Blog Post | Jan 02, 2024
How Great Content Drives Customer Loyalty and Boosts Sales
Thoughtful, well-written content can help you make a connection with consumers, build trust, and ultimately lead to more sales. The key is knowing the right words, which can vary by audience and medium.
If only we had a nickel for every time someone tells us, “Customers just don’t read.” It would be a tidy sum, but nothing compared to the sales you can generate with great content. Content can differentiate your brand, solidify a relationship with consumers, and encourage them to spend more money with you.
When we say content, we’re talking about words, including marketing copy, headlines, calls to action, and more. Of course, visuals and design matter too, and ideally, the words, images, and layout should work together in synch. If you’re unsure of how, contact us to learn more.
Establish Trust with Voice and Tone
Trust is the foundation of any relationship. Your language and style should align with your brand personality and customers’ expectations of your brand.
A simple, conversational tone works well for many brands, making them seem friendly and accessible. A more formal tone conveys trustworthiness and gravitas for brands and companies in luxury goods or highly regulated industries like finance or healthcare. Use words and terms that matter, and avoid buzzwords (unless they are essential in your industry). Above all, strive for authenticity and honesty.
Enhance Readability with Simplicity
Contrary to belief, your customers DO read. But they just don’t want to read more than they have to. You’ve heard brevity is the soul of wit, and it’s also the basis for your success. Consider that research has found the ideal length for an email subject line is just seven words or 41 characters. You need to make your point quickly and invite readers in!
Think like a journalist and frontload your marketing pieces with the most critical or compelling messages. That way, they get the point even if they only spend a few seconds with it.
To enhance readability, copy and design should work together, since smart layout can make it easier to read dense copy! In print, copy can be broken up with callouts and sidebars, and on a webpage, text can be tucked away in accordions, sliders, and hover-states.
However, to maximize the time a customer or prospect spends with your marketing messages, media matters, too. Far and away, direct mail is the vehicle people take into their homes and really read. The average direct mail piece generates 108 seconds of customer attention over 28 days (and that increases to 150 seconds for business mail). Compare that to less than 10 seconds for an email.
Build Connection and Relevance with the Right Perspective
Here’s one simple trick to building an immediate connection with your audience: write in the second person (that is, to you/your/yours, such as “Your business can benefit from XYZ” or “for homes in your area”). This can strengthen your copy by encouraging you to consider the customer’s perspective. Copy written in the 2nd person will resonate more deeply with the readers as they can see themselves and imagine how your product or service can solve their problems.
In the marketing world, there’s always been debate about whether to write in 1st person (e.g., “We stand behind all of our products,” “All of us are committed to…”) and 3rd person (e.g., “Recent customer feedback has lead to service improvements.” There’s no one correct answer. Writing in the first person can feel more personal, but text in the third person is more credible and authoritative. So, in some instances, writing in the first person may serve you better. In places where you need to convey trustworthiness and expertise, such as a product page or a company FAQ, write in the third person.
Write for the Right Medium
What you say and how you say it will vary slightly, depending on which marketing vehicles you’re writing for. For best results, a campaign should include different touches at different times, but marketing experts agree that nothing captures and holds attention like print. Direct mail gets read and has high ROI; catalogs and brochures make a strong and lasting impression. Contact us to learn more about what goes into a successful campaign.
When we say content, we’re talking about words, including marketing copy, headlines, calls to action, and more. Of course, visuals and design matter too, and ideally, the words, images, and layout should work together in synch. If you’re unsure of how, contact us to learn more.
Establish Trust with Voice and Tone
Trust is the foundation of any relationship. Your language and style should align with your brand personality and customers’ expectations of your brand.
A simple, conversational tone works well for many brands, making them seem friendly and accessible. A more formal tone conveys trustworthiness and gravitas for brands and companies in luxury goods or highly regulated industries like finance or healthcare. Use words and terms that matter, and avoid buzzwords (unless they are essential in your industry). Above all, strive for authenticity and honesty.
Enhance Readability with Simplicity
Contrary to belief, your customers DO read. But they just don’t want to read more than they have to. You’ve heard brevity is the soul of wit, and it’s also the basis for your success. Consider that research has found the ideal length for an email subject line is just seven words or 41 characters. You need to make your point quickly and invite readers in!
Think like a journalist and frontload your marketing pieces with the most critical or compelling messages. That way, they get the point even if they only spend a few seconds with it.
To enhance readability, copy and design should work together, since smart layout can make it easier to read dense copy! In print, copy can be broken up with callouts and sidebars, and on a webpage, text can be tucked away in accordions, sliders, and hover-states.
However, to maximize the time a customer or prospect spends with your marketing messages, media matters, too. Far and away, direct mail is the vehicle people take into their homes and really read. The average direct mail piece generates 108 seconds of customer attention over 28 days (and that increases to 150 seconds for business mail). Compare that to less than 10 seconds for an email.
Build Connection and Relevance with the Right Perspective
Here’s one simple trick to building an immediate connection with your audience: write in the second person (that is, to you/your/yours, such as “Your business can benefit from XYZ” or “for homes in your area”). This can strengthen your copy by encouraging you to consider the customer’s perspective. Copy written in the 2nd person will resonate more deeply with the readers as they can see themselves and imagine how your product or service can solve their problems.
In the marketing world, there’s always been debate about whether to write in 1st person (e.g., “We stand behind all of our products,” “All of us are committed to…”) and 3rd person (e.g., “Recent customer feedback has lead to service improvements.” There’s no one correct answer. Writing in the first person can feel more personal, but text in the third person is more credible and authoritative. So, in some instances, writing in the first person may serve you better. In places where you need to convey trustworthiness and expertise, such as a product page or a company FAQ, write in the third person.
Write for the Right Medium
What you say and how you say it will vary slightly, depending on which marketing vehicles you’re writing for. For best results, a campaign should include different touches at different times, but marketing experts agree that nothing captures and holds attention like print. Direct mail gets read and has high ROI; catalogs and brochures make a strong and lasting impression. Contact us to learn more about what goes into a successful campaign.