What Do I Put In My E-Media Content?

In this ever-progressing day and age, one can’t help but to notice that everything is going electronic. Mail, books, cars (and even cigarettes!) have all gone electronic. In turn, this evolution breeds a new form of media dubbed the electronic media or e-media.

What is e-media?
According to BusinessDictionary.com, e-media is defined as “Broadcast or storage media that take advantage of electronic technology. They may include television, radio, Internet, fax, CD-ROMs, DVD, and any other medium that requires electricity or digital encoding of information.“

In the earlier years, e-media was perceived to be as no different than its print counterpart. However, that perception couldn’t be more far fetched. Technology has evolved and so has our means of communication, hence, advertisers need to adapt themselves to this change.

What makes e-media so different?
Because of the electronic nature of e-media, advertisements have the edge of being more interactive over print media. With the use of Internet and smartphones getting more common among people, advertisers can specifically target consumers based on their web activity. Interactive advertising that requires consumers to take part in it is becoming more popular among companies to build or expand their brand recognition.

Having said so, copywriting for e-media is definitely a skill that needs to be perfected because it’s used by everyone and will not stop growing anytime soon. Advertisers need to use e-media to their advantage and not waste a good opportunistic platform. Although copywriting for e-media shares a similar principle with copywriting for print as a structure, everything else is pretty much different. Copywriting for e-media requires the content to be more concise and more interactive, seeing as e-media users generally have a short attention span.

As a copywriter for Nimbus by FOUR: An Exhibition, there are a few considerations that I have taken in writing, structuring, and crafting the body copy for e-banner, radio, and blog advertorial to ensure that they are effective in creating awareness of the event as well as persuading the target consumers. There are a few points that will be discussed and they are as follows: * Advantages of e-media and making use of it * Good practices when writing a promotional copy * Structure of the promotional copy * Things to look out for

Advantages of e-media and making use of it
It’s good to know the advantages that e-media has over print media. With the knowlegde, we can apply it in our promotional copywriting in order to make it more effective. E-media transmits messages across a wide area in a speedy manner at a very low cost. These advantages can become sort of a disadvantage too however. Due to the fact that it’s cheap to have your messages conveyed – and they’re done really quickly – e-media tends to suffer from information overload.

Consumers are bombarded with a lexicon of ads every second of the day. So how do we make our content rise above the rest? Nimbus by FOUR: An Exhibition is set to instill joy within its eventgoers, thus as a copywriter I have decided that its radio ad should sound fun while still being factual about it. This ought to grab people’s attention and create awareness about the event.

Good practices when writing a promotional copy
According to Molander (2013), “effective copywriting is all about helping customers.” We give them all the information; instead of having them look for it and ultimately lose interest. Get straight to the point and be direct in the beginning of your promotional copy to gain the attention of consumers. As you gathered the attention, slowly reveal the information, creating a sense of curiosity within them – leaving them wanting for more. Then, you slowly provoke response by making use of the curiosity you have just created.

In Nimbus’ blog advertorial, I have went back and forth with these practices, going from direct writing to otherwise, creating a fluctuating range of curiosity in the consumers – since that’s one of the brand characters.

Structure of the promotional copy
A study by Morkes and Nielsen (1997) stated that a promotional copy has to have these elements in order to make it more effective: it has to be objective, scannable, and concise. When these three are combined they will create an exceptional promotional copy. Since Nimbus is targeted to a relatively younge age of people, its banner ad should not be too cluttered lest it will risk losing interest from the consumers.

Nimbus’ banner ad utilized the knowledge gathered from this study to create what I would deem as an effective ad. The banner starts off with a picture, which the subject is in the middle of. This reduces distraction, further lessening the mental work that consumers have to do to figure out what the banner is about. The banner ad is complemented with minimal information on the side, stating the event name, date, and venue. Further information such as the event website and hotline were placed at the bottom of the banner. Such steps were taken in order to avoid the information from becoming a distraction, and place emphasis on the main subject.

Things to look out for
In everything, there’s always have to be moderation, as too much of a good thing can be bad. Parallel to my genre of copywriting, there has to be a fine line between fun and too cheeky. If a promotional copy is the latter, it will target a different demographic and psychographic altogether, while the actual targeted ones will disregard it. Another thing worth noting is that although e-media users appreciate minimalism and directness, too much of it will cause them to question your whole promotional credibility.

Conclusion
E-media and its print counterpart are same at a glance, but different in every other aspect. An effective promotional copy always has to stay true to the product or service’s theme and build on it. For Nimbus, it is marketed as fun, factual, and curious; hence, the whole promotional writing follows suit. Copywriters have to understand the differences that e-media have as well as its advantages. A promotional copy has to be concise and intriguing without looking cluttered or too simplistic. To be considered effective, a promotional copy must have the ability to create interest within the consumers, retain their interest, and ultimately make them want to take action. However, avoid “overkilling” the theme of a product or service. Always keep in mind to keep things in moderation. Pushing the envelope will work in some cases but in most cases they generally fail.

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Reference List:
MOLANDER, J. (2013) Copywriting for Social Media Marketing: 3 Best Practices for 2014. [Online] Available from: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/copywriting-social-media-marketing-3-best-practices-2014/all/. [Accessed 7th November 2015]

BAVERSTOCK, A. (2015) Writing Promotional Copy. [Online] Available from: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/137/self-publishing/marketing-and-publicity/writing-promotional-copy. [Accessed 7th November 2015]

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. [Online] Available from: http://ecp.engineering.utoronto.ca/online-handbook/types-of-documents/writing-for-electronic-media/. [Accessed 7th November 2015]

SILVIA. (2013) Electronic Media Advertising. [Online] Available from: http://zeendo.com/info/electronic-media-advertising/. [Accessed 7th November 2015]

LUTTRELL, M. (2010) 10 Things To Consider When Writing Effective Promotional Copy. [Online] Available from: http://createyournextcustomer.com/2010/06/04/10-things-to-consider-when-writing-effective-promotional-copy/. [Accessed 7th November 2015]