Is classic copywriting still relevant in the digital age? The current state of copywriting shows that there are more opportunities for marketers and writers than ever before, and what it seems like the digital age for tech is the golden age for online content. Internet users barely check beyond the first page of search results. According to Joel House, 92% of consumer traffic goes to the websites that rank the first page, so it’s crucial to create a high-quality copy.

What’s the hottest dream of a copywriter? There’s a single answer to this; they want to see their copy feature on the first page of the search engine results page. Winning the SERP is their guilty pleasure because when working in a competitive digital environment, a high-ranking link is all you need to generate website traffic. 

Supposing you’re interested in the copywriting subject, you may want to know that it has taken a different face in 2020 compared with its dawn. Its substance changed, and at the start of the new decade, copywriting will be mainly conversational. What does it mean? In simpler words, the content will finally speak to the public in natural language terms. Of course, it’s not something new for brands to try to act more human, but it has been more challenging for a domain like copywriting to depart from its technical side. 

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In 2020 it’s essential to be human

It’s wrong to assume SEO copywriters create copy filled with clunky keywords to rank in search engines. Some copywriters approach this method, but their content never gets into the first two pages in Google. Successful copy creators write copy that connects brands with customers. They write pieces of content that show to readers they listen and understand their needs. In the 2020s highly competitive market, copywriters deliver text that humanises brands, and align content with clients’ values. 

Stats show that 84% of Millennials (who are dominating the public) don’t trust traditional marketing, and they prefer brand transparency, purpose, personalisation, creativity, and innovation. 

The starting decade will rely on new methods like social media commerce and voice search, and copywriters must look upon them when they create content.

Target the zero SERP position

Lately, Google has been more the answers engine rather than the search engine it was at its beginning. Users insert full specific questions like How to create winged eyeliner? or implied questions Winged eyeliner to get answers. 

Search engines deliver pertinent results in the first page, so users don’t have to scroll down and inspect dozens of websites. Google picks the most relevant results that provide useful and direct answers and creates a snippet at the top of the page that SEO specialists call Position Zero. Copywriters no longer target a high rank in the first two pages of search engines; they target the P0 that often leads the other brands in the dust. Copy creators rely on three methods when they write a text for P0: how-to articles, terminology definitions, and 5Ws (who, what, when, why and why). 

Super Clear Contents recommends copywriters to consider how their audience phases questions in natural language terms. Writers must echo their readers’ voices in their texts to boost their chances to conquer the P0 position. 

Copywriting for voice search

Hey Siri. When does Cassandra Clare release her next book?

Google reported that 20% of search queries are via voice. For brands with a tech-savvy public, it’s essential to deliver content that responds to voice queries, because 71% of smartphone users aged 18-29 rely on their voice assistants to answer their questions. 

Siri, Cortana or Alexa are reliable sources of information, and Internet users are conversating with them the same way they do it with a friend. When people speak to one of them, they use natural language terms and long phrases because the average individual types around 40 words per minute, but verbalises over 150. But only because Internet users utter long phrases, it doesn’t mean Siri has to decode through intricate pieces of content to respond. People use it because they want to multitask, so copywriters must create a text that is strategic and conversational at the same time. 

Writers must optimise content to respond to their readers’ question. For example, when they cry out to their assistant bot What is the chronological order of Cassandra Clare’s books? Siri will quote their text only if it includes natural language terms that provide this piece of information, rather than fragmented keywords. 

Copywriting content must engage even chatbots into conversation

In 2020, 85% of the market interaction between brands and their public is via non-human support or chatbots. And machines are smart, but they hardly copy human discourse. When creating copy for chatbots, the keyword is basic functionality. And here is what the digital age expects from copywriters when they create content for brands.