Every now and again, an ad or marketing campaign comes along that’s so misguided, it’s baffling to think how it ever made it to fruition.
A bad idea or poorly executed theme is one thing, but when it involves copy that’s clearly been painstakingly created, reviewed, and approved – it’s all the more disconcerting.
Copywriting within the financial sector is notoriously difficult to get right.
According to a recent study by Edelman, even the top ranked websites are failing to reach expected standards of readability. This means many websites are made up of convoluted sentences in the passive voice and overly complex language.
The worlds of B2B and B2C marketing are more alike than they have ever been, from freemium model software such as Dropbox and Slack, to lookalike marketing or retargeting.
Sadly that means some B2B email marketers attempt clever, quirky or fun copy (like that more suited to smoothie packaging) and often fail to get their complex message across. One recent example I saw springs to mind – design studio Nucco Brain’s GDPR repermissioning email (shown below and taken from our repermissioning roundup), which flogs an analogy to death.
H&M has been regarded as a fast fashion leader for some time, with its agile supply chain enabling it to offer the latest trends at affordable prices – a winning combination for consumers.
But difficult trading conditions – including reduced consumer confidence and spending on the high street, and a ratcheting up of competition from fast-paced digital-first competitors like ASOS, which saw international sales up 31% in the six months to February 28th 2018 – have led to H&M reporting its biggest profit dip (20%) in six years.
I recently went to a talk at Zone by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler in which they promoted their excellent new book, The Communication Book.
As a UX writer, I’m naturally interested in communication. All the microcopy I produce needs to communicate the right information in the right way at the right time. So I was keen to hear about the theories they’ve spent years researching and testing.
Language isn’t an exact science. Often, there is no “perfect” answer.
While much is logical, many elements are harder to explain, untethered as they are to any fixed set of rules. For instance, when is a thought expressed with an indicative vs a subjunctive mood? When to use polite vs casual phrasing in languages such as Korean or Japanese? How to articulate an expression that doesn’t exist in a target language?
Quality product descriptions can make a huge difference to the ecommerce user experience.
Not only can good copy nudge consumers and increase conversion rates, but it can also help to differentiate a brand. Humour is one effective way that brands can make product descriptions stand out, with an increasing number choosing to be quirky and fun rather than just informative.
The devil is in the detail, or so they say.
When it comes to creating a great user experience, this certainly seems to be the case. From slick pop-ups to real-time social proof – there are many features that can help create user flow.
From send times to split testing, there are many factors that can impact the success of email marketing campaigns.
Copywriting remains one of the biggest, often being the difference between a mediocre email (sent straight to the trash) and one that prompts the recipient to take action.
When it comes to writing on behalf of a brand, social media tends to get a bad rap. Surely it’s all just GIF’s and silly one-liners – not half as hard as ad slogans or in-depth marketing copy?
In reality, social media copywriting is not as easy it sounds. In fact, with a limited word count and countless trolls ready to bite back, some might call it a fine art.
As the year draws to a close, talk naturally turns to what the biggest trends of 2018 will be. Will AI dominate? Is personalisation yet again going to take centre stage?
Interestingly, it seems the one thing consumers will look for in the year ahead is a brand that sounds exactly like they do. In other words, emotional intelligence – i.e. the ability to empathise and engage like a human – will become the biggest consumer expectation of all.
Certain brands are born to sound sexy. Take Burberry, for instance, and Mercedes-Benz and Apple – these brands sell luxury products with such slick and alluring design that they almost sell themselves.
But what if your product is far less appealing?