Customer Types

Put simply, customers are commonly divided into four types – the success-driven and power-orientated, the sociable and impulsive with a desire to belong, those who value family and tradition, and those who value order, details and facts. Individuals with different personalities need to be communicated with in different ways.

Each of us is a mixture of these traits, and this mixture can change over time and in different contexts.

The DISC profiling system classifies these four types of personality trait as Dominant, Influential, Steady and Compliant, but an easier way of thinking of them are as Boss, Wannabee, Family Type and Nerd.

Understanding A Company’s Aims

A copywriter has to communicate a message that the customer trusts, which means that the copywriter has to know the strengths and weaknesses of the company. What are the company’s aims, how does each product fit in with every other product, and how will each page of the website fit in with every other page?

If a company has a great after-sales service then this should be emphasised. On the othe hand if a company has a poor after-sales service it is pointless (and morally wrong) to write about how good the after-sales service is

Feedback is Gold!

A copywriter values customer feedback as this provides direct insight into customer concerns, values and ways of looking at the world. Such feedback can come from email correspondence, forums or live-help areas.

In a successful company copywriters will constantly test and analyse the copy . What words, font-size and positioning are effective, and at what times of day or year does the copy work best?  

Copywriting Basics

There are many basics in copywriting.

Talk to individuals about what matters to them, using concepts that they can relate to.

‘Talk to the dog in the language of the dog about what matters to the heart of the dog.’

Give benefits, not features. You’ll sell more. The emotional benefits to your customers are more meaningful than the features of your product.

‘You’ll look good driving our car’ has infinitely more impact than ‘Our car has chrome bumpers!’

Your Calls to Action should be frequent and combined with reasons and incentives to buy.

‘Learn more’ could be improved to read, ‘Learn more and change your life – £10 off if you order before next December!’

Text should appear ‘digestible’ – that is, text should have plenty of white space around it so that it’s not intimidating.

Sometimes headlines or bolded words can tell a story in their own right.

‘Buy our product’,   ‘It’s the best quality around’,   ‘Shipped immediately!’ ‘Only £10′ ,   ‘Buy now!’  are headlines that can be perceived as one sentence by a customer skimming the page, with the bolded words creating an even shorter sentence.

Walk This Way!

There’s a buying path that your customers go through.

Customers first recognise a need, go out and find information related to that need, then evaluate all available options before finally making a purchase decision. Post-purchase they’re either satisfied or dissatisfied (‘buyer’s remorse’) with that decision.

Your copy should take your customers along this path and provide them with options at cricital points.

Unsung Heroes!

Copywriters create e-mails, newsletters, e-commerce catalogues, straplines and even the ‘thankyou’ slip in the box that’s delivered to your customer (when you remind them of your guarantee and tell them who to contact in case of problems).

As long as the internet has a text-driven component copywriting will be extremely important to the success of a website.