Life is full of ‘whys’, and copywriting is no different.
Asking ourselves three key ‘whys’ before starting a piece helps make sure that the audience isn’t left thinking ‘why?’ after they’ve read it…
Why does your audience want what you’re offering?
This comes down to establishing the ‘so what?’ of what’s on offer (and you can read more about that here). This requires a good understanding of the product or service on offer, drilling down into the features, the benefits and ultimately how they positively impact the intended audience. Perhaps or more importantly though, it requires a good understanding of the audience to know what really matters to them and makes them tick.
This leads nicely onto the next important ‘why’…
Why does your audience do what they do now?
This is all about behaviour and what motivates it. What attitudes and beliefs do the audience have that make them, or prevent them, from doing things? How might this prevent them from engaging with your product or service? How do we, therefore, overcome this? Or how can we use what motivates them to help an audience appreciate how your product or service really benefits them? This understanding (or insight, and you can read more about that here), allows us to develop a comms plan of action that resonates, from what we say and how (messaging) to where we say it and when (content plan).
Why are we creating this piece?
Everything that we write should have a clear objective – it has to pull its weight. When that piece forms part of an overall marketing campaign, that objective should fit neatly with the other campaign assets.
This is why we take the time with our clients to develop a content plan that will:
- hit all the right messaging notes
- maximise exposure to the audience and,
- represent the most efficient use of budget
We revisit the plan regularly, to check in on results (especially with online digital content) and see if we need to shift emphasis or whether we need to adjust the volume on different content areas. This ‘why’ is asked before we start writing, just before we send for client approval - to check it against the original objective - and often asked one more time as a measure of its success once it's ‘out there’.
Can we help you figure out the ‘whys’? Get in touch: info@roarcontent.co.uk