Blog

Marketing is like a well-paid juggler – you have social media in one hand, marketing in the other, and somewhere above you is your content strategy.

And these are just a few of the marketing channels you have on your plate. With all of these platforms, it can be very difficult to keep your copy consistent.

We all know the importance of copying – it's what defines your brand and guides potential customers through the customer value journey. But what if someone reads your copy on social media, decides on your offer, and comes across a completely different copy? 😧

Leads will not be able to overcome the "trust factor" that is essential for them to trust you enough to buy a service or product from your company. Like any other relationship in our life, the customer-customer relationship requires persistence.

Here are 5 questions to make sure you are making a consistent copy across all platforms.

Question 1: Does this copy conform to my trademark guidelines?

Your brand guidelines are the blueprint of your brand. They will help you figure out what a "Yay!" and what's a "no …" in your copy. Branding guidelines will be of great help (serious emphasis on the big ones here) in keeping your copy on-brand, especially if you have a larger team.

Think of this as an SOP for writing your copy and content. If your copy doesn't review all of the marking required in your branding guidelines, it will create inconsistencies between your platforms and funnels. Use this checklist to make your life easier. If the copy can review all of the trademark guidelines on this list, give it the go! If not … ask yourself – what needs to be changed?

Question 2: Would my customers expect this from me?

Your copy is your brand voice. After engaging with your business through social media, your articles, or your emails, your prospects will be used to hearing a certain voice from you (um, remember your branding guidelines). You want to keep hearing that voice … not unexpectedly read or hear a new brand voice.

If your brand voice is always fun and playful, but you come out of nowhere with a formal and professional call to action, your prospects will be confused – and a confused person will never buy. In a confused state, your guidance is hesitant. When you read or hear a copy they would expect you to have, your leads are in a confident state – and a confident state of buying.

Question 3: Would my customers recognize me if I removed my branding?

Let's take away your brand colors, fonts and images. Can your customers still see you? This may be difficult for some brands, but it will help you make sure your branding is consistent from social networks to products. If the only thing holding your branding together is your color palette and fonts, then you have a big problem. While this stuff is the icing on the cake, your copy is the real cake. 🍰

If your copy is so current that your followers, subscribers, and customers can tell it's you without further clues about your brand, you're done. You made a delicious cake that people want to bite into … and you added the icing that makes people even more excited to grab their fork.

Question 4: Does this match my other copy?

Every brand has a different way of asking their followers to engage with their content, their website visitors to subscribe to their newsletter, or their subscribers to click on the offer. Every time you write a copy for a new listing, you want to look at it in the context of the copy you wrote for your other listings. Is your new copy so far away that your customers feel they don't know you as well as they thought they would?

The new copy should go well with the other copy you currently have live. This doesn't mean you can't A / B test your copy and do something completely left field – as long as it's still from the same field. Think of this in the context of your branded colors. If you usually use a brand with a medium green but want to highlight something with a lighter green, this makes sense. Your leads and customers won't be completely put off. However, if you do decide to scratch the green and go for yellow, they will ask: is this the website you put your company name on?

Use these questions to make sure your copy is consistent from the first point of contact to the day your customer purchases your highest offer of tickets. It is on this consistency that your relationship builds – make it a strong foundation.