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Home ยป How to Provide Multiple Copy Options in Your Copy

How to Provide Multiple Copy Options in Your Copy

You have likely seen this question asked on social media. A business’ website is live, but the copy on their blog or social media posts about the website is not. Or, a brand’s website is live, but the email marketing sequence is not working. In these cases, customers aren’t receiving the copy experience the brand desires. That’s when the problems begin.

To avoid these kinds of problems, you should be testing your website’s copy before launching. But how do you do that? Where do you start? What do you test? How do you know what to test?

To help you figure out the answers to these questions, we will discuss the best practices for incorporating multiple copy types into your content and how to properly test them.

Proper Use Of Different Copy For Different Platforms

Before you start testing, it’s essential to understand the basics of content copy. First, let’s discuss the general rule for creating a story with multiple strands. Next, we will dive into the specifics of how to write differently for different platforms.

If you’re following the guidelines of a successful brand, you’ll notice that they frequently publish content on multiple platforms. Whether it is a blog post, infographic, or social media campaign, their copy is frequently cross-posted to further engage with their audience.

Taking this approach allows them to deliver a more robust experience to their audience by incorporating content from all platforms. Since blogs and social media posts appear prominently on a website’s front page and in emails, creating multi-faceted stories in content can assist in driving more leads to your business.

Strategy

Before you start writing, it is important to develop a content strategy. This should be a plan designed to guide all of your content and digital marketing efforts. It should include the following elements:

  • A statement of your vision and mission
  • An explanation of how you will achieve this
  • A detailed flowchart of the entire plan
  • The goals you hope to achieve
  • The objectives you hope to meet
  • The metrics you will use to evaluate your success
  • Who you are trying to reach

Steps

Now that you have a strategy in place, you can start writing. But since content is frequently a top-down process, with the person at the top defining the style and content of the writing and the person at the bottom producing the copy, you’ll want to make sure you are setting the right tone from the very beginning. To start, you should develop a draft of the content and work your way up to a final, polished piece. Along the way, you can make changes to the copy to ensure the message is consistent and to better connect with your audience.

When developing content, you should consider the following points:

  • The type of content
  • The frequency
  • The distribution channel
  • How the content will be used
  • The structure
  • Who the content is aimed at

Let’s discuss each of these points below.

The Type Of Content

Knowing what type of content you’ll be using is the first step to creating effective content. If you’re uncertain, consider what has worked well for your competitors or what has been successful in the past for your brand. Remember: you’re writing for humans so the topics you choose should be relevant to a general audience. If your ideal audience is mainly composed of other marketers, you’ll want to consider creating a content series focused on digital marketing.

The Frequency

Depending on your target audience, you may want to consider publishing content more or less frequently. If your ideal audience is brand enthusiasts who want to learn more about your industry, you could consider publishing frequently. On the other hand, if your target audience is a general population looking for information on your niche, you could opt for a less frequent release schedule.

The Distribution Channel

As you develop content, you need to consider where you will be distributing it. Will it be published offline or online? There are many different ways your content can be accessed and used. Once you know where your target audience is finding information, you can determine what platforms to use to reach them. Having an email list or a social media following is an excellent way to capture and retain your audience’s attention online.

How The Content Will Be Used

Since your content will be used in multiple ways, it’s a good idea to consider how it will be consumed. This will influence the structure, language, and style of your content. If you’re writing for the web, you should develop a single, cohesive message that will translate well across platforms. After your content is published, you can use various online tools to track the performance of your content (i.e., how many people are viewing the content, how often, and for how long). This gives you insight into the success of your campaign.

The Structure

When writing for human readers, you should always keep in mind that they have different learning and attention spans. The more you can do to keep the material simple and easy to understand, the better. Following a logical sequence and using easy language will make your writing more digestible and less prone to error. Since people normally scan content quickly while surfing the web, you should make sure you have a decent amount of content per page to keep the reader interested.

Who The Content Is Aimed At

To assist with understanding who your audience is, it’s a good idea to segment your potential customers. If you are unable to accurately identify the demographics of your ideal buyer, you’ll want to consider re-evaluating your strategy. Developing buyer personas and using them to identify your target audience will greatly assist you in creating content that will connect with them.

Specifics

To write effectively, you must understand not only the basics discussed above, but also the specifics of your chosen platform. Knowing the ins and outs of a tool like HubSpot or SharePoint can help you take your content strategy to the next level. If you want to create a powerful, multi-channel content experience for your customers, you’ll need to get familiar with the toolset available to you digitally. Platforms like HubSpot make it easy to keep track of all of your content, from one place. This simplifies the process of publishing and engaging with content across platforms.