The marketing movement by Refine Labs. Everyone, welcome to the marketing movement podcast. My name is Michael Bright. I am the lead copywriter here at Refine Labs, and I'm joined by a fellow writer, Reanna.
Hi, I'm Reanna. I'm a senior copywriter for Refine Labs. And today we're going to talk about good copy, why that matters, and how to do that with some copywriting do's and don'ts. But first of all, Mike, in your opinion, what's good copy?
Well, first, anything that I write. But secondly, I think any copy that solves a problem is good. So for example, you can have the most clever headline, the perfect pine, or some awesome alliteration. But if it doesn't solve the right business problem, it wasn't successful.
The good copy starts in the briefing process. That's where you have to clearly define the goal. And to do that, you need insights into your market and your customers. Is the market completely unaware that you offer certain services?
Is the market happy with a status quo? Is your category brand new, like many of our clients are? Are your prospects unaware of what differentiates you from competitors? Each scenario leads to a wildly different creative strategy.
So in my opinion, any copy that solves that core objective from the brief is successful. And that's just baseline. What turns good copy into great copy are the tips we're about to share. Let's get into some basic do's and don'ts for writing copy.
Right. And so like you said, we get a lot of clients that are creating something new or new in a space. And so for B2B, I think a great thing to remember is as a first line, just use industry terms and be detailed. But don't use jargon.
So you want your ad to draw people in. You need it to be relatable. You need the language to be something that customers immediately understand and can immediately acknowledge that you know what you're talking about. And you're speaking their language.
That's something that they appreciate seeing. So what are some good examples of that? Yeah. I've never one story.
My old copywriter teacher told me he used to have a client in the agriculture or the farming business. And he had an ad that said dirt. And he got basically yelled at. And basically they told them, but a client told them that.
In their industry, they say soil. So like never ever say dirt in that context. So even just a simple word change, even if it's a synonym and with a little the same definition, these are like that can change the meaning drastically for certain clients and industries. So these are the kinds of details that add color in the story and show that you actually know we were talking about.
But be careful. A lot of people confuse industry terms for vague corporate jargon like workflow or putting up fires that should be avoided at all costs. All I can really say is like write something you can own, write something that's relevant. Everybody has a workflow, but how can you make that more specific to your actual industry or your specific client?
Right. Like what does a dentist workflow look like versus cybersecurity workflow? I mean, I think some of it comes back to that insider speak of like you wanted to have the soil first dirt thing is like the difference between connotation and denotation. So like one of them, they have the same literal definition, but they mean different things to people.
And I guess farmers don't like to refer to it as dirt. Yes. Next up here is to avoid cliches and just be real. So you know how every summer there's like 30 movies that are the top movie of the summer.
So everyone's already super skeptical of marketing. And when you say you're number one rated or the best way to do XYZ, it just falls flat or worse, ruins trust. So instead of these vague claims that are typically seen as just like plain or no cliche marketing, just be original, be real and say something no one else can. Right.
There's a huge difference between marketing lingo and a specific backed up claim benefit or result that your product has. Right. Another tip I learned once was like, don't write in your copy if you wouldn't say it like on the phone. And by the way, stuck with me, just like being real.
Yep. Over the marketing. All right. Next tip, don't be overly clever or sophisticated.
Be clear. Use short sentences and small words. Like sure, your audience might be highly educated CTOs, but marketing is about communication. And a part of that is readability.
Right. Yeah. And shorter and more succinct words are more easy to read. So I had heard once basically don't use a four syllable word when a one syllable word will do.
Right. So an example would be if you're going to say eliminate, but cut would you just find cuts the better word? It's shorter. It's more simple.
And somebody can read it more quickly. So instead of eliminate unnecessary paperwork, cut the paperwork, gets the point across just the same. And it avoids those being complicated headlines with a bunch of multi-syllable words that end up making the copy illegible when you're swirling through social media. And as soon as somebody can't read it, it just becomes just scroll drone.
It's just stuff that nobody's going to look at. It'll be totally passed by. So you want something that can be easily understood, kind of in an instant, almost subconsciously. Yeah.
And your designers will thank you for it too. There's also like a right time and place to get complex. So maybe in the support section or a spot on the website that digs deeper into features, but for heads, just keep it simple. Yeah, no, big difference between web copy, ad copy, content in that vague term.
It's focusing on ad copy here. Ads should be simple. And I think a lot of the times, you have this another tip at a baseline, simple ads work better. Marketers, product teams, even yourself, you might feel tempted to put a lot of detail and a lot of complex messaging into a single headline thinking that that's going to make it more unique.
But actually, that makes the line more watered down. Because something that complex, people aren't going to be able to quickly glean the meaning of it. So when you're trying to put these things together, focus on one message for ad, keep that message simple, easy to understand. You can always launch more messages later, or you can always expand on a single message with more ads.
You can always do more later, but it should add a baseline be simple. Yeah, that's like the whole point of a campaign, right? It's like you're launching multiple ads that all lead to one more star. You don't have to say every message in one ad, just let them out.
Next appears to avoid vague adjectives and adverbs. Instead, use a stronger verb. So one example we can have here is that instead of saying create a more efficient word day, instead you can say, pressure word day. That's not exactly the best example.
But just the word crush just has, you can just visualize it better in your head. It has more color. The designer has more to play with. You can symbolize crush way better than you can, efficiency, right?
Absolutely. I think also, again, going back to what you just said about adverbs, typically, if you find yourself adding a bunch of LY words, you can usually get rid of them and replace them with a stronger, fresher verb that's going to have a bigger impact. So these tips are kind of the baseline here for how to approach writing copy and how to make sure that the language itself is working for you. But there's a lot more to the application of this.
So you can have the best written line of copy. You could be tight. It could play into every single rule. But if it's not applied directly, it's not going to resonate.
And the goal of copy, as we said, is to communicate. So the best copy is highly relevant. So you need to figure out how to put these rules into practice, which fortunately, we have a bunch of examples of too. So Mike, what is your example here?
Yeah, one of my favorite examples is to just write for your size. So I live in San Francisco, and there's billboards everywhere. And I can tell you how many billboards I've seen for startups that just have these lofty aspirational headlines, like, automate everything. But just, it means nothing.
Is it project management? Is it a project management tool? Is it an AI assistant? It's just too vague.
And if you don't have brand awareness, which most of these small startups in the Bay Area don't have, you need to just say what you do. That's how you initially build that brand awareness. And then once you get to huge brand awareness levels, like a giant publicly traded company, like Coca-Cola, for example, then you can have those aspirational headlines, like Open Happiness. Because now those are in the context of your well-known brand.
And they actually make sense. Without that context, Open Happiness can mean anything. Totally. I think being simple shouldn't mean being vague, but it also shouldn't mean being overly literal or straightforward.
So you can push your messaging beyond just the most simplified version of what the benefit or the product is, while still keeping the concept simple. So the message can be exciting, the way you tell the story, you can have color, and it can be really, really engaging, as long as the overall takeaway is still a simplified message. So Mike and I, we were just talking about Monday.com's commercial, the Viking one. Oh, yeah.
That commercial just really stood out to me as just being an idea that just got pushed a little further than the usual B2B spot. So yeah, the spot to have a Viking, I guess, leader, I don't know what they're talking about, he's managing his little tribe or whatever they call him. And I just think it was really stood out to me because it gets their core message across, but it just in a more interesting and funny way. So to all you operators and marketers out there, not just take your typical product messaging from your PMMs or your product team, take that and push it.
And just think, what's a more exciting way to say this? Right. And a more interesting way to translate it, right? So it's like, you can try alluding to things.
You can create little gaps for your audience to fill in a small mental leap. Some of these things, like little puzzles or things that just require a tiny bit more thought or a tiny bit more engagement. They're actually really rewarding. And if it's not working, that just means it wasn't written well enough or the idea isn't resonating.
But something like, again, going back to the Viking example, it's a quick little connection to make that. Vikings are leaders the same way a project manager leads a project. And therefore, the use case is the same, even though all of the bells and whistles in the commercial are really funny, really goofy. You've got Vikings with smartphones.
It's a fun concept. So yeah, you can definitely give people a little bit more to think about, give them a little bit more to reach for it without being obscure and without creating distance between your message and your copy. Another tip we have here is to change perspectives. So this is something that I try to use a lot.
Typically, a lot of ads or companies will use typical benefit statements like, save money on your home insurance. To me, that's just super boring. One way to spice up your copy is to just flip it on its head. So what does the lack of your product look like?
What would the world be like if your product never existed? Exaggerate the benefits to the extreme. Like, not just say number one rate, but like, what if you just exaggerated that? Or you could just play something down and play cool.
Or you could personify the problem like the famous mayhem commercials. Or again, just don't be so literal. Like, instead of a happy couple getting their home insured, it's a turtle ensuring their shell. So anything that just breaks them old and stands out.
And you could do this without being cliche or using all these adjectives and jargon. Just stand out. That's the best tip I can give you. Right.
Yeah. And like, the turtles would land for me. I think that would stick for me. I think that's what we're trying to say here is like, thinking outside the box a little bit.
And I think one of the other best ways a copywriter can think outside the box is to ditch words entirely. So sometimes an image tells the story just as well or better than language can. So maybe even that turtle example, it could be a cute little guy on his computer in trying to ensure his shell. And you don't necessarily need a ton of copy to tell that story.
You kind of get the idea of what he's doing. It's his home. You get the branding, all of that stuff. So there's ways to do it.
And for an example of this that's really effective is Lego. They did this campaign where they had these little Lego structures and a shadow of something that was more creative or interesting. So like a little stack in the shadow was a dinosaur. And they didn't put on these ads.
Imagine anything or anything like that. Because the image told the story. You knew that it was playful. It was nostalgic.
And that it was inviting you into some type of emotional connection with the product. And I think that's something that, again, coming back to communication and coming back to what's the point of copy. As Mike said, it's solving a problem. It's also connecting with your audience.
So I think one of the most important tips to remember, too, is that a person is reading this. And you want them to feel something about it. You want them to feel relieved. Or you want them to feel like a little chuckle.
Or you want them to feel smart that they got it. You don't want them to just be able to scroll past it without thinking anything of it. And you don't want them to roll their eyes and groan. So it's really about finding what works for your customers and putting yourself in their shoes for what actually appeals to them, not just what the industry might wish appeal to them.
Right. And hey, every brand is different, too. So take all these rules with a grain of salt, authenticity, and empathy, usually blow the other rolls out of the water. So just do what feels right.
And there are really hard-no formulas or templates. In fact, usually formulas and templates make bad copy. Just be clear and unique, relevant, and memorable. Or hire us.
Mike and I do a really good job. Yeah, that works, too. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.
Now you can go right. So number one rated never before seen puns later. Thanks, bye.