Strategic Copy Above All–Why Perfect Copy is Never the Goal
Lil Key Takeaways: This Blog at a Glance
Perfect copy doesn’t exist, and striving for perfection shouldn’t be the goal.
Content should be strategic, aligned with your brand, intentional, authentic, SEO-optimized, and consistent.
Shifting focus from perfection to effectiveness helps accomplish more and achieve better results.
Clarifying your goals, such as higher SEO rankings, delivering value, or getting your brand voice across, guides the process.
High-quality copy is unique, credible, engaging, well-edited, SEO-optimized, and formatted for readability.
Consistency is crucial for driving traffic, building authority, and providing ongoing value to your audience.
Compelling copy resonates with your audience and develops a strong brand voice.
Unique copy stands out from competitors by identifying industry gaps and filling them with valuable, informative content.
SEO-optimized copy enhances visibility without compromising quality or value.
Valuable copy offers helpful, informative content instead of trying to sell something directly.
We’re kicking this blog off with a bold claim–there’s no such thing as perfect copy. Your website content–even if you hired a total pro who SEO-optimized it and is wholly aligned with your brand voice–is never going to be perfect.
Your email marketing campaigns won’t be perfect. That instagram caption you put your heart and soul into the other day? It’s not perfect.
And here’s the crazier thing. The copy and content we write–as professionals–isn’t perfect.
Why? Because nothing is.
But striving for perfection shouldn’t be your content goal, anyway.
Your content doesn’t have to be perfect–but it does need to be a few things. Your content should be:
Strategic
Aligned with your brand voice
Intentional
Authentic
Packed with value
SEO-optimized
Consistent
If you’re waiting for perfect copy to beef up your content marketing strategy, I’ve got news for you–it’ll never happen. Perfect copy and content don’t exist.
The main idea is this: content and copy creation would go a lot smoother if we threw the idea of “perfect copy” out the window.
The Key to Killer Brand Messaging: Strategic Copywriting
Most of the time, sitting down to write a blog, type out a social media caption, or even write product descriptions feels like a monumental task.
Why? Because we put the pressure of perfection on what we’re doing– especially if we’re doing it for our businesses.
And sometimes that’s fine. Often, it takes a little pressure to make things happen. But if you–like so many business owners or content creators or brand managers–get to the point of paralysis because you’re stuck on only putting “perfect” content out there, you’re doing more harm than good.
Instead of striving for perfect copy, we should strive for effective copy. We should aim for persuasive copy. We should priortize brand aligned copy. There are so many other goals you can have for your copy other than perfection. And if you shift your perspective this way, you’re more likely to get a whole lot more accomplished.
Forget Perfect Copy–Strategic Copywriting Matters More
Ditching the endless chase for perfect copy is the first step. Next up is figuring out what you should be chasing instead.
The best way to zero in on this is to verbalize what you’re hoping to get out of your content.
Do you want to rank higher on the search engine result pages (SERPs)?
Do you want to provide more value for your customers?
Do you want to get your brand voice across?
What about a mix of it all?
Having a clear goal will guide your process–but you need to know what that goal is first.
Take the vagueness out of it and actually address what you’re trying to do.
If you’re not sure what you’re trying to do with your copy, take it a step back and ask yourself what kind of copy you want to give your audience.
If you’re still drawing a blank, that’s OK.
Start with this list I’m going to share.
To preface, I think good copy does a few different things all without qualifying as “perfect copy.”
Here’s the kind of content that I believe brands should strive for.
High-Quality Copy
This might sound like a buzzword, but quality is maybe the most important consideration when it comes to your content.
What does high-quality copy and content look like? To summarize for brevity’s sake, high-quality content will be:
Unique
Credible
Engaging
Authentic
Substantial
SEO-optimized
Formatted for readability
Multi-media inclusive
Properly edited
Polished
If you stop shooting for perfection–which is vague and unattainable–and start shooting for these reachable goals instead, you’ll start to see real results.
Consistent Copy
I often preach consistency in the blogging world, but it’s actually something that applies to all of your digital marketing strategy. Personally, I don’t see the point in putting a ton of effort into a piece of content here and there without committing to consistency. But that’s not just a personal feeling, that’s a characteristic of successful copy–in both SEO and providing value to your readers.
Maybe you don’t buy the consistency thing. But Forbes says that, mostly for SEO purposes, consistency matters a ton.
“Where many companies do an SEO project and drop it, by staying consistent with your dedication to SEO, your brand visibility will soar. SEO is a long game. Your marketing is a constant, and SEO is the heart of marketing,” the article says.
But it’s not just about SEO.
Consistency matters from a value prop perspective, too. If your customers see that you post on your site every six months, update a blog once a year, or barely post on your social media, what does that say about your presence? Being a reliable, consistent resource works wonders for a brand’s content strategy.
Once again, I’ve got a blog about this topic. It’s mostly focused on consistency in blogging, but these principles apply to almost every element of your content marketing and digital marketing strategies.
Essentially, consistency is key because it:
Drives web traffic
Creates direct communication
Established your brand as an authority
Offers insight into your value proposition
Provides real value to your audience on a regular basis
Instead of striving for perfect copy (and then freezing up and not producing anything because that’s not attainable), strive for consistent copy instead.
Compelling Copy
Don’t just write copy that hooks readers in–write copy that keeps them around. The way to do that? Make sure your copy and content are compelling. What does compelling copy look like, exactly? If you search the internet, you’ll get a ton of descriptors about compelling content. Some people think compelling content is purposeful, relevant, catchy, visual, and has resonance.
All of those are good answers, but I think it’s hard to assign a blanket definition for compelling content because, ultimately, it’s up to who your brand and audience are. Writing compelling content in your space is about knowing what your audience is looking for, then giving it to them.
And for what it’s worth, I think compelling content is actually mostly about capturing a tone of voice (TOV) that aligns with your brand. Your brand’s voice is so important for resonating with your audience, hooking them, and keeping them around.
It’s all sort of challenging to pin down generally, but, to me, compelling content is often synonymous with a highly developed brand voice that priortizes subject matter that resonates with your audience.
Unique Copy
Write copy that sets you apart from your competition. Take a look at what’s out there in your industry. What is everyone doing? What’s missing? Where’s the gap in information?
If you can write copy that’s informative, educational, interesting, and filling a hole in the market, you can consider your content incredibly valuable.
SEO-Optimized Copy
What is your copy trying to do? I mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth repeating. It’s not always enough to just throw your thoughts up on a page without a plan. Don’t get me wrong, something is usually better than nothing–but if you can create content that has a clear strategy, you’ll see better results.
Want a relevant example? Think about this blog. What was my strategy for writing it? Ultimately, I wanted to answer questions I often get about how to write “perfect copy.” I also knew this would be a great topic to add to my blog schedule (because consistency is key).
And you know what else? There are SEO keywords peppered throughout this blog that I really would like to rank better for.
Writing copy for a reason that goes beyond just providing value to your audience isn’t shady. This is what brands do–and the successful ones do it very well.
This is a tricky one to talk about because often, people take the SEO-optimized advice and run with it–and they forget to balance quality and value. If you can kick the chase for perfection to the curb and instead focus on implementing SEO strategy into your content, you’ll see tangible results.
My advice?
Don’t focus so much on SEO that you turn your content into a keyword-stuffing factory. Do implement SEO best practices into your copy and content so your hard work can get the recognition (and traffic) it deserves.
Valuable Copy
If you really want to resonate with your audience, focus on copy that provides them with actual value. Don’t sell them on a product. Don’t talk them into purchasing a service. Don’t manipulate them into anything–give them something.
Give them information, a hot tip, news, and education. Copy that focuses on giving your audience something is–without being dramatic–the key to powerful copy that actually converts customers.
The best part about that value? It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Content–especially blogs and digital marketing in the same vein–don’t have value expiration dates. Valuable content has future-proof benefits for your audience, no matter when they stumble across your content.
Strategic Copywriting is Our Jam
Boundless is all about strategic copywriting that keeps your goals in mind–all without ever using the word perfect.
Why? Because perfect content and flawless copy don’t automatically mean results–but strategic content and copy do.
If you’re looking for help coming up with strategic content for your brand, we’re here to help.
Reach out today for a free consult call and to figure out how we can help you write your best copy yet!
