How To Avoid Common Copywriting Mistakes

Crafting the perfect copy for your marketing is a difficult art to master. Copywriting is text that aims to influence customers into taking a specific action, whether that to be to buy a product or sign up for a mailing list.

As a small business owner, you need to convince customers to part with their money or information whilst still coming across as personable – not as a pushy salesperson.

To help you tidy up your marketing copy, Business Foundations has compiled a list of tips to avoid common copywriting mistakes.

Write For Your Customers, Not Yourself

It is important to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience, rather than writing what feels appealing to you. You must research your target audience or customer personas and use the vocabulary they use, rather than industry jargon.

If your audience can relate to your writing style and what you are saying, they are more likely to become attached to your brand.

 

Keep It Short And Sharp

People have short attention spans, giving you only a few seconds to win them over as they skim read your website. This means you need to be able to get your message out there in as little words as possible to increase conversions. To help keep your copy short and sharp, make sure that each word you write is necessary and has a purpose.

This means getting rid of buzzwords such as “synergy”, “leverage”, “innovative”, and any other word that doesn’t really say anything about your business.

 

Don’t Overuse The Same Language

Everyone has their own style of writing and oftentimes we inadvertently repeat the same words or phrases over and over again throughout our copy. Unfortunately, this repetition is pretty obvious to the reader and can cause them to become bored quickly.

To prevent this, make a note of the words and phrases you use a lot and replace them with easy-to-understand synonyms.

Focus On The Problem You Are Solving

People buy vacuums because they want clean and dust-free floors, not because they want a vacuum. When you are selling to your customers, you are not selling a product or service, you are selling a better life.

It is important to be clear about what problem you are solving for your customers, so each time you lit a feature, follow it up with a benefit. Purchasing is emotionally driven, therefore customers need to be able to visualize the outcome of the purchase.

 

Have A Call To Action

The reader must be able to clearly identify what you want them to do after reading the copy. You must only have one call to action in your copy, whether this be to sign up to your newsletter or purchase your product, it cannot be both.

Having more than one call to action can confuse the reader and make it harder for them to make a decision. Similarly, more than one call to action makes it difficult for you to craft a focused message.

Writing engaging copy is a difficult task for even the best copywriters. However, with these tips in mind, you can be well on your way to increasing your conversions.