How Non-Strategists Can Do Brand, Audience, and Competitor Research to Fuel Their Creative Projects

Level up your copywriting by doing some research

Welcome to Buhay Copywriter by Regina Peralta! It’s wonderful to meet you.

This newsletter is my way of paying it forward and being the person I needed when I was a young(er) writer.

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Have you ever been faced with a copywriting task where you just felt so lost or stuck? Like, you get the objective of the material. You know what the brand is. You know who you’re supposed to talk to. But…where do you even start?

At one of my first jobs as a copywriter, the process at work was more of quick “insighting” by my creative director, then it was straight to team brainstorming for the big idea. We did win a few accounts using this approach, but little did I know that marketing people usually appreciated seeing a data-driven strategy alongside the feels-y, human-y big idea.

Luckily, some of my other employers were quite keen on strategy and data (which in turn made clients quite keen to get us). That’s why even as a copywriter, I’ve been trained to do research as pre-work waaaay before we get to tasks like crafting the big idea or thinking of creative executions.

Today, I want to share a bit about the importance of research in the copywriting process, how to do your own backyard research before writing, and what to do with the data you’ve collected.

Why is research important for copywriters?

When you research before you start writing, your campaigns will benefit from the following:

1. A Unique Value Proposition

   What does your brand have to offer that other brands lack, and is relevant to the audience? This is the unique value proposition or UVP. It’s something you can leverage your big idea on. But you can only discover the UVP by learning more about the brand, the audience, and the competition.

   For example, by going through Reddit and Facebook group comments, I might find that Filipino cordless vacuum users value long battery life and lightweight models. And if the brand I’m handling happens to have pretty good battery life, and no one else in the category is talking about battery life, I could say that my brand’s UVP is “Vacuum Brand A has long-lasting battery life, making vacuuming more convenient, even for those with intense clean-up tasks.”

2. Relevant Messaging

   With research to point you in the direction of what the audience wants and what the competition is already saying, it’ll be easier for you to figure out what to say and how to say it. Or at least, you can avoid coming up with redundant copy! You can also use a positioning strategy to see where the competitors stand, and figure out what features and benefits your brand should focus on.

   Here’s another example. Say you’re working on a canned tuna brand. And everyone in the canned tuna category is already talking about value for money, price, big chunks or flakes. Which makes sense, since the audience is mostly in it for the affordability. But what if you focused on something else — like how it’s a healthy yet affordable choice? Or that there are a lot of flavors available? Or that it’s a versatile ingredient for all sorts of recipes? Doing your research can help you come up with the best messaging for your brand.

3. Relevant Executions

   While your client brief may already have prescribed executions and channels (e.g. 30-seconder digital hero video, 2 album posts, 3 GIFs; Facebook and Instagram only), it’s always good to suggest ways to better deliver your message. Your client will also appreciate the additional insights.

   For example, during your brand research, you found that many people talk about your makeup brand on TikTok. So it would make sense to suggest a TikTok content strategy to your client, even if they didn’t ask for it in the brief.

Research Tips and Tools

Now that you know what research can do for your copywriting, here are some ways to make it happen — even without a research agency, even without a team of strategists, and even with just Google and your computer.

1. To begin your research, I recommend having a separate “Research dump” PowerPoint deck for all your screenshots, links, videos, and research synthesis. This is easier to work with than a Word document or a spreadsheet.

2. Start by doing a deep dive into your brand. If you haven’t already, look up the following:

   1. Your client’s brand story and values

   2. Products/services

   3. Features

   4. Benefits

   5. Price range

   6. Availability (online/in-store)

3. Check out the brand’s website and social media presence. Answer the following questions:

   1. How do they currently communicate?

   2. What’s their tagline?

   3. What’s their tone of voice — is it friendly, authoritative, masa, premium?

   4. What executions do they craft? Do they make a lot of videos? Do they work with influencers?

4. When your brand communicates, how does the audience respond? What executions resonate with the audience, and what falls flat? Are there any reviews and testimonials, tagged posts, press releases, events, or even past controversies?

5. Next, get to know your audience. If the client brief mentions demographics and psychographics, use that information. You can use keywords like “Gen Z and house cleaning products” “Filipino Gen Z and house cleaning”.

   

6. Maximize credible, “official” resources like news articles and white papers, as well as sentiments from social media. I’ve found that comments on Facebook Groups and Reddit, as well as TikTok videos created by non-influencers can be very helpful in crafting the big idea.

   

   

   

7. Next, look up your competitors. These can be competitors your client shared, as well as other brands that pop up when people talk about the category you’re in. Basically, repeat steps 2-4 with each of your competitors.

8. Now, it’s time to synthesize the research. Start by summarizing each section of the deck to answer each of the questions. You can put colored text boxes with blurbs like:

   1. “Brand is only present on Facebook and Instagram.”

   2. “Price range: P9,000-12,000.”

   3. “No distinct tone of voice based on captions.”

   4. “Audience is interested in cleaning because of solo living, or because they’re starting their own families.”

   5. “Brand X is a common recommendation when the audience needs this cleaning product.”

9. Then, create a table summarizing your competitor scans. This helps you find similarities, differences, and opportunities quickly.

10. Finally, identify your brand’s way in through strategic copy. This takes us back to the relevance of research to copywriting! If you’re significantly more affordable than others in the category, you could formulate your unique value proposition by leveraging on value for money (UVP). Your key message could harp on quality at a lower cost, in a tone of voice that’s friendly and welcoming — if that’s what’s relevant to your audience (relevant messaging). If your brand is the only one not on TikTok, and that’s where the audience hangs out, suggest it as a platform (relevant executions). From here on out, everything you write and suggest to the client now has data to back it up!

And that wraps up today’s newsletter. I hope you find these tips useful for your next creative task, whether it’s copywriting, art direction, or even working on your personal brand!