I talk to a lot of businesses who ask me about customer service copywriting, but I haven’t really formed a clear picture of what it is. Does customer service copywriting involve writing emails that inspire action? Does it mean taking customer’s complaints and turning them into actionable requests? Does it mean creating compelling stories to bring in new customers?
Let’s dive into the definition and the different roles customerservice copywriting can play in an organization.
Defining Customer Service Copywriting
Customer service copywriting involves crafting written communications – emails, online chat messages, letter-writing campaigns – to meet the informational, transactional and brand-related needs of a business’ customers. It can also mean creating content to support a business’ social media accounts.
The primary difference between traditional sales copywriting and customer service copywriting is that the latter includes multiple touchpoints and the opportunity to have meaningful interactions with customers through each one. These interactions can help the business better understand the customer’s needs and wants and allow them to perform at their best.
Traditional sales copywriting focuses on converting website visitors into paying customers by creating compelling content that entices them to make a purchase. This content might appear in the form of a sales pitch (also called a sales message), a product description or a comparison table. Traditional sales copywriting is focused on the front-end of the funnel: attracting, engaging and converting potential customers into paying ones.
In contrast, customer service copywriting emerges at the back-end of the funnel: after a customer has been attracted to the brand, engaged with the content and made a purchase. The content that appears here is more about supporting the customer’s experience rather than driving an immediate action (e.g., sales pitch, order form, etc.).
Roles For Customer Service Copywriting
Customer service copywriting can play multiple roles in an organization. Here are just a few:
- Customer engagement – Through engaging content, the brand can show customers that they are investing in quality content and that they are listening to and responding to their needs. This type of content can fall into two categories: social media marketing and website content.
- Informational – The business can provide the customer with useful information that benefits them in some way (e.g., prices, shipping methods, etc.). This type of content can appear in a number of different forms: an online FAQ or Knowledge Base article, a blog post or an email newsletter.
- Transactional – The business can help the customer to navigate through the order process by creating a step-by-step guide that takes them from the initial attraction to a completed purchase. This type of content can take the form of an instructional manual or a how-to guide, a series of FAQs or a long email letter.
- Relational – The business can establish a relationship with the customer by creating and curating content that builds trust and credibility. This content might appear in the form of: case studies, testimonials, rankings, comparisons, etc.
- Brand experience – The brand can guide the customer’s experience by creating compelling narratives, experiences and stories that spark curiosity, interest and a desire to learn more.
Each of these roles presents its own set of unique challenges that must be overcome in order to produce outstanding work. If you are interested in learning more, continue reading below.
The Challenge Of Developing Custom Copy For The Customer
The first challenge that a business faces when engaging in customer service copywriting is coming up with unique content that appeals to each individual customer. As a copywriter, you would never want to cut corners by using templates or cookie-cutter content that appeals to every single customer. The last thing that you want to do is bore your readers or your customers!
Taking the time to develop content that is engaging, informative and memorable are all essential to creating successful customer service copy. In a nutshell, you want to make sure that every piece of content – whether it is a pitch, a product description, a case study, a blog post or an email – stands out and is memorable. To achieve this, you need to go through a content creation process that involves:
- Identifying the ideal reader/viewer for each piece of content
- Developing a content strategy that will move the needle forward for the business
- Determining the best format/style for each piece of content
- Researching the best wording for each piece of content
- Testing the content to see how it performs with different groups of individuals
- Revising the content where needed
- Paying attention to detail
With so much content out there, it’s essential that you stand out from the crowd. Here’s where unique content comes in. If you can develop a pattern of creating unique content that is valuable and helpful to your customers, you will be able to attract and retain customers who are increasingly demanding content specifically tailored to their needs. Plus, you will be able to grow your business successfully in the long run.
The Importance Of Building A Content Strategy
The second challenge that a business faces when engaging in customer service copywriting is developing a cohesive approach to content creation. Just like with any other section of marketing or communications, having a content strategy that connects all the dots from top to bottom is the best way to go. A strategy puts everything in context and ensures that the content that you create is not only relevant, but stands out as well.
Having a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve with your content is the key to developing a successful content strategy. Before you can begin to connect the dots, you must first identify the end goal. At the end of the day, you want to ensure that the content that you create is helping to move the needle forward for the business. This means that your content should be relevant, detailed, informative and ideally, unique to the audience that you are trying to reach. If you can do this, then your content will be valuable and hopefully useful.
To build a successful content strategy, you will want to work with a partner who has extensive experience in content marketing and has a keen eye for detail. This person will be able to keep you on track with the creation of high-quality, unique content while also helping you to strategize the most effective use of this content across various digital platforms. Doing business online can be tricky, so it’s important that you find the right partner who understands how important it is to stay in control of your digital communications and content.
The Key Elements Of A Successful Customer Service Copywriting Strategy
With so much information out there, it is essential that your customers know where to find the answers that they need. This is where the third challenge that a business faces when engaging in customer service copywriting comes into play. Your customers will only encounter your content once or twice before they make a purchase and then hopefully, they will remember you. To ensure that they find the information that they are looking for, you need to put in the effort to locate and connect with authoritative sources that can answer the questions that your customers might have.
There are a number of key elements that you need to include in your strategy in order to produce outstanding customer service copy. While there are no strict guidelines as to how content marketing should look, having the following elements in place will help you produce high-quality content that is helping your business and brand to meet its goals.