Communication Strategy, Content Strategy, and Copywriting Explained
Make your copy more effective, engaging, and creative by starting with strategy!
When you tackle a new copywriting assignment, how do you begin?
By saying yes to a two-sentence job order?
By reviewing a vaguely worded presentation deck?
By poring over pages and pages of technical information you have to “condense and beautify”?
While you could write something nice with just those materials, your copy probably wouldn’t get the results you or your client want.
The smart move would be to ask your client or boss for a proper briefing document, come up with a communication strategy and content strategy, then start copywriting.
Why you should have a communication strategy and content strategy before copywriting
If your campaign were a feast, your communication strategy would be the event theme, the content strategy would be the menu, and your copywriting would be the recipes. All very important in creating the best experience for your guests, aka the target market!
Today, we’ll go through the process of crafting a communication strategy, cascading it to your content strategy, and then turning those strategic directions into creative copywriting.
What a communication strategy is and how to create one
A communication strategy is the foundation you’ll use to get your message across to your target market. It typically consists of your target market, key message, tagline, and communication channels.
Your communication strategy matters because it will be the basis of all your communication plans - if you’ll use email or social media or both, if you’ll have a formal tone or a casual vibe, if you’ll focus on price or features, etc.
To come up with your communication strategy, you’ll need to do the following:
Research the brand for a full picture of what it can and can’t offer.
Ex. Aurora Bakeries - a Philippine bread brand made with ingredients from Philippine farms; they have sliced bread, buns, and local pastries; available in supermarkets and convenience stores; its convenience store price is more affordable than its competitors
Research the target market. What are their goals related to the brand? What are their pain points and gain points when considering that product or service? What communication channels do they interact with? What’s a day in their life like?
Ex. Persona 1: A millennial mom looking for breakfast food and snacks for her kids - she wants readily-available, affordable, and easy-to-eat goods
Persona 2: A busy Gen Z office worker looking for food to tide him over for the afternoon, possibly even for dinner; he usually satisfies his hunger with what he finds at the local convenience store
Research the industry and competitors. Where are similar brands communicating with the audience? What messages, taglines, and materials are they putting out there? What are the price points and features they have to offer?
Ex. Competitor A is a well-established bread brand that prides itself on its heritage; generations of Filipinos know this biscuit
Competitor B is a fairly new foreign brand that markets itself as premium yet affordable
Next, synthesize all these insights. Identify how your brand can stand out based on gaps in the market.
Ex. Aurora Bakeries isn’t the only Filipino brand, but it can market itself as proudly Pinoy.
Then, come up with a key message. This has to be clear, not clever. This will be the heart of what you want to say throughout the campaign. Every caption, video, and subject line has to go back to this key message.
Ex. Aurora Bakeries is the bread brand that truly knows and understands the Filipino struggle.
Once you’ve nailed the key message, it’s time to come up with your tagline or big idea (I use these two interchangeably). Here, you can be as clear or as clever as you want. But, clarity is preferable if the brand is new.
Ex. Aurora Bakeries: Tinapay ng Tunay na Pinoy!
Aurora Bakeries: Pan de Pinoy
Aurora Bakeries: Pinoy Pride in Every Bite
Bonus: It might not be completely up to you as a copywriter, but you can suggest channels that are relevant to your market. These also make up part of the communication strategy.
How to turn a communication strategy into a content strategy
Once your communication strategy is approved, it’s time to turn those broad strokes into chunks of actionable steps. Your content strategy consists of a content framework, content pillars and later on, a content calendar. Here’s how to come up with these components:
Identify your content framework. Some common content frameworks are Hero-Hub-Hygiene, Capture-Convince-Convert-Commit, and TikTok’s Flicker-Flash-Flare.
Ex. Since Aurora Bakeries is a new brand, we can use the Capture-Convince-Convert-Commit framework.
Capture - through engaging content
Convince - through reasons to believe, such as pricing, availability, Filipino identity
Convert - push to nearby stores, drive sales during key moments like payday, back to school
Commit - reshare user-generated content to foster loyalty
Identify your content pillars (also called content buckets) based on the topics that are relevant to your target market. Usually a campaign will have 3-5 content pillars - enough to add variety to your posts, but not so much that it’s hard to sustain each one.
Ex. Aurora Bakeries can have the following content pillars:
Proudly Pinoy (everything to do with Pinoy culture and how Aurora Bakeries understands the Filipino story; can include pop culture and memes)
Almusal Atbp. “Breakfast Etc.” (recipe ideas)
Get That Bread (push to buy content)
Lastly, come up with your content calendar. Depending on client’s asks and your internal team’s timings, it’ll be up to you to decide what topics to roll out on Week 1, Week 2, etc. Usually, campaigns start with a Key Visual or Hero Video release on Week 1, followed by organic/boosted content in the following weeks. Pushes to buy can be posted around payday. Consider as well any holidays or trends you can piggyback on for your content.
Bringing creativity to your comms with copywriting
Once all the planning is done and approved, you can start writing copy!
These are the bite-sized tasks that’ll make up your campaign: social media posts, paid ads, videos, EDMs, and articles.
What’s great about starting with a strategy before getting to this point is that every single social media caption, article, video script, and email subject line will be rooted in something way, way deeper than just a job order or client ask.
Now, you have tons of stock knowledge and research on your brand, audience, and industry that’ll help you improve your copywriting. Isn’t that amazing? 😊
Do you have any questions about communication strategy, content strategy, and copywriting? Ask away in the comments below. And if you haven’t yet, please answer this survey so that I can make Buhay Copywriter even better for you. Thank you for reading! 💜