In today’s age of increasingly more modernized technology as well as greater accessibility to the benefits this technology has to offer, advertising copywriting is beginning to trend away from consumers being the ones to read the copy that copywriters write. Copywriters have traditionally written copy for print media that would be read by consumers but are now having to adapt to a landscape that’s changing because of technology, and they need to write copy that is often heard or absorbed by consumers in different ways. These trends, especially those leaning toward writing copy for digital purposes, can have a lot of effect on the expectations of advertising copywriters.
- Voice Search
- Personalization
- Social Media Focus
- Podcast and Video Scriptwriting
- Long-form Content
Being perhaps the most agreed-upon current trend, information searched by voice commands is becoming increasingly more common. Applications such as Siri, Alexa, Google Voice, and many more are making it easier for consumers to search for answers to their questions without lifting even a finger, especially if what they’re looking for is a simple answer to a simple question.
The challenge for copywriters is that questions asked via voice search are worded and formatted differently than questions that are when searched through text. This means the writing style and inclusion of keywords for copywriting for voice search will need to be altered to match how someone speaks rather than how they type. Sentences via voice search are longer and usually complete questions that match how someone actually speaks. Copywriting and keyword usage will need to match this for the best and most optimized traffic.
Thanks to technology, consumers nowadays are asking for increasingly personalized content. Social media tailors algorithms specifically to each user on their app and thus people have begun to expect this same approach everywhere. They don’t want advertising campaigns that market to the lowest common denominator, they want something that’s meant specifically for them, so copywriters need to be able to account for this. Copy shouldn’t be generalized to include as many people as possible, because that’s just going to end in you losing people even while trying to pull in as many as you can. Personalization and treating your audience as individuals, instead, is what copywriters should be focusing on now. Make sure you know what audience you’re writing ad copy for, and make sure that ad copy is specific and captivating for your intended audience.
Social media today has a massive impact on both consumers and advertising campaigns. With apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, social media runs the world now, and thus a focus on social media is a must for a copywriter in the world of advertising. There’s no doubt that social media has a certain hold on its consumers. Social media excels at keeping consumers returning, and that’s why a copywriter needs to be sure that they can advertise on social media.
When it comes to social media, consumers tend to have a short attention span and posts should be kept short and sweet. Instagram captions are limited on how long they can be, videos on Instagram and Snapchat can’t be over 60 seconds total, TikTok’s videos can’t be over three minutes, and Tweets can’t be over 280 characters. You can always post more than once if you need to, of course, but the more you post, the more likely you are to lose the consumer’s interest. This means getting as much content out as quickly and efficiently as you possibly can.
This is where the need for consumers to read the ad copy that copywriters create really starts to drop off. Yes, scriptwriting does still include writing—someone does still need to write the actual script after all—but no consumer will be reading this material that you’re writing. The consumers might hear it, they may listen to someone speak the words that you wrote, but they won’t see it and they won’t read it. Even so, scriptwriting for podcasts and videos is becoming an increasingly integral part of copywriting since marketing is trending away from consumers reading materials and instead consuming it in alternative ways. An estimated 162 million United States citizens over the age of 12 listen to podcasts, and with platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, videos have the potential to pull in a countless number of views. This means both podcasts and videos have become ideal mediums for marketing campaigns, and copywriters will have to grow more accustomed to writing scripts for both.
One trend that does seem to be rather popular amongst consumers that also breaks the mold created by today’s fast-paced media is that there’s a current trend toward users wanting long-form content. Whatever medium that content comes in—writing, video, podcast, etc—doesn’t matter, but users want to feel as if whatever they’re doing is worth their time. Consumers are starting to place more value on content that gives them rich information and removes the need for them to go to several different websites just to get what they want. This means that any copywriting that takes place off social media should cater toward longer content that a consumer will appreciate for its in-depth and informative nature.
While there are many different copywriting trends today that point in the different directions of advertising copywriting, it’s clear that most trends come from or relate to technology. Creating marketing campaigns for print media is all but obsolete. It still happens but it’s no longer the money maker. The trends that consumers are searching for, instead, revolve almost entirely around the growing modern technology that will only become more important as time goes on.
