As a digital copywriter, you know how important it is to craft engaging and persuasive words for your audience. But how do you make sure your copy aligns with the design and branding of your project? How do you collaborate with designers to create a cohesive and consistent user experience? In this article, we'll share some tips and best practices to help you match copy to design and branding.
Before you start writing, you need to understand the purpose and objectives of the project, as well as the needs and preferences of the target audience. What are you trying to achieve with your copy? What are the key messages and benefits you want to convey? Who are you writing for and what are their pain points, motivations, and expectations? By answering these questions, you can create a clear and relevant copy strategy that supports the design and branding goals.
Before I set my writing goals, what I find useful is to follow these steps: - First have brain storm session with a client and understand how they want their brand to be represented or is there a default way they have always represented themselves -- Now have a brainstorming session with the designers to tell what you want to put on your copy and whether it aligns well with the design outcome [ As in some cases when you have projects that require you to map out user journey, you can never start without understanding the perspectives and expectations of all the stakeholders involved. I personally believe that it's better to ensure all stakeholders are working towards the same goals than starting on your own.
I usually start with key points I want to emphasize and then develop copy that would flow synergically with the design. Other times, there are ideas that just spark out by looking at the design itself. Creativity and logic should be combined together to achieve copy that is engaging yet right on target.
Every brand has its own identity, personality, and voice that sets it apart from the competition. As a copywriter, you need to follow the brand guidelines and tone of voice to ensure your copy reflects the brand's values, attributes, and emotions. The brand guidelines usually include elements such as the logo, color palette, typography, imagery, and icons, as well as the style, tone, and voice of the copy. By adhering to these guidelines, you can create a consistent and recognizable brand image across all touchpoints.
I like playing with words by finding rhymes which would go cohesively for short copy that need big attention from audiences. I sometime try to find unique word as a bait for brand that needs to be remembered in people's head and collaborate it with designers to highlight the word.
One of the key aspects of matching copy to design and branding is to communicate and coordinate with the designers throughout the project. You need to establish a mutual understanding of the project goals, audience, and brand guidelines, as well as the scope, timeline, and deliverables. You also need to share feedback, ideas, and suggestions to improve the copy and design elements. By working together as a team, you can create a seamless and harmonious user experience that combines words and visuals.
Based on guidelines, I do sometimes let the designers do their work while I work on key points without discussing anything. When looking at designers work progress, I usually find more useful ideas to add to the already developing copy. This work vise versa with designers as they too can catch a glimpse of idea from the copy and could implement it on the design.
Another important aspect of matching copy to design and branding is to adapt your copy to the design layout and format. You need to consider how your copy will fit and flow within the design structure, such as the grid, hierarchy, spacing, alignment, and responsiveness. You also need to consider how your copy will look and sound on different devices, platforms, and channels, such as web, mobile, social media, and email. By adjusting your copy to the design layout and format, you can enhance the readability, usability, and accessibility of your content.
The key is being flexible and recognising copy must serve the design, not vice versa. Content is King but meeting visual needs ultimately enhances user experience. Nobody will stay on the website to read the creative copy unless it is aesthetic enough to make them stay.
Finally, you need to test and optimize your copy and design to ensure they work well together and achieve the desired results. You need to evaluate how your copy and design perform in terms of metrics such as conversions, engagement, retention, and satisfaction. You also need to solicit feedback from users, clients, and stakeholders to identify any issues, gaps, or opportunities for improvement. By testing and optimizing your copy and design, you can ensure they deliver a positive and memorable user experience.
To ensure optimal performance one needs to continually refine and improve copy and design based on real user behaviour and feedback. And, this could be from real-time user testing or probably cues from web analytics. Always depends on what is your "success metrics".
When in doubt, you can always go back to the positioning statement of that product or service, assuming there is one. Ideally, branding and design decisions would have been made in line with that core decision, which has overarching implications to any kind of message, be it graphic or text. Just as branding and design should branch out of positioning (and core messaging), so should any copywriting. So, it could even be misleading to think of "matching" copy to branding and design or the other way around. It's more like branding and copy are a progression from a common source: the product or service position. And if there has been no consideration of that aspect, then design and copy are the least of your problems.