Brilliant writing — why it’s the last word in customer connection

It should seem obvious, but without human language, there would be a huge hole in the interface that connects the web with the people who use it.

There’s no doubt that coders, web developmers and design experts are clever — but where would they be without writers to script videos on the blogs they create, craft persuasive onsite content that pops off every page and charm customers on social media?

Yet although engaging with a good writer should be a no-brainer for businesses, it’s often low on the list of their digital marketing priorities.

So here are more reasons why brilliant writing should be the last word in customer connection.

If you can’t write, it’s fine!

Some businesspeople hold two interconnected misconceptions that make them less likely to value professional writing.

The first mistake is presuming that because most people can write to some extent, it isn’t a rarefied technical skill worth parting with cash for.

The second is that because you excel in a certain entrepreneurial field, your writing is guaranteed to be on-point too.

Both are misguided. Writing is a discrete skill which takes years to hone through professional practice and many highly-skilled professionals are poor writers — as evidenced by the existence of organisations like Clarity, which promotes Plain English in the legal profession.

So if you can’t write, it’s fine — just swallow your pride and delegate these duties to a professional. Unless you’re a polymath like Leonardo Da Vinci, the chances are that you don’t possess world-beating skills in more than one or two disciplines — but this isn’t a prerequisite for success.

Good writing sells

Professional advertising copy connects with customers and helps sell your products and services — it’s that simple.

But convincing, conversational writing that’s smooth, seamless and subtle is deceptively difficult to draft.

And the more effective it is, the less it’s noticed — the best writing is instantly absorbed by readers and tells persuasive stories about your brand that quickly build loyalty and trust.

Formatting, tone and style are modulated for web and social media writing, but many of the same writing principles that helped legendary marketers like David Ogilvy dominate their industries still apply in any medium.

You’re probably passionate about your products and can’t wait to share your excitement with customers — but without masterful metaphors, super similes and short, sharp sentences, things might get lost in translation.

SEO-optimised writing

The other reason why it’s best to trust your digital writing to professionals is to ensure that your content is written, formatted and edited with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind.

Eye-tracking studies suggest that people often scan web pages in an f shape, focusing on content around the headline, the top of the page and the left hand margin, so this might influence your content placement.

And your onsite content, blogs and articles should contain the correct keywords in the right frequency so that you creep up the rankings on powerful search engines like Google.

Anything you publish should also be relevant, useful, informative, credible, engaging, original and written to the highest quality — get this formula right and you’ve struck SEO gold.

Provided your writing skills are sharp to start with, it’s possible to learn to write superb SEO-friendly content with lots of practice. But if you’re not willing to wait for consistent results and don’t have the luxury of in-house wordsmiths, a content agency like Attercopia is worth touching base with.

And once your blogs, link building, website and social media content are primed for SEO, each element combines to help you establish a powerful and sustainable online presence.

By now, you should be convinced that brilliant writing is the last word in customer connection — if not, words literally fail us.

Do you outsource your content writing? Share your thoughts in the comments section.