You may have noticed we quite like words, and we’ve decided it’s about time words took their rightful place alongside design as a key part of branding. We’re carving a not-so-little niche as verbal identity specialists. Find out what exactly verbal identity means, and what role it plays in building a successful brand…

Think brand, and you’ll probably think visual identity first. Logos, colours, fonts, stationery, signage and all other aspects of design help to create a consistent image of a brand, triggering associations and making sure the organisation literally looks good.

However, verbal identity is now also increasingly recognised as crucial to brand recognition – and success. Companies such as Innocent or Lush have demonstrated just how effective verbal identity can be in capturing the interest and imagination of customers, helping them to engage with the brand (and, of course, encouraging them to actually buy their scrummy products).

So, what exactly is verbal identity?

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Your first step to building an effective online presence is making sure your website is picked up by search engines. But how can you incorporate Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) into your site while ensuring it still reads well and appeals to your target audience?

Do your research. For SEO to work best, you’ll need to undertake (or commission) good keyword research on words and phrases that are directly relevant to your organisation and industry.

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Congratulations! You’ve invented the purple sparkly widget to out-do all other purple sparkly widgets. It spins, it dances, it brings you your morning cup of tea. It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Hurrah! Time to sell it to all those desperate customers…

So you develop a truckload of marketing materials that detail all your widget’s amazing features. You make them available here, there and everywhere. And then you sit back and wait for the orders to flood in.

You wait. You wait some more. And then you wait some more.

But nothing happens. And you’ve no idea why.

You know that your widget could revolutionise your customers’ lives. But you’ve forgotten one thing – the one question that every customer will ask when they see or hear about your product.

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Many clients first come to us by recommendation, perhaps from another business, graphic designer, web developer or marketing agency. They like the idea of working with a copywriter – but they often have no idea how the process works.

Not all copywriters work in the same way, so we’ll just talk about how we work (which is obviously the best way *ahem*). However, we believe there are certain things that copywriters should do – and we’ll talk about those.

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Are you trying to write that one sales letter that will pull in the millions and guarantee your retirement to a small island in the Caribbean? Maybe you have just sent out 5000 letters and wondered why you haven’t had one response. Crafting an effective (and profitable) sales letter is an art, but one that can be learnt.

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It no longer seems possible to talk about virtual or online marketing campaigns without referring to a) social media and b) viral marketing.

Social media is, basically, media that is driven by social interactions – which, in its contemporary form, generally operates online.
Viral marketing refers to promotional products and techniques which operate through social media via self-replicating processes that are likened to computer viruses – i.e. are spread via email, or via other virtual means that end up operating independently of the company that originally created them.

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On the surface of it, this seems like an obvious question to ask when you’re planning a marketing campaign. After all, why shell out a load of cash in order to attract clients who are difficult to deal with; who only want to use those niche services that don’t form the main part of your business and that you don’t really like doing, or who end up taking up a lot of your time for very little reward? Worse still, what if you cast your marketing net so far and wide in an attempt to catch “anyone” that you end up appealing to “no-one”?

However, as we all know, it’s the obvious questions that can often be overlooked as we jump into the detail of a project before looking at the big picture – and the question “Who is your ideal customer?” has made a surprising number of our clients stop, think and then re-think their marketing strategy in our meetings.

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If you’ve ever commissioned a writer, designer, web developer or marketing agency then you’ll have heard the word brief being batted about. They aren’t referring to your choice of underwear (we believe it’s not the best way to start a client relationship). What they are talking about is a creative brief – this is where you tell the creative person who will be working with you exactly what you want and need.

A good creative will be able to guide you through this process and they should be asking lots of intelligent questions so you get the results you want. We’ve got standard briefing documents that we use, and we also try to ask a few of those clever questions. You’ll often hear us saying ‘we want to get inside your head’. We have no intention of psychoanalysing you – we just want to understand what you want, what you company needs and how best we can help you get there.

So how can you make sure your brief is a good one?

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If you take a look at most successful brands, what do you notice about them? Distinctive logo, check. Unique customer experience, check. Distinctive tone of voice? Oh, what’s that then? I’ve written before about tone of voice and how important it is in building a business. Lots of companies seem happy to spend thousands on design and other marketing elements, forgetting a key element of building a successful brand, finding their voice and using it well.

John Simmons, in The Invisible Grail, talks extensively about how words play a vital role in bringing a brand alive. And some companies get it absolutely right – Innocent for example. They use fresh, natural words and straightforward language to engage the reader. Google, Virgin and Amazon have used writing to differentiate themselves from the competition, reinforce what their brand stands for and most importantly, sell more.

What will bad writing cost me?

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Ever wondered why you never hear about people “reading” the internet? Simple – most web users don’t read, they browse, or scan. They’re impatient; they want information and they want it fast.

You therefore have to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for – and a significant part of that involves using logical structures, both for your website as a whole and on each individual page.

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