8 steps to a UX copy strategy that rocks
Align what you write with your product vision and company goals
A UX copy strategy is a way to write with direction and long-term improvements. It’s no Bible or Holy Grail — it’s a guide to help stay focused, save time and make decisions.
What we say and how we say it makes all the difference for our users and determines how well our products perform. So let’s be strategic and make sure words are never an afterthought.
To do this we need to use strategy no matter the writing phase we’re in: brainstorming, researching, testing and everything in between. We need to ask ourselves — what’s the product vision? What are the company goals? How can copy make a difference? Before we get into the tough stuff, let’s start simple.
Part 1: The what
Start with the basics before the big picture.
1. Who are your users?
Who’s going to read this? Who’s your target audience? How old are they? Where are they from? What do they like? The more you know about your users the better you’ll be able to speak to them and get them to take action.
As we go along, I’ll give you a real example from my product team. We make sure customers understand payment policies. Our users are all customers who have chosen a place to stay and are about to book.
2. What are their problems?
Your users may have 99 problems, but what is the specific problem you need to solve? What don’t they understand? What are they missing? What can’t they find? Why are they here?
Our customers often don’t know when or how much they’ll pay until after they’ve booked. We know this from surveys, research, and customer service tickets.
3. What’s your product?
A product can be anything from a website or a feature to a physical good. Our products are parts of our website or apps like filters, a loyalty program or a confirmation page. Know your product and learn how it can solve your user problems.
It is unlikely one product will solve all user problems. If it were that easy, we’d all be out of jobs. Be specific and know what’s out of scope.
My team’s product is not the website, the booking pages or the cancellation policies. It’s the payment policies. We have two: No prepayment and prepayment.
4. What are the patterns and trends?
Detective time. Ask yourself, what else do I need to know to solve this user problem with this product?
You can do user testing to see how real people use your product and where they stumble. You can even directly ask them how they would improve the experience.
Look at competitor and industry trends. Are there keywords your users already know? There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time.
Check the data. At Booking.com we have more data than we know what to do with. A/B tests are our bread and butter. This is not the case for everyone. Yet most sites have a way to track metrics like click-through rate, bounce rate, and page views. What could this say about your copy? Where do you lose your users?
I watched customers use our product. I saw where they got frustrated, got confused, and had to do mental math. I noticed we weren’t being specific. We said they would pay a prepayment, but how much? We said they would pay before their stay, but when? They saw a cancellation timeline on another page and understood it — could this work for payments?
I looked at competitors and brainstormed words. I found phrases like “pay nothing today”, “pay at the hotel” and “pay now”. Could these work?
I checked prior A/B tests. Personalized words like “your” seemed to convert better than unpersonalized words. Had we tried this when customers were about to complete their booking? Had it worked? What could improve their experience?
Part 2: The how
How can you use all this to make a strategy that works? There’s no right way. For different products, different approaches may work better. Here are some things to keep in mind.
5. Know your goal
Your copy strategy needs to align with company goals. Is solving this problem critical to the company’s success? What’s the long-term vision for your product? For your company?
If your strategy aligns with your goal it will be a lot easier to sell. You’ll be able to explain why you’re writing what you’re writing and have evidence to support every decision. It will be future-proof and forward-thinking. It will help you get buy-in from your colleagues, clients or higher-ups.
The number of customer service tickets related to payments was very high. The customer service team was looking for ways to reduce the number of enquiries so they could spend more time and resources on more complex questions. Our goal would be to reduce this number.
6. Know your resources
You may have grand ideas, but do you have the resources? The time? The manpower? Check deadlines and find people to help. Get buy-in from your peers and stakeholders. You’ll avoid unwanted surprises and conflict down the line.
Once I knew the goal was to reduce payment-related customer service tickets, it was easier to get my product team on board. I had developers, a UX designer, a User Researcher and a Product Owner on my side. We were all working towards the same goal and had three months to get there.
7. Write a copy strategy that rocks
It’s time to make all this actionable and measurable. Let’s break it down:
- I needed to tell customers when and how much they will pay.
- The goal was to reduce payment-related customer service tickets.
- I had three months and a product team’s support.
- I found words like “you” and speaking like a human work.
- I found being as specific as possible helps our users make decisions.
The strategy:
Explain to customers when and how much they will pay using transparency, personalization and human language.
Use exact amounts — don’t say things like you’ll pay a portion
Use exact dates — don’t say you’ll pay later
Use personalization — words like “you” and “your”
Be human — words they already know like “pay” instead of “process” or “hold an amount” instead of “preauthorize”
8. Did it work?
The strategy is almost done but we need to make sure it’s measurable and test it. Otherwise, how will we know it worked? There are different ways to measure success. They depend on your product and the problem. Often we look at things like user research findings, A/B test results and scalability.
I created a new block for the book process page where we told customers when and how much they would pay with specific dates and amounts. After a few iterations, we saw in an A/B test that customers who saw the block contacted customer service less than those who did not see it. Success!
We ran a survey alongside the test to ask customers how much and when they thought they were going to pay. Customers who saw the new block were able to state when and how much they would pay better than those who did not see it.
It worked. And now, is it scalable? Can we try this on other pages? Turns out, we can. With a few design changes, the copy worked on our apps too. We also took these learnings and applied them to cancellation policies.
That is an 8 step UX copy strategy that aligns with product vision and company goals.
Let’s face it, it can be a hard-knock life for us writers in the wonderful world of tech. Let’s brush that dirt off our shoulders and show ‘em copywriters have strategy that can’t be beat — because what we say and how we say it does matter.
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