Why Copy Can't Fix Every Business

"Hire a good copywriter they say," business owners say to themselves. "They'll be able to sell our business easily. No questions asked."

Copywriting doesn't change the products or services your business offers. It simply acts as a megaphone that blasts users with your brand's message. Why then does good copywriting sometimes have negative results? Let's find out...

The fever dream never ends.

Recently, my husband and I traveled to a new plant-based restaurant near home. We expected to have a delicious meal, and love taking chances in trying new things.

Our order was takeaway and after we paid we drove to a nice spot to eat. While unboxing our meal we were first surprised by the look of our lackluster food.

Chunks of uncooked celery, puddles of oil, and barely warmed sauce clearly from a bottle.

We were disappointed and told each other we'd never be eating there again.

That's where the nightmare ended for us as customers. For the owners of the business however, their fever dream goes on.

Their branding and messaging as well as website were beautifully worded and pieced together. All of this means nothing though if the owners are okay with serving what my husband and I (and I'm sure other silent former customers think) consider an outrageously bad product.

For business owners like these, the best advertising in the world can't save them. How can you be sure your product or service is up to scratch and not silently losing customers and money, until POOF...your business is gone.

Product ideation and testing

Half-baked ideas can make it to market and be as successful as the next. What you don't see are all the products and services people think up, execute in a half-assed manner, and drive straight into the ground.

Would you fly a plane that was an afterthought thrown together based on what the owners thought they knew? Of course not. So why then do business owners keep creating these 'kamikaze planes' of ideas expecting others to pour money into their pockets?

Before you begin your next business venture start by creating ideas you can test in ways that are quantifiable.

What do I mean by quantifiable?

Let's say you're designing the next at-home smart light switch killer. You have 5 possible product designs in place and need to test them against one another in ways you can measure. Those measurable differences could be how much time the product saves users, or how many times can the switch be flipped before it breaks.

You can find quantifiable metrics with any product or service on the market. If you want to create a killer product that's worth selling, ideation and testing should be your main focus.

Serve customers garbage ideas, and you'll get garbage results.

Instead, treat them like the well-informed and educated customers you want supporting your business. Give them products that actually work.

The customer feedback loop

Copywriting, if you've read any of The Modern Copy posts and know our take, is an artistic craft. Not a magic fix-all wand you can wave over your business problems.

For some companies, their main issue may be wording. But another wall I've seen brands run into is a lack of customer feedback integration into their products and services.

In today's world, I'd be hard-pressed to find a business owner who doesn't have access to social media or the internet in general for that matter. We're so lucky to have instant everything, including data, reviews, analytics, social engagement, and more.

So, for anyone wondering why their sales are tanking, why the new website design and wording isn't working, or why people just don't seem to care anymore - look at your customer feedback.

If we don't value the opinions of customers who graciously tell us what we did wrong, and don't fix our problems, we're doomed to repeat the history of other failed businesses' pasts.

A silent customer is never a good one.

All feedback is good feedback if you know what to do with it.

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