Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Writing

Marketing communications is one of the most important aspects of any business. Even if you have the best lineup of products or services in the market, it would be hard to get abundant sales without a sound communication strategy and tactics in place. Marketing writing is one of the most common techniques used to encourage publicity about a brand or its particular offerings. What is it, and how can you best utilize it for your business? Read on to find out.

The Basics of Marketing

When discussing marketing, one of the most important things to clarify is the difference between communication strategy and tactics. 

Communication strategy paints the goal of the marketing endeavors you’re doing. Are your marketing efforts aimed at introducing a new product to prospects? Or is it to increase sales and widen your brand’s community of supporters?

Communication tactics, on the other hand, are the specific actions you take to carry out your strategy. What specific communication tools will you use to reach out to your prospects and get them on board?

For many businesses, written pieces are the best way to get through to their target audience. The most commonly used venues for the written word are website blogs, third-party websites, and social media. Also, other types of online and offline platforms are good choices.

Common Types of Marketing Writing

Here are the common types of marketing that use the written word. Take a look at each type and its example to discern which of these apply to your business strategy.

Content Marketing

One of the most significant types of marketing that maximizes the use of today’s information superhighway is content marketing.

At its very core, content marketing is the creation of valuable and relevant content aimed at catching and sustaining the attention of a business’s target audience.

Content marketing isn’t only limited to written works, such as blog posts. It could also be in the form of videos, photos, and other types of traditional and new media. 

Yogi Tea, an organic herbal tea brand targeting the health and wellness niche, shows how content marketing can provide useful information to its community.

The brand’s blog features posts about meditation as well as other relaxation and mindfulness techniques. The blog also has recipes that require their tea variants. By focusing on providing valuable content, the blog makes the brand relevant and turns it into a symbol for self-care.

Article Marketing

Akin to content marketing, article marketing incorporates a brand’s product or services into valuable content. However, instead of producing a piece of content on a brand’s website, article marketing involves having a piece published on a third-party platform, such as a magazine website.

This Forbes article, for example, features a list of the best affordable eye creams on the market. The article provided seven product brands, describing the benefits of each. 

The article also included “Shop Now” links that allowed readers to automatically go to the product’s ecommerce page to purchase. 

According to the disclaimer on top of the article, the story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds, the magazine’s shopping service arm. “If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale,” the disclaimer states.

Social Media Marketing

Some marketers consider social media marketing equal to content marketing. However, the vast reach and usage of online public networks have pushed many businesses to create a separate department dedicated to it.

Some may not consider social media captions as marketing writing. However, creating engaging posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat is a lot more complicated than it looks on the surface.  

Brands should consider several factors such as post frequency and timing to maximize the power of social media. 

When it comes to ventures utilizing social media platforms for brand awareness, National Geographic seems to know what it’s doing.

With a whopping 117 million followers on Instagram, it is one of the most followed brand accounts on the platform. Its regular posts typically show photos that explore nature, culture, and geography.

Paid Advertising

Traditionally, paid advertising pertains to those brands’ place on television, radio, newspapers, and billboards. In today’s world of online shopping, advertising in social media has proven to be a useful tool for any venture — be it a startup or a centuries-old business.

Out of the available social media channels, Facebook has arguably become the most crucial advertising platform over the past few years. Hundreds of available courses focusing on placing effective Facebook Ads only prove the enormous potential of the platform in helping a brand grow.

Because Facebook Ads can specifically target audiences, it could be the best choice for businesses who are looking at a very particular audience to market their offerings.

Starbucks Indonesia, for example, managed to increase its sales and brand awareness through Facebook Ads. 

A report released by Facebook Business stated how the coffee house franchise released carousel-format video ads optimized for mobile to reach millennial audiences. The ads that ran simultaneously on Facebook and Instagram proved to be a worthy investment, lifting purchase intent for the brand’s beverages by 4.9 points.

Cause Marketing

Cause marketing pertains to having an inspirational, social, or charitable cause that comes with the brand. 

By letting the public know about a brand’s support for a cause through marketing writing, the brand tells customers that their efforts go beyond aiming for commercial success. 

Customers generally feel better about buying something from a brand that supports the same causes they advocate.

One good example of cause marketing and corporate social responsibility, in general, is Marc Jacobs’ contribution to SATO Project. 

The fashion label’s website describes the social project as, “…Dedicated to rescuing abandoned and abused dogs from Puerto Rico. They have rescued and rehabilitated over 1,400 dogs. They continue to work towards systemic change education and partnerships on the island.”

The project has publicity far well beyond the business’s website and social accounts. Several online platforms advocating animal rights have picked up the story and posted about it on their sites, expanding its publicity.