Impressive, powerful web copywriting is not like cutting yourself a piece of cake and eating it. It’s more like building yourself a home with nothing but brainpower and doing it all inside a single day. Think HARD WORK. Typically, us as readers and end consumers just see the other end of the spectrum–we just read the good copywriting every day. But what makes it happen? What makes good copywriting occur on a page (or on your computer screen)?
Copywriters working in this day and age are luckier than virtually any group before them.
In addition to the fact that copywriters are practically essential for every online company, modern copywriters have access to hundreds of copywriting tools that can improve and enhance their writing at every turn.
From grammar checkers that catch plagiarism and comma splices to stock photo companies that specialize in the beautiful rather than the wacky and useless, now is a great time to be an online copywriter.
The savvy professionals who use the copywriting tools at their disposal are likely to enjoy more streamlined work and better outcomes than their tool-less counterparts.
If you’re wondering what type of copywriting tools are out there to overhaul your writing, read on!
While it’s true that few copywriters working today use a pen and paper to craft their content, the profession hasn’t changed as much in recent years as many people believe.
You see, copywriters have always been storytellers, and the fact that the medium with which we do it has changed is only a technicality.
Today, as ever, the best copywriters make use of numerous sources of inspiration, from industry leaders and influencers to television commercials and street side conversations. The key to standing out is finding a way to access a familiar topic in an unfamiliar way, and copywriters around the globe draw on their creativity and perspective to help them do this.
Today, though, copywriters around the world can also draw on a virtual treasure trove of online copywriting tools designed to enhance creativity, decrease mistakes, smooth writing, and provide a platform for advancement and creativity.
While storytelling has always been critical for good copywriting, so, too, has accuracy, and today’s best copywriting tools are designed to help ensure that, while also ensuring creativity.
If the technology is there, why not take advantage of it?
Today, the following six tools are helping copywriters around the globe craft better content, and they’re worth making daily use of.
Duplicated and plagiarized content can wreak havoc on your online reputation and career. In addition to putting yourself at risk for Google penalties, any plagiarized content in your online copywriting can also cause you to lose clients. Luckily, there’s an easy way to check for duplicated content in your material: Copyscape.
Copyscape is an oldie but a goodie. Launched back in 2004, Copyscape is a simple yet effective plagiarism checker that compares the content you input to millions of pages across the web.
To suit all audiences and users, Copyscape offers both a free and a paid version, although this is one copywriting tool that won’t break the bank. A credit for a premium Copyscape check costs only $0.05, and you can buy thousands at a time. Credits are good for 12 months from the purchase date.
While it is hands down one of the simplest tools on the web, Copyscape also remains one of the most efficient, and it’s utterly reckless at this point for any professional copywriter anywhere to publish content without first running it through Copyscape.
(Get ready: we’re building a tool that’s 25-50% deeper than Copyscape, built with a powerful searching algorithm! Sign up to get notified of Copyfind’s beta launch here.)
The average adult vocabulary ranges from 20,000-35,000 words.
While that may seem more than sufficient, we all need some extra help every now and again.
When the time comes where you can’t stomach the thought of using “excellent” even one more time, turn to some of the best online helpers out there: Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com.
Straightforward and streamlined, these two sites can be a lifesaver when your online copy needs some sprucing up. If you’d prefer not to visit the actual site, use the dictionary or thesaurus feature in your word processor for an on-the-go fix that achieves the same purpose.
It’s a supreme service if we do say so ourselves!
Adding visuals to your content is one of the best ways to increase views and understanding.
According to HubSpot, adding images to a piece of content can enhance its views by as much as 94%. This is a massive number, and it’s clear that visuals must become an essential part of any good content strategy.
Unfortunately, great visuals can be difficult to find.
Luckily, though, there are a few places you can turn to find beautiful stock images.
While Shutterstock has always been one of our favorites, Pexels and Superfamous are ideal, as well.
And while Shutterstock is a paid service, the others are free, and users can choose from millions of stock photos to spice up their content and ensure it’s offering as much value as possible to readers. Check out our full list of free stock photo sites here!
To make sure that your images are adding to rather than detracting from your content, follow these two tips:
Keyword research should be a critical component of any good online copywriting strategy. Unfortunately, finding a great keyword research tool can be difficult, and many copywriters aren’t sure where to start.
Luckily, there’s KWFinder.
A free (or paid) service that allows you to research keywords according to SEO competition, PPC, difficulty, and monthly search volume, KWFinder is a great copywriting tool for anyone who wants to create relevant, SEO-rich keyword-focused content that ranks well in Google.
To use the app, just plug in your keyword of choice, hit search, and check out the results to locate the most promising keyword in the batch:
While you can catch many of your errors through careful proofreading and editing, things like swapped words, incorrect spacing, and comma mistakes can be difficult to detect, which is exactly why you might need some help. Fortunately, there’s a tool out there that can do just that.
Grammarly is a one-stop-shop for the online copywriter of today.
Meant to pick up spelling and grammar errors, as well as duplicate content, Grammarly plugs into your browser and checks things like your emails, social content, and comments.
It also offers a desktop app that can help you check your content offline.
Simple, easy-to-use, and ideal for anyone who wants a grammar checker that works a little harder than good, old-fashioned Microsoft Word, Grammarly is a critical copywriting tool for anyone who publishes content professionally and wants to be sure it’s free of errors.
Ever wish there was a tool that could help you come up with a topic when you’re just stuck and struggling for an interesting concept?
There is, and it’s called BuzzSumo!
BuzzSumo is a content analysis tool that allows users to input content based on topic, keyword or domain to search for trending material or analyze what content is performing best in a given industry.
Ideal for figuring out how to approach an idea, or researching competitors, BuzzSumo is an online copywriting tool with dozens of unique applications.
While we still love the pen and paper (and, indeed, these are still useful tools for many copywriters), there is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to online copywriting tools.
Between powerful grammar checkers and beautiful stock photo sites, modern copywriters have access to dozens of things that can enhance and improve online content from the ground up. While some copywriters believe it’s sacrilege to use tools to improve the craft, it’s clear that these tools are smart, and that they’ve been designed by copywriters for copywriters, in many cases.
While copywriters love what they do, the fact of the matter is that online copywriting is hard, and these copywriting tools can soften the edges just a bit. So whether you want to improve your grammar or research your competition, reaching for one of these six online copywriting tools is the perfect way to beef up your content both now and in the future.
Need professional copywriters to help you craft exciting online content? Visit our Content Shop today to find your perfect match!
You’ve probably seen them in action a million times, in real life or in different movies: copywriters sitting at their desks, biting off the end of their pens and waiting for divine inspiration to kick in. Unfortunately, this approach is highly counterproductive and has very little to do with successful copywriting. So what should a copywriter do in order to put some of the best ideas on paper in a timely manner? Read on to discover 3 of the most important things that should become top priorities for any content creator trying to come up with truly original, relevant, catchy, memorable copy.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for some answers on how to improve your copywriting.
Even as copywriters, we are only humans; so, every once in a while, we make mistakes compromising the end result of our work, to some extent.
When it comes to copywriting, there are no one-size-fits all solutions that we can apply over and over again, to come up with positive results in the long term.
Every creative process is based on a trial-and-error strategy, implemented until copywriters finally manage to write compelling copy with a real substance.
One might be tempted to think: If it’s good, it’s on the lips of numerous potential buyers. If it’s bad, it’s considered experience. Is that how it really works? In fact, some copywriting slipups are perfectly understandable and pardonable, while other trigger significant consequences, impacting the copywriter’s reputation, affecting conversion rates and making several clients lose their competitive edge. Here are some of the most embarrassing and dangerous mistakes a copywriter can make, and do everything it takes to never repeat them.
David Ogilvy acknowledged the crucial importance of a killer headline and always advised copywriters to settle for no less than magnetic, attention-grabbing titles. Ogilvy stated that “on the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” This is a valuable lesson showing marketers that not all that glitters is gold and not all titles are:
a) Short, clear and concise
b) Powerful, suggestive, persuasive and original enough to make Internet users want to read your entire article
c) Fully optimized, to guarantee higher rankings in search engine results
Stay away from dull, incredibly common headlines and try to write headline copy with your readers in mind. What would attract your attention in a matter of seconds?
Believe it or not, everybody gets it: copywriting is not storytelling. Copywriters should always come up with beautiful content pieces with a powerful call to action. While trying to focus on this aspect, numerous web content writers make one major mistakes impacting conversion rates: they use numerous action verbs, trying to trick the readers into doing something (visiting a webpage, buying a product, taking a survey and so on).
Revealing your goal way too soon and highlighting it over and over again is not a subtle technique. The key is to focus on the promised benefits of an action, rather than on the action itself. Never write “buy”, “get”, “invest in” your luxury bedding sets for X reasons. Instead, try to highlighting the fact that your luxury products guarantee a flawless wellness experience, a superior level of comfort and guaranteed satisfaction. This way, you will make more readers want to order your product in the blink of an eye, tempted by its numerous advantages.
Writing compelling copy is not enough. You also need to comply with the basic formatting guidelines, increasing the level of readability of your web material. Make sure your text contains:
a) H1, H2, H3 headers
b) Short paragraphs numerated using letters, numbers or bullet points
c) Multimedia elements (high-resolution images, videos, charts, maps, infographics), favoring a better interaction with your readers
d) Sections with bold text, highlighting the main ideas of your text
A content piece based on heavy text will visually intimidate your visitors and will never manage to capture the attention of readers with a short attention span, who usually skim and scan the text in a matter of seconds. Try to make your copy as user-friendly as possible by opting for a simple structure.
A real expert with excellent copywriting skills will immediately tell you that images are just as important as the clever, well-organized words of a content piece. In fact, we have been told countless times that a great picture is worth a thousand words. Paul Cheney from Marketing Experiments Blog reveals the fact that, somehow, numerous business owners and inexperienced, uninspired copywriters neglect this fact and choose to associate their web content with some of the most random pictures failing to send a clear message to the audience.
For instance, one could easily find the same picture, illustrating two hands popping out of two computer screens. What does that tell visitors who are in a hurry to find info on a webpage? It says absolutely nothing about the company and the main product or service. The website owner could be offering quick loans, marketing services or free dating advice. Some of us may never find out, simply because the copywriter chose the dullest images available on the Internet.
Who doesn’t dream about writing incredibly effective, catchy sales copy? There are numerous novices who are afraid to embrace a trial-and-error strategy and prefer to rely on copywriting templates guaranteeing their success. Even if you choose to walk into the footsteps of world-class copywriters, this doesn’t mean that you should skip the testing phase. A certain approach might fail to influence your audience in a positive manner; not because it’s wrong, but because it’s not entirely compatible with the desires, needs and expectations of your public.
Conclusion
Analyze these 5 major mistakes and do everything in your power to avoid them at all times. If your content strategy is not brining you the desirable results, think about opting for professional content writing services, tailored to your budget, necessities and business objectives.