Use the power of your voice to write copy faster and more authentically
I've been using the process of voice recording to write copy for my website, blog posts, articles and longer form social media content for quite some time now.
A few years in fact.
Not only do I love it because it's a faster process compared with sitting down to type, but there are some more subtle but equally, if not more, significant reasons why using your voice to write your copy is so powerful.
Here are my top six reasons to start using your voice to write your copy.
(p.s. Case in point... I 'wrote' this blog as a recorded audio note whilst sitting on a blanket in the sun in my garden. Then edited the transcript ready to publish in a just few mins later on in the evening.)
1) No pre-editing.
When you sit down to write with a pen or to type on your keyboard. The speed at which you type is much slower than the speed at which you think and therefore, by that very nature you pre-edit the words you type n the page.
Whilst this might not seem like a negative thing, the problem is that we're not consciously choosing or aware of what we're pre-editing out, so many of the gems of wisdom can be lost.
Whereas if you use a method of voice recording, to simply speak into the world those thoughts in your head on whatever particular topic, you are able to capture everything that comes into your mind without judgment or expectation and most importantly without pre-editing.
As you listen back to you audio or read through the transcript, and work through words on your page to tidy and pull them into shape, you can be sure that you won't miss out those gems of wisdom that would never have shown up, if I hadn't been for the voice recording process.
2) Whenever, wherever.
Often when I'm recording voice notes, I might have an idea land when I'm out on a walk or when I've just parked up in my car and I'm about to go into an appointment. I probably wouldn't have my notebook or laptop with me and likely very little time. But I've got my phone and with it the ability to record voice notes.
The amount of words that you can speak into a phone in just one minute would take many more minutes of the equivalent time to write down, even if you did have access to your keyboard in those spontaneous random moments when your idea just popped up. So recording voice notes allows you to fully capture those 'aha moments', wherever you might be.
3) Greater context for later recall.
Off the back of my last point, often I'm not in a position to do anything with that thought right there and then so if I scribble something down on a notepad usually it's just a few phrases or a sentence at most, simply because I haven't got time to express much more than that.
Yet, when I come back to the note a couple of days, a week or sometimes a month later, those words often don't mean anything to me anymore.
Whereas, if I capture those words in an audio note, not only can I capture more context in those few seconds, I can also re-immerse myself in the energy of my, voice so if there's something I was excited about, I can hear that excitement. It's much more likely I'll be able to tap back into the energy and take action from that place. This is something I would miss entirely with a quick handwritten phrase scribbled on a notepad.
4) A heart-centered approach.
With practice, voice recorded notes are very much a heart-centered 'channelling' process. There's not really any thinking involved. You are literally speaking the words out loud as they come through. It's like a stream of consciousness process, not something we usually do for copywriting - where our brains get highly involved.
So, by just allowing the words to roll off your tongue, you capture things in a very authentic, honest and heart-centred way. Not tainted with and 'rules and expectations' of writing or your industry standards or audience, that during the traditional writing process can make our words sound very generic if we are not aware.
5) Overcome the overwhelm of a blank canvas.
When we sit down to write, knowing where to start can sometimes be overwhelming.
So avoid that and just start talking. It doesn't matter what you say, just start talking absolute waffle if you like - give yourself that permission! It might take a few minutes to settle and get going, but when you find your flow and you can feel the shift. You know when you're tapping into the good stuff.
So then when it comes to listening back or when you come to edit the transcript, you can skip the first few waffly minutes because you knew that was just you warming up and getting started. Jump ahead to where the good stuff starts flowing and work from there.
6) Make it easier for your team.
Sometimes you might not be doing all the copywriting/editing yourself, you may have a team that works with you. For example, you have a social media manager, or maybe as someone who compiles blog posts for your business.
If you speak the essence of that you want to capture into a voice recording, your colleagues can pick up on that energy more directly. This can impact how words are laid down a page, such as where you might decide to use different headings depending on how important that particular sentence was - your voice will dictate that. That tonal quality does not translate in written notes alone.
So if you do have others on your team that work from your copy, giving them something to work with that's multi-dimensional, that's got texture from your voice can be so much more helpful in translating your intentions.
Whether you already use voice recording in your own process or this is the first time you have considered it in this way, I hope this has given you plenty of new food for thought to put onto practice!
