Ange Dove.
Copywriter
How to improve your marketing copy using your customers' voice
Does the documentation of your brand voice and use of it in your corporate communications go deep enough? If not, your internal copywriters, or any copywriter you outsource copywriting to, may miss the mark with your communications.
Most companies have Corporate Identity Guidelines for documentation and protection of their visual brand, but some fail to include guidelines for tone of voice. When they do, they often don’t address communication in a way that resonates with their customer.
The first step to putting together Voice of Customer (VOC) guidelines is to get this documented for use in your organisation so that your copywriters have a clear understanding of the tone of voice and key vocabulary to use.
This exercise should not be guesswork as to what you think your customers think or how you think they talk about your brand, services and products. This information should be derived directly from data compiled from research around what your customers are actually saying.
In other words, use their words right back at them.
Why is this essential?
Copywriting is the key to persuading your future customers to buy from you because you solve a specific problem they have. So, you need to be speaking in the terms past customers have used in order to relate to new customers. Meet them on their level and address their concerns, fears, hopes and dreams.
Where to find VOC data?
You probably already have more information than you realise. Here are a few channels you can look at to source for key terminology, repetitive phrases and vocabulary your customers are using when they talk about your brand, products and services.
Review the reviews
This is a great way to assess how customers feel. These can be reviews for your products and services or those of your competitors. You will get a real sense of:
- what problems your customers are having,
- what solutions they are seeking from you,
- what their expectations are around these solutions,
- how you or your competitors fall short and
- ways your customers are delighted.
From studying these reviews, you can match the words you see in the reviews with the words you typically use in your communications and on your website.
If your customers are talking in different terms, you need to change this in your communications. For example, if you are a restaurant and you are marketing your food as “delicious” while your customers are using “tasty” or “like grandma’s cooking”, you can see the obvious disconnect.
Use competitor reviews to highlight how you stand above them
Where your competitors fall short in their customers’ eyes offers you a chance to fill the void. For example, if a competitor review complains about unresponsive service, you can glean from this that this is valued by the customer and should be highlighted as a selling point in your communications. Of course, you need to ensure that you can live up to the claims so that you don’t receive the same negative reviews.
Listen on social media
The first place customers go to express their delight or rage at a service is usually their social media accounts or yours. Go through the comments left on your social media sites in the same way as with the reviews above and look for patterns in language. Are they loving a particular feature? If so, accentuate that in your marketing copy. Deploy social listening software to see how your brand is being discussed in the online world.
Send customer surveys
The best way to understand your customer is simply to ask. Try to incorporate an automated survey into your customer journey if you haven’t done so already. Once your customer has journeyed through your desired experience, invite them to complete a survey to let you know how they felt about it.
Ask questions that require them to give a longer answer in response and not just multiple choice (they are YOUR words) and yes/no type questions. By getting your customer to write down their responses, you are going to receive information about their experience in THEIR words. Use What, When, Where, Why, and How questions to elicit a more detailed response.
The survey feedback could well highlight shortcomings you hadn’t even considered in the past. Or they may reveal that your customers use your products to address a problem you weren’t even aware of.
These customer insights are highly valuable for developing new products and services and improving those you already have, and they are, of course, golden nuggets for your copywriting.
Adopt your customers’ own language and you’ll start creating deeper connections with potential clients and retain them longer.
Any good copywriter will request this data from you or will help you compile guidelines for how to write copy for your future communications and marketing campaigns.
Need to strengthen your VOC guidelines or need a professional copywriter to put your clients’ words into your marketing communications?
Hi, I’m Ange Dove …
... I'm a copywriter in Singapore and I've been writing copy for clients for over 20 years.
Through my copywriting agency, Proof Perfect, I serve MNCs, SMEs and government agencies across the full range of industries and provide copywriting, content writing and editing services for a diverse range of marketing material.
Today, I use my expertise, amassed over 20 years serving thousands of businesses, to coach startups, coaches and course creators to start and grow their own online businesses.
Welcome to my blog ... and enjoy!
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