Absolutely nothing has changed
Ooh, a feisty title. (Given we’re in the midst of a global pandemic and much of the world is still in lockdown.)
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been helping businesses to connect with their audience during the current crisis. The unprecedented situation. The ‘new normal’.
Anyone else been playing lockdown bingo?
Whatever you call it, a lot of businesses have been unsure about how to continue talking to clients. Should we carry on as usual? What do we say? Do we address the elephant in the room or ignore it completely?
In the UK, we’ve moved on from the initial shock phase, but of course, we're still in a period of significant disruption. Business owners and marketing teams around the country are in a state of limbo.
So yes. Things are a little up in the air at the moment. But the more businesses I’ve spoken to, the more I’ve realised that – in a communication sense at least – not much has changed.
If you want to want to communicate sensitively, offer genuine support and strengthen your brand during a crisis, you follow exactly the same rules as before.
Let me explain. For your copy to work, it needs to do 3 things. It needs to engage the right people, give them the information they’re looking for and compel them to act. Usually by ‘act’, we mean get in touch, download something from your site or sign up to work with you. That’s the purpose.
How do you achieve that? The foundation for creating copy that works is fairly straightforward: You work out what your audience wants to know and the frame of mind they’re likely to be in when they interact with your content. This gives you most of the clues you need about how to communicate with them.
And that hasn’t changed at all. Hooray!
Whether we’re in a pandemic or not, if you want your copy to work, follow those simple guidelines and you’re off to a great start.
One of the main attributes of a copywriter is empathy. Visualising being in your clients’ shoes, understanding their hopes and aspirations, their priorities and pain-points – what keeps them up at night.
When you know this, you stand a better chance of creating copy that they’ll engage with.
“Work out what your audience wants to know and the frame of mind they're likely to be in when they interact with your content.”
Now in a crisis, things do get a bit more wobbly. Whereas previously you might have had a clear picture in your mind of your ideal client, their priorities, circumstances and mindset have now changed. What was previously worrying them at 3am is now the last thing on their mind.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs illustrates this perfectly (with one hand-drawn addition).
Over the last 3 months, most of us have moved around the triangle, with some people plummeting from top to bottom. And we’re all still moving – depending on whether we’ve just heard a depressing news bulletin or we’ve finally managed to secure an Ocado slot.
It’s really important to bear this in mind when you’re sending content that you want to strike a chord with people. This is an opportunity to help, offer your expertise and build up people’s knowledge and impression of your brand. To do that effectively, we need to rebuild our customer avatar, so we understand what IS important to them at the moment.
Figure out what you know
Say for example that your audience is female business owners aged 45+. Find out how they’re connecting with their own audience. What platforms are they using? What times are they online? Are they interacting at all?
Can you get a sense of whether they’re looking for mindless distraction or more positive stimulation? Are they sharing thought-provoking articles on LinkedIn or videos of baby pandas on Facebook? This gives you such an insight into their world at the moment.
Second, ask them! Start a genuine conversation. By connecting with them and inviting them to share, you can find out what they’re struggling with and how you might be able to help.
So now when you’re writing content, focus on what you do know and tailor your messages accordingly. And be flexible – our circumstances and priorities are changing every day, even every hour, so be prepared to evolve your content as you get more information.
And monitor your email metrics and social media engagement as you go. Check your email open rates and unsubscribes, work out which subject lines perform better and which videos are getting more engagement. Do you need to tweak the content or the length? What’s working at the moment?
So of course things have changed (but who doesn’t like a controversial headline?).
What hasn’t changed is how you write powerful content that makes an impact – that people want to engage with and respond to. Whether we’re in a pandemic or not.
You understand as much as you can about your audience and their frame of mind, and then you write clearly and personally directly to them.
To find out how I can write for your business, please get in touch at rachel@realcommunication.co.uk.