Try not to be fooled when statistics show you that video is overtaking the marketing world. It only shows you half of the picture. There is a much deeper insight than fancy statistics.

I’m not bitter. Nor am I lagging behind. I’m trying to convey an important realization I had over the course of my copywriting journey. And I believe it will shift your perspective big time if you haven’t had this realization already.

Text is the best marketing tool that ever existed. Why do I say so? Because both video and illustration emerge from text. You can never have these two without context. Think about that for a minute.

The reason why text is better

Before the age of graphics and videos, we communicate through text. In fact, those two mediums of communication are a subset of text if you think about it. There can be no illustrations without context. And the same goes for videos.

The reason why text is better than any medium out there is that it is the godfather of transferring ideas. Pictures and videos do tell a story. But text is why stories exist. The way we articulate our thoughts and ideas impacts how people perceive them.

Words are more than just letters. They are stories and ideas being transferred onto a blank canvas. Each word and sentence paints a mental picture of what the writer wants the readers to imagine. Words transfer ideas. And ideas tell a story of their own.

Marketing is a game of message. The more refined and targeted it is, the better your marketing will become. This is exactly why text is the best marketing tool ever existed.

“People don’t read” is a myth

People watch hours-long movies in cinemas. They also listen to hours-long of the same playlist over and over again (I know you did). With that being said, reading is a chore when it becomes a bore. There’s no amount of text that is too long if the context is exciting.

People don’t read because it’s boring; people read because it’s the best thing they have ever read. As simple as that. You think people don’t read your story because you don’t write well. The truth is people never read because it’s not what they want to read.

Marketers, the rule of thumb to getting people to read your stuff is to not write your story. Instead, write a story that offers a compelling benefit to your audience. Being authentic doesn’t help you as much as being interesting does. You simply cannot bore people into buying from you.

So forget about writing an exceptional copy. Focus on delivering the right message in an interesting way especially in your copy. Make them super easy and irresistible to consume.

Your ideas are the spotlight

Think of text as a way of communication. People are interested in the content. The job of text in marketing is to present the context in the most presentable way possible. That is what great copywriting does.

A great topic plus impressive wordplay and presentation will forever be the market demand. People are looking for and attracted to marketing that speaks like it knows what they want. Attraction is oftentimes more effective than disruption. Keep that in mind.

Before you launch your marketing campaign, think twice about the context. Is it interesting? Would you read it if you were the audience? Let’s take an audience in the sales niche, talking about how to increase appointments in a week will perform twice as better as talking about how to increase traffic to their landing page.

Another thing to take note of when writing your copy is to make sure it is entertaining. As you already know, people’s attention span is short. The moment you start sounding like the boring teacher in class is the moment you lose them entirely. Do play around with stories and humor while staying in line with your topic.

Last but not least

Write like you talk. Text is human-to-human communication. It’s best to say that the words you write in your marketing copy are a thoughtful conversation with another human being. Sounding human will keep eyes on your copy much longer than you can imagine.