Communication skills are essential for any digital copywriter, especially if you work remotely. Whether you are a freelancer, an agency employee, or an in-house staff, you need to communicate effectively with your clients, colleagues, and audience. In this article, you will learn some tips on how to improve your communication skills as a remote digital copywriter.
The first step to improve your communication skills is to know your audience. Who are you writing for? What are their needs, pain points, goals, and preferences? How do they consume your content? Knowing your audience will help you tailor your tone, style, and message to suit them. You can use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, surveys, and feedback forms to gather data about your audience. You can also create buyer personas or customer profiles to represent your ideal readers.
Writer | Publishing | MPub Student, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
I've always found it incredibly useful to really do your research. In order to communicate something properly, it is essential for your understanding of the subject to be crystal clear. Once you feel you have all the information you need, I suggest, you take notes - quickly jot down everything that stood out to you about what you learned and how it adds value. From this brain dump, it becomes that much easier to be clear with what you want to say. Then you write - make sure to include a few variations - and edit down to make it as impactful as it can be while holding onto the message you want to convey.
The only way to write copy that converts is to tailor it for your audience. If you write a complicated landing page for consumers who lack technical knowledge, you’ve wasted your time (and your client’s money)! If your audience is highly technical or qualified and you take on a simple approach, you fail to grab their attention. Always do your homework and plan accordingly.
Active Listening: Pay attention and engage in conversations. Clear Writing: Use simple, error-free language in your copy. Time Management: Stay organized to meet deadlines. Regular Updates: Keep clients and teams informed. Visuals: Use visuals to explain complex ideas. Tech Tools: Use collaboration tools effectively. Feedback: Ask for and act on feedback. Empathy: Understand others' perspectives. Self-awareness: Recognize and improve your weaknesses. Professional Development: Take courses to enhance skills. Cultural Sensitivity: Respect diverse norms. Video Calls: Use video for personal connections. Improving these skills will boost your effectiveness as a remote digital copywriter.
These are the many ways that I can Improve my Communication Skills 1. Clear and Concise Writing: As a copywriter, your writing should be a shining example of effective communication. 2. Professional Email Etiquette: Use professional and polite language in your emails. 3 Feedback Solicitation: After delivering a project, ask for feedback from your clients or team members. 4. Empathy: Understand the perspectives and needs of your clients and team members. 5. Self-Reflect: Regularly evaluate your own communication skills and look for areas where you can improve. 6. Networking: Connect with other copywriters and professionals in your industry.
To improve communication skills as a remote digital copywriter: Listen Actively: Pay close attention to client instructions and feedback. Clear Written Communication: Write emails and messages clearly and without errors. Empathy: Understand clients' goals and perspective. Communication Protocol: Agree on channels and response times. Regular Updates: Keep clients informed of progress. Feedback Receptivity: Be open to constructive criticism. Ask Insightful Questions: Clarify project details. Time Management: Meet deadlines and communicate issues early. Professional Development: Take communication and writing courses. Proofreading: Check for errors in written communication. Video Calls: Use video for a personal touch.
The next step is to choose the right channels to communicate with your audience and stakeholders. Depending on your type of work, you may use different platforms and tools to deliver your content, such as websites, blogs, social media, email, newsletters, podcasts, videos, or webinars. You may also use tools like Slack, Zoom, Skype, Google Docs, or Trello to collaborate with your clients, colleagues, or managers. You should choose the channels that best suit your purpose, audience, and budget. You should also be familiar with the features, functions, and etiquette of each channel.
Each platform is unique, the content style and length that wins on each platform is also unique and so is the type of audience present on each platform. When you do an initial research on your audience, it should include where they hang out online or are actively looking for answers. That way you can focus your efforts to get maximum results from each platform by choosing where to post and what to post. It saves costs and time wasted on avenues where your target audience is not present and you spend that budget on places where ROI is maximum and you see great results.
Every social media platform is unique and requires a different tone of voice that brands must be cautious of. The way that you would describe your products/services on TikTok will be different to Instagram which is different on Snap compared to Facebook etc. If you are unsure about the tone of voice that you should be using across different social media platforms that you are active on, consider A/B testing, keeping a close eye on results will enable you to better understand what works best.
Certainly, there are several helpful tools for boosting team productivity, and based on my knowledge, I'd suggest considering tools like ProofHub, Slack, and Trello.
One of the most important communication skills for a remote digital copywriter is writing clearly and concisely. Your content should be easy to read, understand, and act on. You should avoid jargon, slang, or unnecessary words that may confuse or bore your readers. You should use simple sentences, active voice, and transitional words to create a smooth flow of ideas. You should also use headings, subheadings, bullet points, lists, and images to break up your text and highlight your key points.
In a nutshell, people are busy, attention spans are shrinking. Write accordingly! Make your copy easy to scan, large blocks of texts make people scroll on to the next thing.
Consider each social media post that you publish having a business objective; are you hoping to generate engagements, drive traffic or increase video views for example? If trying to encourage audiences to purchase a good/service that you are providing you may use language such as 'Shop now', 'Buy now' or 'Explore today'. Using clear, action-orientated words will help to clearly and concisely communicate to your audience.
Another essential communication skill for a remote digital copywriter is proofreading and editing your content. You should always check your content for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors before you publish or send it. You should also review your content for clarity, consistency, accuracy, and relevance. You can use tools like Grammarly, Hemingway, or ProWritingAid to help you with proofreading and editing. You can also ask someone else to read your content and give you feedback.
Proofreading and editing is absolutely essential to ensuring you have a consistent brand voice, particularly when you have multiple writers contributing to social profiles. Additionally, it is important to have another pair of eyes on your work whenever possible. Sometimes, you become so familiar with your own writing that you skim over a typo or a misplaced comma. In addition, always be willing to proofread others' work as well!
A well-edited and error-free blog post not only enhances your professional image but also ensures your message is conveyed clearly to your readers, boosting your content's effectiveness and credibility.
In my experience relying too much on AI editors is not good. At the end of the day, tools like the Hemingway editor can’t see the style or beauty of a sentence, they just focus on reducing sentence length regardless to the context. I bet Hemingway himself wouldn’t approve of the app! Use these tools as an aid, and not the final verdict.
The final step to improve your communication skills is to seek feedback and improve. You should always be open to feedback from your audience, clients, colleagues, and managers. Feedback can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, learn from your mistakes, and improve your performance. You should ask for feedback regularly, listen carefully, and respond politely. You should also act on the feedback and implement the changes or suggestions that will enhance your communication skills.
There’s always room to improve as no one’s perfect no matter how many years you have in the field. Feedback can be directly expressed as comments on a post or sent by a client or it can be indirectly expressed by the audience in the form of appreciation or lack thereof. Be mindful of both to grow.
If you are unsure about the tone of voice that you should be using across different social media platforms that you are active on, consider A/B testing, keeping a close eye on results will enable you to better understand what works best. Always consider working with your team to ask for their personal feedback, would they propose alternative changes/phrases that could improve the overall communication? Additionally, consider reviewing your competitors - how is their communication performing? What could be learnt from them? What would you do differently? Often this can be a team-based activity to really ignite a conversation!
You can be a great copywriter but you might fail to communicate with your client on why they should hire you. The best way out is to constantly keep upskilling yourself by taking courses like public speaking, the art of communication etc. to clearly articulate your messages. This will not only help you socialise and network with potential clients and teammates but also help you craft better copies by understanding what is more effective than the other.