Copy strategies: Yes, your messaging should be relatable
People love comedians. Why? Because they have a knack for taking the relatable, everyday situations we face and making them hilarious.
When I was a teacher, I had great rapport with my students. How? I used a few strategies, but a main tactic was coming across as relatable.
Brands should take this same concept of relatability and apply it to their messaging. Here’s why (+ a few helpful tips).
Why is relatability important for copy?
Whenever you’re writing web, email, SEO, and any other copy, you should always be writing for an intended audience. Your words need to resonate with your audience while also helping you build positive relationships.
In order to do that effectively, your audience needs to relate to what you’re saying and how you’re saying it.
Let’s say you’re writing an email campaign for a brand selling healthy snack bars. Their target audience for this email campaign is primarily working women, ages 20-45, many of whom are mothers.
Part of an email could look like this:
These healthy snack bars provide you with Vitamins C, D, and K, and are a healthy alternative to other snacking foods. They were made in our nutrition laboratory through a 5-step process that provides great taste and benefits.
Or, it could be more relatable, and look like this:
Easy, nourishing snacks for when you’re on-the-go, chasing littles around, or busy being a boss — because you don’t need to waste time in the kitchen to get your whole foods and vitamins in. Unwrap, savor (for whatever precious time you have), and carry on knowing you’ve done good to your body.
Snippet #2 speaks the language of the target audience—as in, it’s written in a casual tone with age-appropriate wording, and it identifies the audience’s problems (not having time to make nutritious snacks) while providing a solution.
If someone from that target audience reads that snippet, there’s a good chance they’ll think, "Huh, it seems like they get it. Maybe I’ll look into them a bit more.”
Tips for writing relatable copy
Relatability is all about knowing your audience and speaking their language. Here are some basic ways to do that:
Adopt your audience’s tone - casual? formal? friendly? serious? inspirational? hardcore?
Adopt your audience’s choice of words - the words you use when writing for teenagers is very different from those you use when writing for doctors
Identify what your audience cares about and what their problems are - look at reviews, testimonials, and research here
Make sure the value and benefits you’re communicating align with audience wants/needs - again, do your research
Don’t come off as fake - relationship-building is about trust, so be authentic
TL;DR
Relatability is key for effective messaging and building relationships with your audience
Know your audience and speak their language for relatable copy (and, yes, this oftentimes requires research into your audience’s tone, word choice, problems, and needs)
Check out my last post on the power of social proof to read up on more copywriting strategies.
If you want to chat about copywriting for your brand, reach out!
Thanks for reading!
Megan
