Connect to Your Audience with Conversational Copywriting

One of the first places potential customers will “meet” you is your web site. A robust, digital business card, your web site needs to connect with potential customers in a meaningful, relatable way — quickly.

There are a number of ways to accomplish this. Design, speed, format — each plays a part in grabbing and keeping potential customers’ attention.

But the content on your web site? … that’s perhaps even more important.

Your online content speaks directly to potential customers, engaging them, persuading them to build a relationship with you.

Conversational copywriting is one way (and a very popular one) to immediately connect with customers — and ensure they stick around.

What Is Conversational Copywriting?

Conversational copywriting is a way of speaking to your potential customers through familiar, natural language. By addressing customers with common words and phrases, conversational copywriting cultivates a comfortable space in which your audience will feel more willing to engage. 

More recent developments of conversational copywriting have seen the implementation of automated, real-time communication. Chatbots, for example, offer a new, easy, quick way for customers to communicate with a company and get their questions answered (did you ever know a copywriter is behind those bots?).

But conversational copywriting isn’t new. Many might know the “bar stool rule” of writing sales letters, in which copywriters would write to their prospects as if they were seated across from each other at a neighborhood bar. 

The important principle of conversational copywriting is this: Friendliness and familiarity make a big difference connecting to your audience and in closing that deal. 

7 Ways to Create Conversational Copywriting

So, if you’re a small business owner, or a nonprofit leader, are there easy ways to incorporate conversational copywriting into your overall marketing strategy?

YES.

Check out these eight strategies…

1. Use Your Customer’s Language.

Listen carefully to your customers’ comments on your social media channels. Pay close attention to their feedback on your emails and other communication. 

What keywords are they using to describe your services and their needs? What common phrases jump out? Use these words and phrases in your overall content marketing strategy. You’ll show the audience that you’re listening and that you understand their needs.

2. Use “You” and “I”.

Develop a one-on-one way of writing to your audience. Build strong relationships by making them feel like you understand just one person at a time.

Instead of writing in the third person, using words like “they,” “she” or “he,” write directly to the reader, using words like “you” and “I.”

3. Use Contractions.

People do not often speak without contractions. It is not natural and it is awkward and clunky… ( ← see what we did there?).

It’s familiar and normal for people to use contractions, so don’t be afraid to use them in your copywriting. They don’t diminish the content; in fact, they improve it!

4. Insert White Space.

Yes, the absence of writing is also part of conversational copywriting. Think of it this way, if you open up an email, click a link to a blog, or even “Read More” on a social media post, how would you feel if you saw a giant block of text?

Not so great, right? And not very inclined to continue reading.

So, every 2-4 lines, break up your text with white space, so the reader has time to breathe. 

5. Write Short Sentences.

This one goes hand-in-hand with #4. Try not to overwhelm your readers with lengthy sentences. They’ll forget what you were talking about, get tired and stop reading.

Naturally, we take pauses, so make sure your writing does, too.

6. Empathize.

Part of a great conversation is knowing the other person understands you. This comes in the form of empathy, relating through shared emotions.

You don’t have to pass the tissues, unless of course it makes sense to do so. But show your readers that you understand what they’re going through, what their needs are. Build connections by sharing in their happiness, frustration, confusion, hope and more.

7. Add Personality.

If you were talking to a friend, would you talk in all periods? 

No, absolutely not. Your speech is FILLED with emphasis and personality. Your copywriting can be, too. Weave exclamations, questions, parenthetical responses, emphasis in ALL-CAPs and more throughout your copy.