Marketing Writing: 3 simple tips that can help any marketer improve results (even if you’re not a copywriter)

This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter.

Tip #1: No matter what language you write in, speak human

Copywriters and others who write for advertising, marketing or business purposes can learn a lot from human beings. I say that as a writer myself. Because a funny thing happens when we get into work – sometimes we forget how to be human.

Here’s a tactic I’ve found helpful. When I’ve reviewed a piece of business or marketing writing, I’ll stop the person. Let’s forget about what they put on the page for just a moment. Just talk to me. What are you trying to say?

What they say to me is almost always far more compelling than the stilted, formal writing they have on the page that is trying to force the reader to believe something or act in a certain way.

Because again, once we put on that business writing hat we feel so intent on getting a point across in a formal way. We forget we’re just human beings speaking to other human beings. We end up speaking Corporatese or Industryish or (worst of all) Buzzwordian. And we fail to speak human.

Flint McGlaughlin, CEO and Managing Director, MECLABS Institute shares a great example of this phenomenon in Conversing with the Customer: Beware of using too many nouns (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa).

Tip #2: Identify how your organization can provide value and/or solve pain points for your target audience

Here’s the problem with companies that mimic a strategy – they can capture the visible aspects but totally lose the essence of what makes it so successful.

Take content marketing. Some companies treat it like advertising and just promote, promote, promote. But it works best when you “buy” your audience’s attention by providing value.

For example, when Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) published its annual State of IT report, it invested months in conducting primary market research, analyzing year-over-year trends, and finally producing the actual report. And that investment in quality content delivered results – the report received coverage in more than 45 publications, brought 16,000 unique visitors to the website, and influenced more than $250,000 of pipeline in less than three months. 

And that is just one piece of content. The global marketplace for connecting technology buyers and sellers is a regular content publisher. “SWZD generated over 75 pieces of SWZD branded content in 2020 with heavy focus on thought leadership to support B2B marketers during COVID-19 and research reports to help drive technology decisions,” said Priscilla Meisel, Content Marketing Director, SWZD.

Meisel’s top piece of advice if you are going to invest in your own content marketing reports, “Before getting into the nuts and bolts of writing an asset, look at market shifts and gaps that complement your business and marketing objectives. Then, you can begin to plan, research, write, review and finalize an asset.”

Tip #3: Keep paragraphs short and add as much white space as possible

If visitors get to your webpage and see a wall of text, will they find it easier to bounce than to wade through that writing?

“People prefer to consume information in tiny pieces – so give them that,” said Eulises Quintero, Content Manager, Titoma. And this is especially true on mobile.

Quinteo says you should break down your paragraphs as much as possible – it’s okay to write one-sentence paragraphs. Never go above three sentences for a paragraph, and in between paragraphs, add a double space to create white space.

The engineering service started implementing this writing style by the end of March 2020 and quickly saw bounce rates decrease from an average of 20% to 5%.

Creative Sample #1: Before – engineering service blog post with wall of text on desktop

Creative Sample #2: After – engineering service blog post with spaced out text on desktop

Creative Sample #3: Before – engineering service blog post with wall of text on mobile

Creative Sample #4: After – engineering service blog post with spaced out text on mobile

Related Resources

Blandvertising: How you can overcome writing headlines and copy that don’t say anything

Marketing 101: Copywriting vs. copy editing vs. content writing

Ask MarketingSherpa: Finding and hiring content marketing writers