The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing runs regular courses, and this week I went on one. It was a valuable two days with course leader Becky Bocchetti. She has worked with clients as diverse as Vodafone, London Zoo and BBC Radio 2.
Digital copywriting was our focus, with sessions on email, web, blogs, Twitter and Facebook. It was an insightful and interesting course, and as applicable to recruitment marketing as other sectors.
Here are my top three take-aways.
Strategy, before tactics.
Plan strategy before you execute your tactics. Each marketing avenue needs a content strategy, purpose and management plan. It may need design work so it looks on brand, and development to add functionality.
The Facebook Page is launched, Twitter is set up, and a Linked Group is in the making - what next? Carefully consider how to ulitise a new trend, don’t jump on the bandwagon and realise you’re not sure how to move forward.
Audience at the heart
Know your audience – how will they perceive what you write and say? Get it wrong, and you could find yourself in the midst of a PR disaster. Get it right, and it’s extremely valuable for building and keeping online trust.
When planning strategy and writing content, always keep in mind who’ll be reading it.
Old and new
Reading copy online takes 25% longer than it does in print. Take account of this when writing for online. Copy must be shorter and read easily.
Age-old techniques have value. The “inverted pyramid” copywriting model has been used by journalists and PR agents for years – way before the dawn of digital. Its emphasis on putting the most newsworthy and important information first holds true whether writing for online or print.
