The legendary, Jo Wiebe, or CopyHackers opened #CopyCon19 at Barbican to give us an array of tips, tricks and insight on how we should talk to customers to find out what actually matters to them and the language they use.
Jo kicked off her talk by talking about Mr Rogers, a Canadian children's TV celeb, and how he wrote a song about getting mad aimed at four-year-olds. He wrote this song after a child asked him "what to do with the mad that he feels". When his peers were writing songs of gobbledegook like Teletubbies or animals or sweets, Mr Rogers listened to what matters to his audience and used the language they used. It was risky, but it paid off, the song has its own Wikipedia page.
This is something all copywriters should be doing if they want what they write to convert.
You can get VOC data by spending a day in a call centre, going through all the complaints, sitting in on sales calls, interview customers or FMH (follow me home), which is watching how the customer feels and interacts with their new purchase... Although, I think this is too creepy for British sensibilities.
Once you've got all this data, it needs to go through the copy process we're all too familiar with. And once you know what the customer's sticking points are, what problems they need to fix and the language they use, it pretty much writes itself.
However, one thing I don't think a lot of us do is validate the copy.
How many of us put our copy through the usability hub or any sort of readability test? I bet not many of us have access to a user lab. Not many, but we should. Even if it's just running it past colleagues or the team.
Jo also talked about 'breakthrough or bust'. These are the ideas that could either sink or swim but are essential in order to cut through homogeneous noise of the marketplace.
These days, most companies call it being disruptive, but I wonder how many of them actually embrace that spirit, either in their copy, creative or product development.
Also, many of us never get the opportunity to test our web pages, emails or social media posts. But this something our leadership teams should insist on.
Jo gave us loads of good tips on how to structure email campaigns, particularly welcome journeys. Don't you find the first one always says 'welcome'? That's because people don't know what else to write.
By collating all the data from sales calls and plotting it in sequence people asked questions. Then you know exactly what you should say in order of importance.
If you listen to the voice of the customer and weave it into your content strategy and copy, you should achieve the unicorn all clients chase.
Acquisition > Action > Retention > Revenue > Referrals
