Ways to Use Copy to Build Customer Relationships
By Denise McGill, freelance catalog, web, and promotional copywriter

Does your marketing copy, no matter the channel, talk to or at your targeted customer base? Are you writing blindly to a customer base you know very little about?

Before you begin your next product description, direct mail piece or email promotion, know who you're writing to — and strike up a conversation. Get to know your prospective audience intimately enough to write to its specific desires, concerns, fears and needs. If you don’t take the time to research your audience, you could be left wondering why your promotion fell flat.

A Little Data Goes a Long Way
Whether you're in-house, off-site, or a freelance copywriter, understanding the customer profile of the company you're writing for is crucial. Most companies have this information on hand and are more than happy to share it with you.

Every so often, ask for updates to the profile to see if there are changes or new trends evolving. The more you know about customers, and write to their needs, the more likely your promotion will make it through the door (or inbox) of their homes and businesses. And you start to build that coveted relationship.

Here are five things you'll find on a typical customer profile:

1. Age group: What age group are you catering to? Typically, age is stated like a statistic — 0 to 20, 21 to 35, 36 to 45, 46 to 60-plus. But I prefer to take it a step further (and put a personal touch to numbers):

children;
teens;
young, single adults;
couples with small children;
couples with older children;
empty nesters;
retirees; and
a mix of the above.