Writing Copy With Some Feeling
Many of my clients seem to struggle with the idea of writing copy for their websites and marketing campaigns. Most of us don’t enjoy the process of writing. I will be honest, it’s taken me a while to really appreciate how important it is. Writing copy is a bit different from our day to day functions in our businesses. I don’t recommend trying to pound out a bunch of words for copy while you are in the midst of your day to day business activities. If you are like me, you get interrupted by a million things throughout the course of a day and it’s hard to even get a few words strung together, let alone a blog or social media post of any real meat.
Copy in marketing terms refers to written information that aims to inform, persuade, or entertain an audience. Any business, including therapy private practices use copy to inform the public about their products and services. The goal of copy in marketing is to persuade the public to purchase their product or service, or to drive traffic to a business website.
That being said, copy for marketing starts with emotions. This should be really good news to a therapist who happens to own a private practice, because you already know how to speak and navigate emotions.
Really good copy in marketing is written to the “target.” Target is a marketing term for our ideal clients. The more we know this ideal client and what they are feeling, the better we can write engaging copy that will inform them about our products and services. The more we can position our private practice to meet their needs. Have you ever read a blog, website, or advertisement and thought “this is speaking to me”…
It’s really important to understand this concept because emotions are the cornerstone of marketing. Emotions drive why a potential client should be interested in what you have to say. The more you can identify what the target is feeling, the more you can speak to them in engaging ways. The more you can connect them to your private practice as being able to help them with what they are going through.
Most therapy private practice websites I see contain great copy if the website was targeting other therapists for their services. This tends to be terrible copy for engaging potential clients though. Often there is a long list of modalities and interventions that mean very little to a potential client. Most potential clients know they feel pain, loss, grief, anger, etc… They just want to know that you understand that and can help them. We need to meet them where they feel, not with a long list of certifications.
Once we understand that emotions are so important in our copy, we have the foundation to write good copy. Good copy is fundamental in reaching potential clients. Good copy is the basis of any marketing campaign including websites, blogs, ads, social media, or anything that you would use to engage a potential client. Emotions are the muscles that we have to flex and exercise to really reach our potential clients. With practice we get better and better at writing copy that will really reach someone at their pain point.
Every time I sit down to write copy for a marketing campaign for my private practice it starts with a list of emotions that my ideal client (target) is feeling. I have to understand what is driving this client so I can reach them emotionally. Without this starting point I am wasting my time in trying to engage potential clients.