The end of the financial year is a natural time to look back at the year that’s passed and plan for the year ahead. Just like you’re reviewing your budget, business plan and marketing plan, you should make sure you’re still speaking the same language as your customers. And that means reviewing your copywriting. Below is a series of questions to help you give your copywriting a yearly health check.
Does your industry have a jargon?
Most industries have their own language — acronyms and phrases that are commonly used and completely appropriate in certain environments. The questions you have to answer are:
- Do your customers understand the industry jargon?
- If not, are you making sure it’s not used in your sales and marketing materials? If it is included, are you sure it’s explained in plain everyday language?
How you talk to customers when they first meet you will strongly influence their impression of you. It could be your website or something physical you give them at a meeting. It could be the language you use in that meeting. If your customers don’t understand the language of your business, use simpler language and make sure your content marketing helps educate them.
Is your tone of voice authentic and consistent?
Your tone of voice is not so much what you say as how you say it. It’s an often overlooked part of how marketing campaigns are created, but it’s essential to get it right. Why? You’re competing to be heard in a busy marketplace. You can differentiate your business through how you look, how you behave and also how you sound. As you rush to send out a social media update or email campaign, take a moment to consider how you sound to customers and whether the language you’re using fits your brand values. At the end of the financial year, spot check the campaigns you’ve sent throughout the year and be objective about the signals you’re giving about your company values and brand personality.
Are you accessible to your customers?
Being accessible is more than just making sure the phone is answered. Do your customers feel like they can come to you with their business challenges? Do they trust that your business will care about and help them? You can check this in a number of ways:
- Do you sign off blogs inviting comments and feedback?
- Do you share useful content that isn’t about your products and services?
- Do you touch base with customers you haven’t heard from in a while—not to sell to them, but to make sure there’s some way you can make their life more awesome?
- Do you make it easy for customers to give you feedback?
- Do you post social media updates that ask questions?
There are more things you can do, but the point is to ‘keep the office door open’ and ensure that talking to you is a positive experience for your customers. If you do, they will — and that’s the best market research you’ll ever get!
Stay connected in the year ahead.
It’s easy to get caught up in getting your taxes done and filing away your report. But, that’s not the only important business-related task. Take time to dig into the touch points you have with your customers and make sure you’re speaking the same language next year.
