As a creative in the advertising field, you can find yourself among two paths; creating digital art as a graphic designer, web designer, UX/UI designer, etc. or you are on the wordy end of the spectrum as an email marketer, copywriter, social media manager, etc. Templates for graphic designers and artists are easy to come by, but there are fewer resources for the writers of advertising. The words you choose or the number of words in your sentences could be the difference from someone purchasing your product. Here are some great tips for all of the creative writers out there who are struggling to find the right voice for their niche.
Copywriting
Copywriting is one of the foundational legs of advertising. It is the job of the copywriter to not only give an accurate description of the brand/product, but they have to use correct grammar and accurately capture the voice of the brand. This can be challenging to achieve and that is why there are copy supervisors to accurately check the work of the writer.
Some of the best advice for copywriters is to set yourself a strict word limit. It can be easy to get carried away, but it’s important to keep your sentences short and concise. After writing your initial draft, go back through your writing 3 times by getting rid of unnecessary words. Every word in the sentence that doesn’t have a direct impact on the meaning of the sentence should be removed. This will also save you the headache of harsh edits to your writing. Concise writing will become your best friend in the world of copywriting.
The next piece of advice is to use powerful words. When using powerful words in a sentence, it will not only give the sentence a greater meaning, but it will better stick with the reader. A great browser extension you can use to get rid of meaningless words is Grammarly. Grammarly helps with grammar mistakes and if you pay for the premium, it will give you better synonyms to use.
Social Media
For many companies, social media is the best way to reach their target audience, especially if they are trying to sell a product online. During COVID-19, social media marketing became extremely important because people were stuck inside on their devices and weren’t able to purchase products in-store. The writing on a social media post, whether it’s the description/text or the text on an image, is essential. You have 2.7 seconds to capture someone’s attention online, meaning every word counts.
One of the best tips for writing social media posts is to know how to write for a specific platform. For Instagram, you should focus on a fun image to grab someone’s attention and a clever and concise caption that will help the post come full circle. A great tool for Instagram posts (and all social media posts) is Canva. This platform has readily made templates for infographics, images, text on images, animations, etc. to post on your Instagram. It’s extremely easy to use and can be customized based on your design preferences.
The next social media, Twitter, is extremely important because of the character limit, which is now 280. Similarly to copywriting, you have a limit on your character count so your word choice is the most important here. Go through your tweet a few times and take out any unnecessary words. Keep in mind the use of twitter; it is used for news and small comments. Use your Twitter feed as a way to share new information and news about your brand/company.
LinkedIn is essential for connecting with other professionals in your area of expertise. Some of the most important pieces of writing come from LinkedIn posts about the company’s achievements. LinkedIn is a perfect place for blog posts, whether you write them through LinkedIn or a personal website. Your writing on this platform should sound professional and you should use powerful language.
The last social media platform where writing matters is Facebook. This platform gears towards an older generation and can be friendly and relaxed in terms of a writing style. When posting to the company’s page, you are posting as if you are the company. It is appropriate to use conversational language here and the friendlier you sound, the better.
Email Marketing
This piece of writing is deliberately placed in the target audience’s inbox along with all of their other emails. It can be hard to understand what type of language to use, but that entirely depends on your target audience.
The best piece of advice for writing an email marketing campaign is all in the subject. The trick is to make the subject as appealing as possible because if you don’t, your email can be erased within seconds. If you are selling a product, use language that will entice the viewer to click on the email. For example, if you are having a discount or a referral program you can write something along the lines of “Free and Easy $100. Refer a Friend”.
Another great tip for an email marketing campaign is to keep the tone friendly and understand who your audience is. If you are reaching out about working together with another company, make sure the tone is welcoming, yet professional. If you are selling a product, the tone should be light and conversational.
Overall, you can use any of these tips and pieces of advice for any form of writing. Blog posts and newsletters are another form of writing that requires a specific tone, structure, and style of writing. Concision when editing and writing will always come in handy so be sure to keep these in the back of your mind the next time you write.
Clutch is a creative staffing partner. We connect digital, creative, and marketing professionals with companies looking for freelance, temp-to-hire or direct hire resources.
