Aesop’s almost anti-copywriting tone of voice

This copy is about as far from Do Words Good-style copywriting as you can get.

It's dense. It's hard to read. (Most copy targets a reading age of 11-ish. This is nearly 17.) And it makes no effort to meet the reader at their level.

And yet, Aesop were acquired for $2.5 billion a few years ago. (Yeah, Billion, with a b.)

So this copy is here as a reminder (to ourselves as much as anything) that there isn't just one way to write good copy.

Almost every brand in this swipe file is somewhat conversational. Their copy is deliberately easy to read. They all attempt to make a connection with the customer. They all attempt to make it easy for them to understand why they should buy the product.

Aesop do absolute none of that.

Zip. Zilch. Nada. None of it.

Instead, Aesop's register is deliberately very controlled, distant and scientific.

They use words like "efficacious" and say things like "expedites surface renewal" or "lend support against environmental stressors."

That's not the kind of copy of a brand trying to get customers to like them writes. It's the kind of copy that a massive pharma brand would write.

And that's precisely what their customer wants to feel. Not that the brand is their friend, but that they're buying something serious. Something pharmaceutical-grade. Something that doesn't care if you like them or not because their product works.

(Interestingly, the way Aesop writes is itself a positioning statement. The copy is doing a very clever  self-selection thing where it's only going to appeal to their ideal customer OR it creates a premium feel that attracts new customers. It's very clever.)

But how do you know what register to write in?

Alas, there's no surefire way to know without A/B testing or running surveys or user testing.

However, research published in the Journal of Marketing found that when the language style of copy matches the typical language style of the customers, conversion rates increase directly.

In other words: your customers are already telling you how they want to be spoken to. You just have to listen.

So go and read your reviews. Don't look for the sentiment. (OK, do. But just not for this task. It is super helpful though.) Look at the vocabulary. Are they technical? Emotional? Casual? Clinical?

That's your weather vane for how they like to be spoken to. Write back to them in the same register and you're onto a winner.