When writing copy for your marketing and campaigns, it’s crucial that you think carefully about how it’s adapted for different online platforms and channels. It is not good enough to do a simple copy and paste job.
In this article I will give you actionable advice on copywriting for some common online channels including:
There are many factors that influence the success of your copy, including word count limits, attention span of the viewer, use of visual devices and more. I will give you some quick tips to help you review your copywriting on three key platforms before going live. There are many more tips I could have included, so if you need further help, I offer content and copywriting strategy, support and mentoring, or leave a comment at the end of this article with the problem you are facing.
Channel 1: Your website and landing pages
I am starting with your website as this is usually the place that you direct users to after viewing your ads and promotions.
Tip 1 - Think about what your user is trying to do on your website and what information they need
If you are promoting a discount, potential customers will want to know the key details including price, how they access the discount and if there are any limitations to its use. If you are promoting a piece of downloadable content, they will want a sneak preview of what is included within the content, what information they will need to share to get access to it and how it will benefit them.
Is the copy you have written essential to help them complete their goal, give them the key details or show them the benefit? If not, it’s unnecessary and can be deleted.
Tip 2 - Make your content concise and easy to understand
Keep your content short, direct and to the point. Think about the language that your potential customers use and speak to them on their level. A protein manufacturer targeting scientists will probably need to use a lot of technical terms, whereas a software development company targeting marketers should break down the jargon into more easily understood terminology.
Tip 3 - Optimise your copy to get found on search engines
When you know your customers’ language, think about the sort of terms they will enter into search engines (such as Google) to find out more about your business, product/service, offer or promotion. Incorporate these search terms into your copywriting to be found more prominently on those search engines (this is known as search engine optimisation or SEO).
Tip 4 - Use formatting and visual devices to make it easily digestible
As most people don’t have time to read your copy in full, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to pull out the key points. This can be done through text formatting such as:
Short paragraphs
Headers and subheaders
Bullet points
Bolding key words
Coloured hyperlinks
Pull out quotes or references in italics
Put footnotes or extra information in smaller font at the end of the page
Make use of white space
Channel 2: Email
One of the best pieces of advice I was given when writing email copy that stands out is to make it feel like it was sent to the recipient personally. Unlike a website where copywriting is best done from a ‘brand’ perspective, emails often work better when they are written from an individual.
Tip 1 - Align your copy with your website or landing page
Although you will adapt the copy, it’s important that the messaging feels concise and aligned with wherever you are sending the recipient to next. This is so they know they have clicked on the correct link and have gone to the right place. Take the language used in tip 2 from the website section above and incorporate it into your email copy too.
Tip 2 - Change it to a first person perspective
If you do decide to send the email from an individual, re-write the email in a first person perspective. Replace ‘we’ with ‘I’ and ‘me’; ‘our’ with ‘my’ and ‘mine’; and so forth. There will also be other considerations you need to take into account too, such as sending the email from an individual’s email address (laura@yourcompany.co.uk rather than hello@yourcompany.co.uk) and designing it with your standard email signature.
Tip 3 - Personalise your copy to your recipient
With the majority of email providers, you can now personalise the copy to each individual recipient on a mass basis. You simply enter a token that automatically updates to each recipient when the email is sent (like a mail merge). This helps your recipient to feel like it is a personal email.
With many email providers, you can go further and have whole blocks of text change depending on how the recipient has interacted with your marketing in the past, what products or services they have previously bought or their demographic information. If you need a more sophisticated email provider, or help with putting this kind of strategy into place, I am experienced in sourcing and implementing these systems into businesses.
Tip 4 - Cut, cut, cut
Although your website or landing page copy will be concise, you want to cut it down even further for email. Typically think about how much information you can include within the first scroll of the device your target audience is using - most commonly a smartphone. All of your key information and your call-to-action needs to be kept within this small space to capture their attention, encourage them to read further and take the next step.
Tip 5 - Use formatting and visual devices
Similarly to tip 4 in the website section above, make sure the copy is easily scannable using different formatting and visual devices.
Channel 3: Social media
An important consideration when posting on social media, is that people primarily use these channels to connect with family and friends (Linkedin being the exception).
Tip 1 - Make it fun
As people primarily use social media as entertainment, think about how you can adapt your copywriting to be light-hearted, fun and with a friendly tone-of-voice. This will make you stand out from other businesses who stick to dry and corporate language.
Tip 2 - Use emojis
People often use emojis to concisely communicate feelings and concepts which would otherwise take many words. Align the language you use with your potential customers and if they use emojis, feel free to throw a few in. Just don’t go overboard.
Tip 3 - Be aware of character counts
Don’t write your perfect post, only to find out it’s too long to post, or truncated with an embarrassing edit. Here are some common ways you can cut down on words to reduce your character count:
Delete unnecessary ‘the’s e.g. “I wrote the sentence with the utmost care” vs “I wrote the sentence with utmost care”
Same with unnecessary ‘that’s e.g. “My feeling towards reading the book was that of excitement” vs “My feeling towards reading the book was excitement”
Get rid of adverbs and adjectives e.g. “We quickly rolled out new exciting content for our most dedicated fans” vs “We rolled out new copy for our fans”
Replace passive sentences with actives ones e.g. “The chapter was read quickly by the audience” vs “The audience read the chapter quickly”
Replace ‘and’ with an ampersand (&)
Replace words with emojis (if the meaning is still well understood)
Shorten URLs with a tool like Bit.ly
At the time of writing, the current character counts across the most common social media platforms are:
Platform | Organic Posts | Paid Ads |
63,206 characters Truncated at 477 | Headline - 40 characters Body text - 125 Link description - 30 (20 for carousel and video ads) | |
2,200 characters Truncated at 125 | Headline - 40 characters Body text - 125 Link description - 30 | |
X (formerly known as Twitter) | 280 characters | 280 characters |
3,000 characters Truncated at 200 | Dependent on the ad format (see this guide) | |
YouTube | Video title - 100 characters Video description - 5,000 | Dependent on the ad format (see this guide) |
TikTok | 2,200 characters | Brand/app name - 40 characters Description - 100 |
Snapchat | 80 characters | Brand - 25 characters Headline - 34 |
Pin title - 100 characters Pin description - 500 | Majority of ad formats follow a 100 character title limit (may be truncated at 40) and 500 character description |
To see what your character count is as you draft your social media posts for the week ahead, use Excel or Google Sheets and apply a formula that automatically counts the number of characters.
To apply the formula:
Click on the cell where you want the character count
Input “=LEN(click into the cell which has your post)”
Press enter
In summary
There are lots of different factors to take into account when copywriting for different marketing channels and the article above only covers the tip of the iceberg. Seven key takeaways are:
Keep copy concise and only include information that is essential to your target audience
Use language and search terms that your potential customers use
Make the copy easily digestible using formatting and visual devices
Think about the best perspective to write from
Personalise it to your audience and the platform you are using
Consider whether emojis are better than words
Be mindful of character count limitations
If you have an upcoming campaign and need help with developing your copy across different channels, I specialise in content and copywriting strategy, implementation and mentoring. Please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation.
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