective’, ‘should be suitable for reading age level of 12 years’, ‘use short and simple sentence structures’ or ‘avoid superlatives and anecdotes’.
• Specific terms used: You will probably have a selection of words, terms, and phrases you use in your particular business sector. Provide your copywriter with a glossary they can reference. You might also have an in-house style for some commonly used words and probably some acronyms you frequently make use of. These preferences will need documenting.
• Examples: Showing examples of work that has been done before - and that you are happy with - will be valuable back-ground reading for your copywriter and will help make the process easier. You should try to include;
o Page structure example - you may have an established format (particularly with a web page layout)
o Headline style example
o Body style example
o Bullet-point example - how, when, what to bullet
Setting out guidelines does not mean that they are fixed in stone; it’s inevitable that things will evolve over time – you may develop a new strapline or there may be a shift in the audience you want to appeal to. Your Copywriting Style Guide can simply be adjusted in line with these developments.
Your brand has a voice – make sure you protect it!
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