April 3rd, 2022
Written by Lexie Sharabianlou
Lexie Sharabianlou a.k.a. Wild Card Sharabianlou is Blog Director at Copycat Copywriters. After earning her Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, she taught high school English lit, managed SEO strategy, built app content for cultural institutions, and finally landed at Copycat. She reads, knits (poorly), cooks, writes (of course), and tries to make friends with every cat she meets.
Because if I know anything, it’s this—the world turns on good words. And good food.
Hi, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lexie Sharabianlou, Blog Director and Head of Snacks here at CC. For me, copywriting is as essential to a business’s success as delicious food is to the human soul.
So, let’s talk copy. Let’s talk business. Let’s talk snacks. (Maybe order lunch if you haven’t already).
In this age of social media and e-commerce, your business’s first impression isn’t always in person—it’s formulated with the 1’s and 0’s of digital content. Most of that content? Copy.
So how do you stand out and make that wow moment happen with potential customers, investors, and team members?
With words that speak to your business’s values, mission, and expertise.
Take for instance, Pomegranate, a Georgian restaurant in San Diego that operates almost entirely by candlelight and vodka shots. This place whets customers’ appetites with copy that makes me grin every time I order.
My goodness, I want to hire this writer…but I suspect they’re also the chef, and I’d never risk my favorite source of borscht.
There’s another Georgian place in San Diego. It was actually closer to my apartment when I first wanted a forway into Eastern European cuisine.
But their copy…well…it didn’t stand out.
It didn’t make me smile. It didn’t sing. It didn’t show me with their wit and their unique voice that these people love what they do and are good at it. That creative je ne sais quoi is one of the most important benefits of copywriting services.
The lesson here: Good copy makes your potential customers sit up. Lean closer. Pay some freaking attention to what you have to say.
And as they click through each delicious morsel of your content—whether it’s a landing page, an email, or a blog—one thought runs exhilaratingly through their minds:
Oh boy, I’m not just on some cookie-cutter website anymore. This business means….business.
If you’ve ever driven by a Midwestern strip mall, chances are you’ve come across a Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop. While you might know of the franchise, you might not know the intense political hierarchy of the kitchen. Who rules the domain of cutting boards and deli meat?
The mayo spreaders.
It takes rigorous training and some pretty intense hazing (I’ve heard) to make it as a mayo spreader. Every inch of that fresh and tasty sub has to have a perfect layer of creamy condiment. No missed corners, no bald spots, no uneven spreadage. That way, every bite is as sumptuous and sandwichily sensational as the last.
So how does the mayo rule apply to your business?
The mayo spreaders enforce Jimmy John’s promise of quality—of no bit of bread left untouched by the sweet yet tangy spread that makes everything taste better.
Jimmy John’s understands that quality counts, but consistent quality counts more.
Picture this: you’re looking for a butter crock for your kitchen counter (they’re fabulous, I want one for Christmas). You found a clever ad on Instagram that points you to a business that makes crocks in adorable colors with complimentary butter knives. So you head to the website.
The product descriptions are long, confusing sentences that don’t actually entice you into buying the product. The FAQ section leaves you with more Q’s than A’s. The About Us section is…about nothing. It leads to a 404.
That is some sub-par mayo-spreading.
When so much of the business sector exists online, you have to ensure every inch of your presence maintains the same level of delicious quality no matter where you are. That means your Twitter posts have to be as well-written as your white papers which have to be as sharp and eye-catching as your service pages.
Don’t skimp on the mayo.
Oat milk lattes. Cronuts. Carmelized shallot pasta. Food trends come and go (except for that last one—Allison Roman’s recipe changed my life).
But what if you knew what the next gourmand sensation will be? What if you perfected your recipe ahead of time so that when foodies took their first bite, you would be at the paring knife’s edge of culinary phenomena?
Or in this case, the top of Google search results?
Sadly, there’s no crystal ball to tell me whether black garlic bagels or sumac benedicts will be the next It Girl of the food world.
But we do know how to stay ahead of the ever-mysterious Google SERPs (search engine results page).
SEO best practices come down to this secret ingredient…
Google is trying to teach its algorithm to be more like a human.
While they haven’t been able to synthesize a humanoid to actually do that, Google has developed some metrics to emulate a real person:
All of these numerical metrics try to emulate a person’s ability to decide if what they’re experiencing—if what they’re reading—is good.
So while Google tries to make a robot that can decipher between copy that engages and copy that flops, you can stay ahead with damn good copy.
You know who’s good at that? Copywriters.
Imagine a plate of pasta from your favorite Italian restaurant.
Your server has gracefully slid the white china in front of you. The thick strands of spaghetti glisten with your favorite sauce. Bright specks of basil add herby contrast to the melting bits of parmesan.
Now…picture a big, fat strand of hair on top of your pile of should-have-been-perfect pasta like a grotesque garnish.
Do you pick it off and take a bite? Probably not.
Because no matter how good your carbonara, alfredo, or bolognese tastes, that one mistake will haunt your palette, rendering even the most Michelin-worthy dishes inedible. You may even have second thoughts about returning to what was once a favorite eatery.
Pristine plating is pivotal in pasta—and copywriting.
Writing that's filled with errors, grammar mistakes, or awkward phrasings will distract potential customers and diminish their trust in the brand.
And we promise, if there’s a mistake, an awkward phrase, a funky interpretation of English syntax in your copy, your reader will find it.
Then, instead of focusing on what you’re trying to say, they’ll think about that weird comma placement. They’ll be on the alert to catch more mistakes. They’ll wonder: If the brand doesn’t care enough to proofread its own copy, will it even care about the customer?
And you thought the hair on the spaghetti was scary.
Copywriting services are safeguards of wordsmith quality. They know:
Plus, so many more tips and tricks that come with years of mastering this art.
Quality copywriting services are the master chefs in the kitchen of marketing. Let them do their thing, and you’ll wind up with something sensational.
At the end of the day, you want your copy to be good enough to eat. You want Samin Nosrat to ask you for tips. You want Stanley Tucci to make you a martini and do a documentary series about you. You want Julia Child to rise from the grave and tell you your words are as satisfying as her coveted Boeuf Bourguignon.
You want Gordon Ramsey to put his big meaty hand gently on your shoulder and say, “Well done, mate.”
We know you dream big, delicious dreams about your copy—and we can make those dreams come true. Our team of copy-cooks whip up tantalizing words in every digital copy medium, including social media, white papers, blogs, web copy, emails, and everything in between.
Hungry for more? Let’s grab a bite and talk copy—specifically, your first piece of content (it’s on the house).
Sources:
The Next Web. Machine learning just got more human. https://thenextweb.com/news/machine-learning-just-got-more-human-with-googles-rankbrain
