copywriting mistakes

Picture this: it’s your best friend’s wedding. The two of you have been best buddies since grade school. You’ve been through it all. You’ve seen each other weather the best and worst of what life has thrown your respective ways. As your best friend gets ready to enjoy what is destined to be one of the most memorable days of their lives, you’re on the front lines of wedding preparations. Even though your friend is on a budget, some expenses just aren’t spared—like the caterer and photographer. Why is that? Can’t Aunt Josephine cook just as well as the $25 a plate caterer, and isn’t Uncle Jim a crack shot with a camera? The truth is Aunt Jo makes a mean mashed potato, and Uncle Jim takes gorgeous photos, but neither one are in the wedding business. On this one and only day to say, “I do,” your friend spares no expense on these two venues for a very simple reason: they can’t afford mistakes. In much the same way, a lot of business owners hire out their copywriting needs because they can’t afford (nor do they want) mistakes. But just what mistakes can be made? I mean, we’re only talking about writing a few words and making people want to buy stuff, right? How hard can that be? I bet that friend of yours—the one who aced a few high school papers—could handle it. Let’s see why that couldn’t be more wrong. Why Copywriting Is Hard We’re stepping into the debate box to cover a controversial subject. A lot of people will tell you that copywriting isn’t that hard. Others will say it’s easy as pie. Still more will compare it to the piano; easy to do poorly and exceedingly difficult to do well. Well, here’s the skinny on writing: Mechanics Matter – Can you guarantee excellent spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation? By excellent, we mean 99.9% perfect 99.9% of the time, which means following the rules of English perfectly and knowing when it’s okay to break them in favor of audience appeal. It Requires Skill – If you were handed a piece of wood and told to craft a statue of a bear, could you? If you were a carpenter by trade, probably! If not, doubtful. Writing is the same. It takes skills, the kind of skill that results from years of practice and firsthand experience. It’s Art – No joke, writing is part art. If writers merely crafted sentences per the stringent rules of English, there would be no such thing as audience appeal. It’s like the difference between the computer code that makes your favorite app and the beautiful bright interface you know as your favorite app. Both parts of needed to make it work, and you can’t have one without the other. Good copywriting isn’t mere raw skill. It’s part skill and part art, and the percentages change based on the project. So, can just anyone write? Let’s put this into perspective: can just anyone perform heart surgery? I mean, it’s just major surgery, right? What could possibly go wrong? It’s All Fun and Games Getting your friend to tackle your copy, or striking off into the unknown on your own are all adrenaline rushes. But the fact remains that they’re all fun and games until someone—likely your business or a reader—gets their eye poked out. 25 of the simplest copywriting mistakes are easy to make if you lack experience: Writing for the company: People have one burning question on their minds when it comes to your product or service: what’s in it for me? According to Crazyegg.com, they don’t care about your company, your life story, or your sheer awesomeness. They care about what’s in it for them. Don’t bore them with endless company drivel. Missing the target: Audience, that it is. Do you know exactly who your target audience is? More importantly, does your copywriter? Your copy has to hit that target dead on. It has to hook, captivate, and motivate. If your writer doesn’t know your target audience intimately, they might as well be trying to shoot a moving target with no ammo—it’s not gonna happen! Bad formatting: You can write an epic article, but it’ll never meet the reader’s eye if it’s badly formatted. Bad or no headings, long and tedious paragraphs, and a dull visual presentation will kill your copy on publication. Failed headlines: According to Copyblogger, your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you can make before a prospective reader either clicks to your content or passes you by. A strong headline tells the reader why they can’t miss your article before they even open it. Can you pack an informative, emotional, and curiosity causing punch in 5 to 10 words? Improper tone: How often doesn’t the wrong tone spark an argument?Couples will be the first to admit that slipping into the wrong tone at the wrong time can spark a blowout that’ll leave somebody sleeping on the couch! So too can choosing the wrong audience tone. Tone is a thousand times more important in copy because it’s written; there’s no body language to save the day, only words and context. It takes an experienced pen to not only choose the proper tone, but also hold it from start to finish. Address the right customer: Your target audience isn’t made of universal customers. In fact, it’s likely your customers break down into categories of people all searching for similar yet unique solutions to several problems. Each piece of copy from your company must address the right customer, and your combined pieces of copy need to be all-inclusive yet easily structured for a breakdown for those detail oriented customers. Invest the audience emotionally: Creative storytelling isn’t just old school, it’s a staple of the savvy Internet copywriter. Storytelling invests the audience emotionally, which keeps them reading and makes them come back for more. Stay on topic: People are flooded with information on a minute-by-minute basis. Between … Read more