Does anyone actually read copy?

We’re constantly told how short attention spans are these days. So does anyone actually read copy anymore? Or are we just filling space for the Google crawler bots?

It’s a valid question, and certainly in our multiscreen, multimedia, multiverse age there’s a lot of content to compete with. We take it as a challenge. Copy needs to work harder and be just, better to cut through. Because, let’s face it – we’re all becoming less tolerant of crap.

A question of quality

No one wants to read bad or boring copy. It’s very easy to spot copy written just to fill space where it kind of drags on and on without saying much and is far longer than it really needs to be but is probably hitting some keywords or something who knows really and no one actually cares and will this do?

It’s also relatively easy (although this may change) to distinguish AI-generated text from original flavour human copy. There’s a certain coldness and lack of human warmth. It may be correct but it tends to lack nuance, wit, or sense of lived experience – never having actually lived.

So, whoever wrote it, human or machine, and wherever it’s published, will it be read? Well, this is where the machines actually help.

The perfect blend

Copy that gets read is a perfect blend of SEO-friendliness and craft. (Pardon the pun.) SEO doesn’t have to mean a soulless churning out of keywords and phrases. At its best, it’s simply a recognition of the needs and interests of your target audience. It’s deferential, respectful, helpful, and relevant. In other words, customer friendly.

Craft is much harder to come by. Copywriting is a carefully honed skill that combines attention-grabbing and entertainment with sales, and pushes the reader toward action.

It’s hard to get right and incredibly easy to get wrong. Just think how many times you’ve rolled your eyes at a crude piece of marketing or an overblown claim of ‘leadership’, ‘quality’, or ‘best prices’. Or some clickbait that promises ‘celebrity photo number 5 will BLOW YOUR MIND!’

The stats don’t lie

In this age of digital metrics, there’s no excuse for writing copy that isn’t read. You can see which web pages are visited, and – crucially – for how long. If readers are spending four seconds on a 1000-word page, something’s awry.

Some would say the answer is to be snappy. People don’t have time to wade through text, the argument goes. Just spell it out in bullet points:

Bish
Bash
Bosh

But they’re wrong.

Charming rather than barking

In certain settings, readers want to be charmed, seduced, and taken on a journey. Not barked at with a shopping list of features. Sure, if you’re in a Carphone Warehouse, assessing which mobile to buy, you just want the facts.

But your feelings about whether you want a Samsung or a Google or an iPhone are subtly formed by what you’ve been exposed to long before. This is where psychology comes into play, and of course, copy.

Often it’s hard to know why we just feel more comfortable with one brand over another, but it’s often to do with tone. If a brand ‘gets’ you and your life, you warm to it, and that affinity will carry over into the store.

It means that if two handsets have almost identical features, you might pay a small premium for the one you feel you know and trust more. We humans are like that.

Long form is long lived

Also, the idea that no one reads copy is to ignore the world around us. There may have been a time when it was easy to argue that the world was all about images on screens: TV, video games, films, streaming. But longer form content never went away.

Look at how paper books are still preferred by most people over Kindles and the like. People enjoy the physicality and immersion of reading, and publishers have found increasingly clever ways to hook them in with long series of book sequels, celebrity authors, and covers that clearly flag a genre (“if you liked that, you’ll love this”). As well as beautifully designed collector editions of classics.

People are still reading. On the beach, on the train, on the bus, in bed, at the park, and even walking down the street (“mind that lamppost!”).

An appetite for quality

The appetite is there for quality writing in all its forms, and our job as professional copywriters is to meet it with words that not only sell but engage. That are not only noticed but liked. That are not only enjoyed but inspire action.

So if your brand needs copy that sells, engages, gets noticed, is liked and enjoyed and inspires action, get in touch. We’d love to help.