Write like you speak. What is conversational copywriting?
Write like you speak!
Make your content conversational!
If you’ve ever looked for business writing tips, you’ll have heard both of these phrases.
Maybe you’ve researched copywriting techniques and come across ideas like this:
“Copy is a direct conversation with the consumer.”
All good advice. Your website copy, emails and social media posts are conversation starters. Of course it makes sense to write in a style that feels like you are talking directly to potential clients. However, writing like you speak is not as simple as it sounds.
Speaking skills in class
As language educators, we know a lot about successful conversations. We help learners develop fluency and build micro skills to check understanding, rephrase, clarify, take turns and more.
We know how much of a challenge speaking can be for students too. In a conversation there is:
no real-time feedback from your listener,
no chance to repair or adjust your message,
only one opportunity to say what you mean.
Understanding these features are essential for speaking (inside and outside the classroom), but do they help us write for our businesses? I’d suggest there are better ways to do this.
Speaking skills in copy
To make your writing sound more like a conversation, focus on the following areas. They’re much easier to bring into to your writing than the features of conversation listed above.
Word choice
What words do you actually use? Your lexical choices also include how you say them. Take contractions for example. Common in conversation but in your content? There’s no reason not to use gonna or wanna if that’s how you speak to clients.
Clarity
Go for clarity over cleverness every time. Your writing is not a vocabulary extension activity where you might include less common language. Simple, clear texts help conversations start.
Density
Don’t overload your content with information. Walls of text and longer sentences will tax a reader, in the same way that monologues make listening hard. Shorter sentences and lists aid reading.
Jargon
Sometimes there is only one word or expression that says exactly what you mean. If that’s the case, and you know your audience understands, go for it. If you need to explain a term, reconsider it. Is it bringing anything to the conversation?
One person
You’re writing for your idea client not a general audience. So speak to them. Not just in terms of lexis and language. Talk about their emotions and feelings too. The best conversations are meaningful and that includes online ones.
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
Although Elmore was a novelist and screenwriter, this quote is relevant here. Educators often default into writing in a formal style with more academic language than our clients might use. Perhaps it feels more professional. Or maybe it’s the type of language we read in articles and journals. It feels safer and can be easier to write. However it won’t start a conversation.
To play on Leonard’s words, I’d say: If it sounds like academia, I add myself.
If your content reads like an ELT article, remind yourself how you speak and adapt your content to fit.
Five ways to sound conversational
These are my top tips for writing as we speak. Whether that’s on a website, in an email or blog or for social media:
Think of your writing as a one-sided dialogue. Predict the questions your readers might have and answer them within your content.
Give your FAQs a conversational feel by including real client questions and your answers. In conversation a listener ask questions to check understanding; on a website, they consult FAQs.
Use testimonials and samples to help readers understand what you are saying. These work as ‘rephrasing devices’, saying what you want to say with different words.
Build in pauses and thinking time with easy-to-read formatting and shorter sections. Walls of text are monologues, not conversations.
Finally, read your writing aloud before you post. If you struggle to breathe, a reader will too.
Sound like yourself
Conversational copy is about writing as we speak. And the most important thing to do is to sound like yourself. To sound like you are talking to that one reader. Doing this successfully means:
knowing what you want to say,
knowing who you are talking to.
If your ideal client is a professor of linguistics, then an academic style of writing is spot on. However, if you’re looking to get chatting with parents of eight- to twelve-year-old language learners, consider how you’d speak to them in real life.
Then write like that.
Stuck with your writing? Not sure what you want to say? Book an Unstuck Hour with me and we’ll get your words flowing together. A 1:1 sixty-minute call to get your writing back on track. Bookings open.
