What is Microcopy & Where is it Used?

Microcopy is found almost everywhere. Whether you’re scrolling through social media, walking the dog or looking for a new top on your favourite clothing website, chances are, you’re coming across microcopy without even knowing it – that’s the beauty of it. You’re reading it and taking in the message it’s trying to get across, subconsciously. But what exactly is microcopy, where is it used and how can you produce it yourself?

What is microcopy?

Essentially, microcopy consists of a small collection of words that get across a USP, an instruction, an imperative, a stellar deal or a significantly low price for something that would have cost you far more elsewhere or at any other time of year. Microcopy is used for almost everything. 

Microcopy is used to encourage the reader, gain their trust and empower them to make the decision the company wants them to make. A good piece of microcopy will make a considerable difference to the way consumers view, buy and do things and so even the smallest amount of microcopy can have a macro effect on society when done right.

Why is microcopy important?

Microcopy is exceptionally important when it comes to marketing a brand, a service or a product. Where it can be used in other sectors and for other means, you’ll likely find it in industries where they’re trying to sell you something, whether it be the latest internet package deal or a sustainably-produced pair of trainers.

Microcopy is paramount for those wanting to market products and services because it does three things:

• Helps to build trust between you and your customers
• Ensures your customer is satisfied at all times
• Persuades your customers to make the purchase or give the go-ahead on a service

Where is microcopy most commonly used?

Microcopy is found, almost, everywhere. From posters and billboards to leaflets and website pages, you cannot escape the art of microcopy. Where you might presume that creating microcopy is exceptionally easy, due to its lack of word quantity, there is actually a lot of thought and preparation that goes into producing this particular type of copy. 

This is because you need to get your point across or deliver a USP in a very limited number of words, so it’s considered to be somewhat of a specialist task for content creators. But it’s important that microcopy can be produced as it’s a highly-effective way of drawing an audience in and persuading them to enquire about the service you’re offering or the product you’re selling. That being said, microcopy is used for e-commerce purposes as this particular area of marketing doesn’t require streams of text.

So where is microcopy most commonly used? You’ll often find microcopy on or in the following content pieces:

• Leaflets
• Billboards
• Posters
• Website pages
• Infographics
• Brochures
• Articles
• Social media platforms
• Household objects such as: mugs, calendars, visual prints
• Packaging 
• Instructive posters like those found in doctor’s surgeries (asking you to get a flu jab, for example), dentists (such as those that remind you of the importance to brush your teeth etc) and even in public toilets (asking you to wash your hands, for example)
• Error messages on website pages
• Pop-ups
• Captions
• Buttons
• Loading pages 
• Informative messages regarding cookies

Tips for producing microcopy

Microcopy, although it looks simple, is actually quite difficult to produce if you’ve never done it before. It needs to be simple, yet have a human touch to it so as not to seem so robotic. So how can you go about creating microcopy if you’ve never done it before?

Give it a personal, human touch

• You don’t want to sound too robotic or impersonal
• With an attention span of around 8 seconds on average, you need to grab a consumer’s attention relatively quickly
• Give it a human touch so as to relate to your readers quickly and effectively

Keep it short & simple

• With such a short attention span, short and sweet is the way to go
• The aim is to provide trust and satisfaction in order to give the microcopy a purpose
• You need to help the customer to make the purchase, persuading them in a way
• This is why you need to keep it short and simple rather than long, convoluted and too complicated or difficult to follow
• The microcopy needs to be read in the time it takes for someone to walk or drive past a billboard, meaning it should be no more than 6 or 7 words long

Know & understand your audience

• Knowing your audience is key to producing microcopy
• You need to keep the tone of voice consistent with the rest of their website
• If you’re dealing with a professional company, you then shouldn’t be humorous with your microcopy, for example
• If your audience sit within the older demographic, then you should remain professional and informative, whereas if you’re focusing it more towards a younger demographic, then humour could come into play depending on the branding and tone of the business you’re writing for

Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board

• Although it’s the smallest piece of copy out there, it can be hard to write
• You might come up with and throw away several ideas before happening across “the one”, so be patient
• It can take some team work, planning and testing, but once you’ve come up with something that works, run with it
• If you need to keep going back to the drawing board, then do it until you’ve produced something you’re solely happy with

Kumo are dedicated professionals with extensive knowledge and expertise in the digital marketing industry. Whether you wish to rebuild, migrate or create a website for your business, wish to have articles written for you or want to significantly increase your leads, then we’ll be on hand to help. We have content creation, SEO and PPC specialists at the helm of our operations, so you’ll always be able to count on us to deliver results. For more information about our sterling digital marketing services, get in touch with a member of our dedicated team today – we’re always happy to hear from you.