One of the main tools that will make your luxury brand stand out is copywriting. It’s often overlooked, undervalued, or just flat-out used wrong. If the finest materials and ingredients go into creating your luxury products, it makes sense that the same should apply when marketing those products. Use luxury copywriting, and use it well, and your brand is going to stand out.
When you get right down to it, copywriting for luxury brands is similar to mass-market brands. Similar but not identical. The slight differences and nuances will make a luxury brand stand out from the pack and become a household name.
One of the main tools that will make your luxury brand stand out is copywriting. It’s often overlooked, undervalued, or just flat-out used wrong. If the finest materials and ingredients go into creating your luxury products, it makes sense that the same should apply when marketing those products. Use luxury copywriting, and use it well, and your brand is going to stand out.
The Difference Between Copywriting vs. Content
First off, we need to delineate between what copywriting is and what content writing is. You may employ both to promote your luxury brand; however, the two are not interchangeable, and if you think they are, then perhaps this could be why your luxury brand is not luxuriating in fame. You need to contact a luxury copywriting expert like ThoughtLab.
It breaks down like this:
In the simplest of terms, the purpose of content is to entertain and inform the readers.
In the simplest of terms, the purpose of copywriting is to persuade the reader to take some action concerning your product, service, or campaign. To click a link, sign up for a newsletter, visit a website or just buy the product. The verb most closely attached to copywriting is to persuade.
Content writing and copywriting share some real estate on a Venn diagram; however, they are, at their core, different. You can learn more about the differences between these two forms of writing and how best to use them to their fullest strengths in your marketing in this article written by us here at ThoughtLab.
For this article, we will focus on copywriting and how best to employ it when working with your luxury brand. For a deeper dive into content writing for your luxury brand, this is an excellent article full of helpful information on the subject.
In this article we will cover:
- How Luxury Copywriting Persuades
- How Luxury Copywriting Conveys Exclusivity
- How Luxury Copywriting Does not Compare
- Why Word Choices Matter in Luxury Copywriting
- CTA’s in Luxury Copywriting
- Seeing and Addressing the Present Day Luxury Audience
- Why Consistency Matters in Luxury Copywriting
- Balancing Luxury Copywriting & Content Writing
- Resources for Luxury Copywriting Expertise
Luxury Copywriting Persuades
This is a powerful tool, persuasion. It is the main thrust of copywriting. To persuade is a good verb because it involves creating an emotional response in the person or people you’re trying to reach. Effective copywriting makes an emotional connection. The raised emotions, like instant gratification or fear of missing out, will lead to the customer taking action, clicking a link, going to the website, buying the product, or engaging the service. When you employ the powers of persuasion in your copywriting, you’re more likely to achieve your goal and get your potential customer invested.
When writing for luxury brands, you’re still going to employ the verb to persuade; that’s still a strong choice. However, when you’re copywriting for a luxury brand, you need to adjust how you persuade.
When writing copy for luxury brands, your audience will be more discerning, a little more distant, and they won’t be as susceptible to the tools you use when copywriting for mass-market brands.
For example, fear of missing out, or FOMO, is a potent tool when writing copy. However, luxury brands and those who purchase them are not about what the masses think and feel. A person who would purchase a luxury brand isn’t likely to care about being part of the masses. Luxury itself implies a distance, a specialty that separates the owners from the crowd. An exclusivity that not everyone can attain. There is nothing a luxury brand owner misses out on because they are setting the standard for others.
Luxury Copywriting Conveys Exclusivity
Customers will justify their reasons for purchasing a product through thought and applying logic; however, the main driver is emotion. Connect emotionally, and you will have them at their core.
When getting to the emotional core of a luxury brand, you’re looking at the experience more than the product. You’re looking to elevate the brand persona and reveal all that persona offers to the potential customer.
Luxury buyers expect a high value and a specifically customized experience, one that is exclusive to them. A unique set of physical and emotional values needs to be delivered to them on an individual level. Again, this isn’t a mass-market appeal; it is a club, a red velvet rope, exclusive to which only they are privy. Give them that experience in the copy.
What is the experience of exclusivity? What does it mean to be a part of an experience that only a select few can enjoy? It’s not the product that entices the luxury buyer; it is the feeling, the emotional connection that comes with the privilege of being a part of this experience. All eyes are on them as they pull up or walk in. What does that experience feel like? That’s where your copy should live.
A luxury brand is individual, and that’s what makes the experience unique. Your copy must highlight and focus on the individuality of the luxury experience.
Luxury Copywriting Does not Compare
When writing copy for a luxury brand, no other luxury brand should be mentioned or alluded to. Unlike mass-market as copy, where it works to say brand X works better and harder than brand Y, your brand is above comparison in the luxury field. No other brand even falls into view.
Your luxury brand copy should never compare your brand to the other. The copy should highlight your luxury brand’s unique sales position and illuminate the uniqueness and exclusivity as a stand-alone luxury brand. Don’t ever put another luxury brand into the mind of the customer. There is nothing like your luxury brand, and all your copy should support that idea.
Even when writing about the experience that owning the brand brings, the experience is incomparable. There is no other experience than this experience with this brand. Unique, exclusive, distinctive, and rare is the experience of your luxury brand. When you compare, it states that there is possibly another luxury brand that could give the customer something close to the same experience. There isn’t.
Word Choices Matter in Luxury Copywriting
Luxury implies ease and the freedom to take time, relax, and examine. Luxury means you set your schedule; you don’t bow to the demands of others. This feeling, this luxuriating experience, can be hinted at in your word choices.
You’ll want to broaden the vocabulary you use, write up rather than down to the masses. You can use words that generally aren’t employed when writing the quick, concise mass-market copy. You’re still trying to persuade, but it’s a different approach.
With mass-market copywriting, “buy now,” “don’t miss out,” and “act quickly” are great phrases; they convey intensity and cause the reader to feel the emotion of immediate need. With luxury copywriting, those terms won’t work.
Think in terms of history, longevity, and ease. Don’t tell your luxury clients to buy; invite them. Invite them to experience. It’s like their life experiences; they are invited to a dinner or a club. Invite them to experience your product.
A luxury product doesn’t “do a job”; it performs. It performs with style and beauty. A luxury item isn’t purchased to get the job done; it is purchased to enhance the life experience on an individual level.
A luxury item isn’t new and long-lasting; it is meticulously crafted and timeless. It is not the latest thing; it is a classic, steeped in history and perfected through years of craftsmanship.
True, these words and ideas will raise the character count in your copywriting; however, they will slow the pace down, give the reader a feeling of ease and comfort. The right words will convey luxury without coming out and saying this is a luxury brand.
CTA’s in Luxury Copywriting
This is the main thrust of good copywriting, to create action. Getting the custom to do something. If your copywriting is working right, they will click or call or buy. Here again, you cannot use the same calls to action that you would with mass-market copywriting. You’re still stressing exclusivity and an experience that is above the norm.
The CTA’s will be phrased softer than commends. Buy now, of course, is not going to work. However, an invitation to “discover” how this product enhances their life experience will work as well as invitations to “explore” the possibilities this product brings to your life experience. Encourage the luxury customer to “be inspired” to experience more.
The same will hold with special offers. Although it’s usually not wise to have a special offer when dealing in luxury, the item, the luxury service itself, is the special offer. However, if you’re going to offer free shipping, the wording needs to reflect the feeling of luxury.
People who purchase luxury items don’t need something for free. However, due to their status, and knowing about status is a great place to start when thinking about luxury copywriting, they will be used to having things comped. Their presence is enough to get them stuff for free. So, instead of free shipping, their shipping is complimentary. This implies that their business is so unique that you want to reward them for allowing you to serve them.
Your CTA’s will have to convey the same goal of action but, how they share that will align with the feeling of luxury, an invitation rather than a call. Think of the CTA’s as being delivered in a thick envelope, with gold raised letters, and written on heavy stock with a good tooth and fine penmanship. If you’re thinking luxury when writing your copy, that will be apparent in the messaging.
Seeing and Addressing the Present Day Luxury Audience
There is an arcane idea that old, storied families occupy the seat of luxury with rights and privileges passed down through the centuries. Indeed, some of that still exists, but the face of modern luxury clients is just that, modern.
Today’s luxury buyers are young entrepreneurs, tech-savvy people looking for luxury brands that align with their modern lives, youth, and goals. When writing copy for luxury products, you cannot ignore this demographic—the new luxury class and what they seek in their luxury purchases.
Although exclusive is still the norm for luxury, your copy will now need to stress the product’s actual value or service for their current lifestyles. Luxury copywriting has got to evolve and not rely on the standard clichẻ of what luxury once was.
The satire of a Bently stopping and a gloved hand offering Grey Poupon accurately shows how the new luxury class sees the old one.
Use language the new luxury buyers identify with. Emphasize their present-day lifestyles and appeal to the modern sense of what luxury means. When you update your luxury copy, you show that you understand the evolution of luxury and are in tune with what present-day luxury customers seek and resonate with.
Why Consistency Matters in Luxury Copywriting
Being a luxury brand does not mean you’re immune to the demands of technology. If you’re a luxury brand, you’ll be heavily scrutinized, and any missteps will be held against you.
With this in mind, your copy and messaging, imagery, and approach have to be consistent across all forms of media. A print ad cannot convey a different message than an online ad. The website cannot deviate in copy from the mobile app.
Luxury consumers are going to expect a luxury experience across all forums. Dropping the ball on one will signal inconsistency in messaging, which the consumer will equate to inconsistency in service, product, or brand.
Balancing Luxury Copywriting & Content Writing
As you can see, there is a delicate balance between luxury copywriting and content writing. There is also a balance in the writing itself. Getting your point across, conveying persona, bringing the luxury customer to act are all part of crafting good luxury copywriting. Copy that is going to attract the right audience and convert.
This balance is not an easy one to strike and, if you’re unsure how to pull it off, you’re going to want to consult an expert.
ThoughtLab Offers Luxury Copywriting Expertise
Because this type of copywriting has its unique set of challenges, it’s better to let experts do it for you. Here at ThoughtLab, we have copywriters well versed in messaging for the luxury market. Experience is the key, and we have decades of experience with getting the message out in the right voice that attracts and holds the luxury customer and promotes your luxury brand with class, style, and an evolved view of the luxury market.
Don’t trust your luxury brand to a copywriting company that doesn’t understand the luxury industry. Contact ThoughtLab today for a complimentary consultation and get your brand securely in the lap of luxury.
