Moving Beyond Keywords in Your Consumer-Focused Copy
You may or may not be familiar with keyword research when it comes to crafting content for your SEO strategy, advertising copy, emails, and other marketing materials. Keyword research helps bridge the gap between what your consumer is searching on the internet and the words you use to describe your products, services, and business.
If you would like more information about keyword research, check out this blog post.
Keywords are the foundation for crafting consumer-focused copy. However, it’s not enough to simply match keywords. Learning how to speak to your clients in their own words will make your brand appear much more relatable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy.
In this blog you’ll find more information about this approach, additional industry expert knowledge to help guide your content strategy, and some quick and easy tools to jump in to turn customer insights into high-converting marketing copy.
Using Phrases Your Clients Use & What to Look For
Take the time to research the language that your customers use to describe your services, products, brand, and even competitor offerings. This will give you the tools to breakdown the following:
- Pain points your customers are currently experiencing with or without your product
- What they value and enjoy most about a product or service
- Areas that you can improve your product, service, and customer service experience
By understanding these main areas, you can begin to craft your marketing messages in a way that is informative, relatable, and enticing. If your existing messages aren’t direct or value-focused, you may be losing out on retaining current customers and attracting new ones.
Here’s a great example of using language from an online chat forum about the best live chat tools for websites, borrowed from Backlinko’s Copywriting Guide:
Here, Brian Dean, CEO of Backlinko, does an awesome job of pulling copy snippets for chatbot features directly from a customer interview. Then, he uses it to craft a direct message via a landing page to describe the features and benefits that matter the most to his target audience.
By using language that’s consumer-generated, you will be more likely to appeal to your prospects. Benefit-driven copy appeals to consumers and if it’s in their own words, it will be even more effective.
Tools to Utilize for Consumer-Focused Copy
The internet has given the power to consumers when it comes to purchasing a product or service. People read online reviews, visit chat forums, and check out social media platforms before making a purchase. However, it’s just as valuable for businesses to use that information as well when writing copy about a product, creating a landing page for a new service, or addressing any problems with customers after they have already purchased.
Here are several great tools and resources to tap into when looking for customer-focused and generated copy:
Amazon Reviews
If your business sells physical products, then a major source of information to tap into when writing copy about your products is Amazon Reviews. Because of the wide range in consumer feedback, you can see what people loved and what went wrong.
Find informative phrases about why someone liked a product and incorporate the features they loved into your product copy. You can also use bad reviews to pull phrases that may highlight an issue your consumers are facing. You can browse product categories or dig deep into a competitor’s product reviews.
For example, after one quick search for information on drones, I was able to find a pro and con list of what this customer thought about his purchase. These insights can be used to optimize marketing copy:
Social Network Listening
Social networks can make or break a brand when it comes to consumer engagement. Social media gives companies the power to humanize your brand by facilitating one-to-one conversations with your followers.
By using social platforms to speak to consumers in their own language, you can attract an audience with shareable content, engage individuals in conversation, and begin developing the groundwork for trusted relationships with your target audiences.
Taking advantage of social listening allows you to address customer service that might have gone awry, any products that were sold but not up to par, and to apologize for anything else that didn’t go exactly right.
You also have the power to gather information through watching your reviews, as well as your competitors. You may be able to identify a competitive edge or an area to improve upon. The idea that your customers will let you know what they think applies to social as well. Use these insights to frame consumer-focused copy around your products and make improvements.
YouTube
Youtube is a fantastic place to find in-depth videos and comments around specific topics. Users can have surprisingly in-depth conversations in the comments section about products, their experiences, features, things they wish a product or service did, etc.
YouTube is a video sharing platform with over 1.3 billion users and over 300 hours of content uploaded everyday. It is a great tool for product research when a consumer has entered the buyer’s journey (a series of steps in which the consumer realizes they have a problem, researches solutions and products to help, and eventually makes a buying decision). It is also a valuable resource to use when gather consumer opinions.
By watching video reviews and reading the comments sections, you may also discover new ways to frame your service’s feature set or new ways to overcome any reservations people may have, such as pricing. Whatever the case, customer insights are valuable for all stages of a product’s lifecycle.
Keywords Aren’t Everything
Keyword research is only the beginning of making sure that your language matches your customers. By using tools such as Amazon reviews, social listening, and YouTube, you can be well-prepared to craft effective customer-focused copy that converts.
Make sure you are making your customers feel at home with your brand and marketing. Try out some of these tactics, find insightful phrases, and optimize one of your landing pages for consumer-focused copy.
For more information about inbound marketing check out our services page here. You can also reach me directly at MShirrell@stoneward.com.
Sources:
