Have you ever read an email, article or website that felt like the author was speaking to you and only you, like they already knew your hopes, dreams, fears and struggles?
That is what good content and copywriting is.
It is how you want your clients and customers to feel reading YOUR written copy. If they feel connected and that you can understand and help them, they will spend more time learning about you and what you have to offer. If they don’t feel heard or seen, they disconnect and move on.
Why Authenticity Matters
Building relationships in business at its fundamental level is a human endeavour. You will use technology to varying degrees to offer your products and services, but people want to connect with businesses that have that human touch. This is where authenticity comes in. Absolutely use AI and other forms of technology to innovate, reduce costs and make systems and processes more efficient, faster and less burdensome, but don’t lose sight of building a relationship with your customer.
Being authentic = being you
The same goes for your writing. Don’t try and be someone you’re not, by using fancy language or fitting yourself in a box thinking you have to sound like a popular influencer or formal textbook. Instead, connect with your readers, let them know you are real, hear them, see them, what they need and that you offer solutions to help.
There is so much information online for business owners to sift through to find connections and get answers to their business problems. The right people will find you when you let your voice shine. Using templates and AI can help immensely to make your marketing processes easier, but in the end, don’t let it detract from your voice. If a generic template or format doesn’t feel right, then it isn’t for you, discard it, create your own, get help or look for other options that fit you.
Writing Connects Your Business With It’s Customers
Writing for many small business owners can create a lot of fear, stress and frustration, yet the written marketing copy and content is a very important aspect of connecting with your audience. In your business, there are multiple forms of communication used daily. Video, phonecalls, texting, chatboxes, emails, blogs, newsletters, websites to name a few forms. All involve words spoken or written to varying degrees. Words help create your brand and your culture – when expressed authentically, honestly and with transparency, your audience will find you irresistible! Pair that with an excellent product and service and you have the recipe for revenue growth.
Next, let’s look at how to connect with your audience and what strategies you can use to find your authentic self in your writing.
How To Connect With Your Readers
- Through AUTHENTICITY
- Knowing your audience (not just thinking you do, but doing the groundwork to learn, respect and truly understand who those people and businesses are)
- Very good to excellent copy and content designed for your audience
- Providing value and standing by your promises
The following strategies will focus on point #1 – AUTHENTICITY and how you can build it into your written content.
5 Strategies for Authenticity in Your Writing
1. Just Be You
This is by far the most valuable business advice for writing and running a business, you will ever receive.
I will say it again, Just Be You. We show up each day in life one foot in front of the other to build our companies, love our families, be of service, and get curious about what inspires us. This does not happen if we are comparing ourselves to others, being critical of what we accomplish, stress over others’ opinions, and let self doubt creep in. Writing can be a vulnerable space to be in. Take a deep breath, know the world needs your unique voice and infuse your writing with you.
How to Find Your Voice
Now, if you strongly dislike writing, are time-strapped, or are stressed and strained, and panic at a blank page, you may be saying, “Lisa, don’t waste my time, how am I supposed to write authentically when I have trouble writing in the first place!”
Here is how. Write like you talk. If you need to, do an audio recording on your phone and use a transcriber app. That is your voice. Write in a journal, talk to a friend, ask for their feedback – this is where you will see your voice naturally, without the pressure of written presentation.
Ask yourself, what matters to you? What do you get excited talking about (words will flow freely here), what are you curious about, scared, worried about, or frustrated about? Your emotions will give you language and help you speak.
What I see happen (often to shy, nervous, introverted business owners, very technical or academic business owners) is they lose their voice and go textbook, industry jargon, or try and sound like someone they are not. Paired with not understanding marketing best practices, it is a recipe for struggle. Therefore it is important to practice, breathe, and voice your thoughts and ideas as you, not someone else.
Granted different forms of writing will allow for more or less personality to shine through, but marketing copy needs to be your voice and personality. Emails, blogs and newsletters, videos, websites, lead pages and other sales copy are your marketing tools.
Perfectionism and Fears of Publishing
Before you fret and say “I can’t post that, it isn’t good enough!”. The world doesn’t need perfect writers—it needs real ones. Have a friend or colleague read it and give you feedback, or if on your own, run it through ChatGPT to give you feedback, not rewrite it and instruct the AI to “keep the writer’s voice, tone and style”. Sometimes this works, other times ChatGPT will pop up something polished, cheesy and fancy that does NOT sound like you. Make sure you keep it real. AI is there to serve you, not to have you fall into a trap thinking you’ll never be able to write good copy.
Remember
- Your writing voice is simply you on the page.
- Readers connect more with your personality than with perfect words.
- Don’t worry about perfection – feel who you are shine through in your writing.
- Good copy, and exploring using your voice takes time and practice. Ask for help if you need it.
2. Write With Honesty and Openness
Share Real Stories
The most powerful writing will come from YOUR thoughts, experiences, ideas and skillsets. Being open (but still professional) will help others relate to you. You have wisdom, knowledge, and experience that drives your business ideas, services and products. There are stories linked to all of these – it is part of the rich history you have lived. Brainstorm, include a few, keep on writing.
Let Go of the Need to Please Everyone
Not everyone will agree with you, and that’s okay. Writers spend a lot of time on marketing copy that readers may skim for 15 seconds or less on a page. Hence why you don’t knock yourself out with non-stop perfectionism, but you keep it real and authentic. You learn marketing tactics, and you monitor analytics to learn your audience’s needs and wants. Ultimately, you want the people you can help to stick and read more. They are going to be the ones to buy.
Writing copy for your audience means you want to reach them, but not appease everyone. The people you want to work with and feel good working with will resonate with your message when it is real and audience-focused.
3. Keep Your Writing Warm and Conversational
Write Like You’re Talking to a Friend
As mentioned above, your authenticity is the real you, and to bring your voice into your writing, you are speaking to humans, people you want to connect with. As long as it is kept audience-centered, clear, professional and genuine you are good to go. You will keep getting better at it the more you practice.
Keep language simple
Lose the jargon, and overly complex words, write for a 10th grader (or younger), depending on your audience in marketing. No matter how intelligent and technical your audience, people like clear, simple, attractive, and familiar language to feel engaged. Your reader will be able to quickly understand what you are saying and not have to study it like a manual. Unless it is a technical research paper (which generally content marketing is not), keep it conversational. The best writing is easy to read – basic fonts, good size, well laid out.
4. Let Your Passion and Personality Shine Through
Write About What You are Passionate About
Passion is contagious—if you care, your readers will too. Even “simple” topics can be engaging when written with enthusiasm. If you aren’t interested in a topic, it will be a challenge to get your reader engaged. For example, if you love flying kites and teach readers how, your writing will be authentic – the words you use, and excitement can’t be faked when you love what you do.
Express Yourself in a Way That Feels Right to You
Storytelling, humour, and sharing what you are learning helps people on their own journey. You never know when one phrase, one story or one insight can shift someone’s day. You get to decide what you write. If you are a private person who doesn’t like to share, start out small and as you get more comfortable you can share more. Stepping out of your comfort zone can come in stages, and it needs to feel like the right direction for you.
5. Connect Genuinely With Your Audience
Know Who You’re Writing For
As mentioned earlier in the article, imagine writing for one specific person who needs your message. Talk to them like you are having a conversation, you are listening to what their needs are and answering with information and solutions to their problems. You can share examples, experiences and stories that resonate with that audience. For example, a preschool teacher needing ideas for educational toys for their classroom will be a different conversation than a corporate leader looking for help to improve team morale.
A little empathy goes a long way—meet your readers where they are. Get a feel for what your audience needs. Are they overwhelmed? They won’t want a list of 100 things they could try. Are they bored and need motivation? They may need a pep talk, and clear steps on how to clear their head and productivity tips to try. Are they beginners or advanced learners? Don’t talk over your audience. Lift them up, challenge them to grow from where they are at.
Invite Engagement and Conversation
Ask questions and encourage responses to create a dialogue. This works best on social media, but you can definitely have a replies section on email sequences and blogs. YouTube, Slack groups, LinkedIn, and Instagram are a few examples of comment exchanges and conversation.
Authentic writing isn’t just about sharing—it’s about connecting. Knowing your audience, looking at what you have to share, what common ground you have between you. Have fun, and be a bright light in your reader’s world. Remember, in your mind, write to a single person as you build your marketing content and share your writing with your audience. Write with warmth and sincerity, and your words will resonate.
Embrace Your Authenticity, One Word at a Time
Building authenticity into your writing is simply about being yourself. The more you practice, the easier and more natural it will become. You will connect with your audience when you are genuine, warm, and passionate about what you do and how you can help people. It really does take practice, especially if you get nervous or feel like your writing isn’t good enough. Remember your writing is more than good enough because you wrote it. Writing authentically isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being real.
Ready to start writing but need help from an experienced copywriter to advise and help you write better copy?
Reach out today and I can guide and encourage you in your business writing, from how to’s, copyediting, to taking writing off your plate.
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