The Latest Copywriting Trends In 2023

The world of digital marketing is always changing. With that said, your approach to copywriting needs to be adaptable.

Some trends continue to be timeless, while some arise to change the art.

By staying up-to-date positions your business to cut the competition.

Let’s take a dive into the latest copywriting trends to stay on top of your writing.

Conversational Copywriting

It’s essential for every business to convey their points across in the easiest manner. That means writing copy that is relatable and resonates to their readers’ language. Because, who doesn’t love listening to a conversation over coffee.

Now, that doesn’t mean to write informal copy to give an unprofessional feel. That’s tacky and serves no purpose but to turn off your readers. Rather, conversational copy makes it easier for your readers to interpret your message.

Imagine yourself catching up with a long-time friend at lunch. The chat exchanged is conversational, rapport that makes you want to lean in closer. That’s how copy should be: engaging and alluring to your readers.

What conversational copy is:

• Concise and direct sentences
• Free of grammar and spelling errors
• Written using smilies and metaphors
• Simple, yet informative
• Written using broken senteces
• Readable copy for anyone to comprehend
• Relatable to readers
• Engaging to keep your readers prompt action
• Written with contractions (ex. aren’t, cant, that’s, let’s, you’ll)
• Personal with a sense of humor and personality
• Focused on your readers in solving their needs and goals
• Written in active voice
• Serves the purpose of converting your readers

What conversational copy is not:

• Technical language
• Written in passive voice
• Complex words that confuse your readers
• Written using slang or jargon terminology
• Thorough sentences that make it sound too formal
• Copy that sounds robotic
• Written in third person
• Hard to read for any comprehension level
• Wordy with run-on senteces

When writing conversational copy, imagine yourself conversing with the reader one-to-one. Remember not to be too formal or write copy, so get straight to the point. Finally, conversational copy does not give you the right to be unprofessional.

The point is to talk using your reader’s language. Once implemented, you’ll find your readers resonate with your copy better.

Chatbots

The demand for chatbots is on the rise.

In fact, the chatbot market forecasts to reach USD $10.08 billion by 2026.

The artificial intelligence-based software communicates with your customers through an automated script copy.

Soon we will potentially see real human customer service representatives replaced by these smart robots.

Why?

The newest generation of chatbots is well-equipped with conversational language-based processing and tonality.

Chatbots are the face of your business when your customers need your help outside of regular business hours.

Consider the plethora of benefits chatbots offer to your business:

• Automation of repetitive tasks and queries.
• Provide customer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no interruption.
• Increase customer satisfaction and retention.
• Save money and energy by reducing customer support costs and manpower.
• Diversify global support with chatbot script written in any language.
• Opening of new sales channels.
• Positive user experience.
• Effectively assist users with the information they need.

Tips On How To Write for chatbots

• Use one-on-one conversational copywriting.
• Give your users time to respond and comprehend your script.
• Keep your scripts short, concise, but informative, and helpful.
• Use emojis to keep the conversation engaging.
• Brainstorm various questions and responses your users may have by creating flowcharts.
• Test, analyze, revisit, and update your script on a regular basis.

The potential for chatbots is powerful with the advancement of technology.

This leads us to our next topic of artificial intelligence-based bots, voice search.

Voice search

Like chatbots, voice search is also on the rise.

Times are changing. More than ever, there are many ways to search for information.

And that includes voice search. With the voice search software embedded in smart devices like speakers or phones, users can prompt queries vocally.

Data from Google reports that just below 30% of mobile users use voice search.

Examples of prompts presented to users include:

• News updates
• Weather updates
• Play music
• Read email
• Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices such as lights, televisions, appliances, etc.

Tips On How To Write for voice search

• Use natural, conversational language in your voice prompts.
• Optimize your queries for mobile-responsive devices.
• The speed of conversation should mirror your users.
• Include local SEO enabled searches in your script.
• Get a grip on queries using long-tail keywords.

The future lies in the use and demand for voice-enabled searches. Voice searches are handy (no pun intended), when your users simply can’t or want to type on their devices.

Irresistible headlines

Headlines aren’t going anywhere. Anytime soon at least.

Headlines are arguably the most important piece to effective copywriting that sells. What good is your copy without a headline that possesses high-value click-potential? After all, it’s the very first element your readers see to make a decision to move forward or not.

Headlines are the essence of what makes or breaks your conversions.

Why are headlines important?

The 80/20 rule.

Headlines are important that only about 80% of readers read the headline, the remaining 20% scan the content.

That’s right, people even scan headlines, searching for the best that resonates with them. We’re not talking about high-quality blog posts, articles, or copy that converts. We’re talking about the simple string of words your reader may bypass for the content you’ve spent weeks writing.

Put it this way.

People are lazy in this day and age. We only seek what matters most to us and move on only to repeat the same process. We are scavengers, greedy for information that values our lives. Which is why your headline should matter the most.

It makes sense. We live in a world full of constant bombarding of information where 24 hours in a day isn’t enough anymore.

Tips on how to write a headline

• Target and implement the keyword phrase you want to rank for.
• Numbers and factual data sell, leading to more clicks.
• Use power words to evoke emotion from your audience.
• Illicit a sense of fear, scarcity, or urgency using emotional copywriting.
• Present the values and benefits. Give your readers a reason to click your headline.
• Keep your headline character count from 50-55 characters for search engines.
• Your first headline won’t be your last. Brainstorm a list of many headlines. Test and analyze what’s working. Update as needed.

What not to do when writing headlines

Clickbait headlines – Just. Don’t. Do. It.

For clarification purposes, again. Do not exercise writing clickbait headlines.

You’re asking for a recipe for disaster for turning loyal followers to resentful ones.

It’s displeasing.

It’s misleading.

And, makes you look desperate.

Imagine clicking on a headline promising something significant and being underwhelmed by lousy content. Psychologically, what clickbait headlines do to your readers is hardwire negative associations through cognitive dissonance.

You can learn more about effective headline copywriting that sells in this post.

The demand for chatbots is on the rise.

Storytelling

How else will you capture your reader’s attention? Biologically, humans love stories. It’s why we can date back to history and see cave-paintings, or why we gather around a fire-pit with popcorn.

Stories have the power to touch us in ways that drive our minds and emotions. Therefore storytelling through your copy adds depth to your content in prompting action in your readers.

With storytelling, this means your copy has to be:

• Captivating
• Personal
• Simple
• Relevant
• Conversational

More content

In this digital world, websites and blogs are popping out bunnies like no other. Technology makes it easier for copywriters to work anywhere from home or in the world. All with a simple laptop and an internet connection.

Statistics show there are over 1.7 billion websites and over 600 million blogs in the world today.

That means more competition.

How do you stand out and be relevant in a sea full of fish?

More content!

This is why hiring a copywriter is a smart move for your business to save you time writing more blog posts. When you hire a copywriter, you have time to focus on other important areas of your business.

What does content that converts consist of?

• Long-form copy that engages your readers. The more information your visitors read, the more value it adds to their needs. Long-form copy also correlates to higher rankings.
• Readable, conversational, and straight to the point copy.
• Copy optimized for SEO. How else will you convert your readers if they can’t find your valuable content?
• Headlines that convert like crazy. After all, headlines are the first piece of words your readers see. If they don’t click your headlines, they won’t see your content.
• No one wants to read copy full of spelling and grammar errors.
• Evergreen content that is timeless, yet valuable to your readers.

Content like blog posts is a must for any business who want to drive more traffic to their webpage.

Readability

Readability is the ability for your viewers to comprehend your content.

When your content is difficult to read, this results in higher bounce rates, frustrated visitors, and lower conversions.

While this may seem like common sense, readability is often overlooked.

Factors that influence readability

• Length of sentences – character and word count.
• Length of paragraphs – character and word count.
• Quantity of syllables per word.
• Usage of headings and subheadings.
• UX and UI design.
• Content-rich media: images, videos, graphs, etc.
• Word complexity and simple language.
• Organization and bullet points.
• The tone of voice: passive versus active voice.
• Discoverability and SEO.
• Formatting and alignment.
• Typography, color contrast, font-weight, white space.

Tips on how to improve readability for your copy

• Make things short as much as possible, yet still informative and valuable to your readers.
• Write in the language your reader resonates with.
• Use headings effectively in structuring your content.
• A lot of visual aspect like design goes into the art of copy.
• Write your sales copy in active voice. No one wants to read sales copy written in passive voice. Passive voice sounds too formal.

Search engine optimization

In the sea of competition, how else will your readers find your content?

For as long search engines exist, writing for SEO isn’t going anywhere.

And search engines like Google are here to stay… for a very long time.

How is SEO copywriting different from traditional copywriting?

Not all content is created equal, nor has the same goals. As search engines get smarter, these databases filter content worthy of showing to users. Therefore, it’s imperative to stand out by making your content discoverable.

Writing for SEO involves keywords that trigger signals search engines to rank for.

If you’re curious to why:

• Your content has low organic traffic
• Your conversions are lackluster
• You have no backlinks directed to your page

Then, you need to hop on optimizing your content for SEO.

Emojis😲

Who would have thought?

Like it or not, emojis have made their spot in the world of communication.

Emojis may not be words or text. But the goal of effective copy that sells is to communicate your message in the most engaging way.

These captivating illustrations are nothing new, but without a doubt are trending for good reason. Because they work.

Let’s be real, who doesn’t use them when we text?

Here are reasons why you should use emojis in your copy:

Benefits of using emojis

• Provides an eye-catching reading experience
• Portrays emotion to engage your readers
• Coveys emotion without the use of words
• Increases click-through rates
• Adds excitement to your copy
• They don’t use much space

We react to emojis in a different manner as opposed to text. After all, a colored circle with a facial expression conveys more emotion than a word alone.

Let’s say you’re looking at a page full of text. Your eyes go straight to the colored facial expression because it sticks out.

What’s great is, businesses have the power to leverage their brand image using a wide array of options.

How to use emojis:

• Sparingly
• Quick replies
• At the end a sentence
• To be concise or direct
• To compliment a statement

When used efficiently, emojis have to power to bring life into your copy. Your readers are more likely to be engaged.

Copywriting trends and beyond for this year

So what are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with these copywriting trends?

Was anything missed? What are copywriting trends you have noticed?

Share your thoughts below!