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 Twitter, Facebook, and G+ feeds, and then multiple news feeds and e-mail subscriptions, the average person has more material hitting their devices than they could read in a lifetime. Chances are, if you haven’t made mistakes 1 through 7, they’ll give your copy a glimpse. But you had better stay on topic. Take a surprise trip down the rabbit hole mid-article, and your audience will bail.
Get to the point: If you’ve avoided the rabbit hold, then the next thing to dodge is taking your time getting to the point. You and I don’t like being held up in the Starbucks line. Why would be spend an extra five minutes reading for the writer to get to the point? Hit us with that bad boy fast, and then we’ll decide if we should read more.
Stay relevant: This applies to each piece of copy AND your content as a whole. If it isn’t all relevant to your product, service, and brand, then readers will drop like flies. They won’t understand why you’re writing what you’re writing, and they aren’t going to try to figure it out.
Rely on facts: Factual content is credible and authoritative. It tells people you’re more than a sales machine; you’re a resource. People want to be educated. Weave proven facts backed by evidence into your copy, and you’ll be creating a golden egg.
Build in proper citations: If you’ve made it this far and haven’t made mistakes 1 through 11, then it’s time to build in proper citations to show that evidence that backs your facts. But any old citation won’t do. You need to cite credible material. Do you or your writer know how to use tools like MozBar to determine a website’s credibility and authority, and then choose the cream of the crop to link to?
Assuming the reader knows what you mean: This is an epic error. Never, ever talk down to your audience. But never, ever assume they know exactly what you mean. You have to strike the perfect balance between general writing and jargon.
Closing correctly: The best copy ends on a motivational point known as a call to action. The CTA will tell the reader what to do. The writer has to know just how hard to push without coming across as pushing. A CTA could be as simple as encouraging them to contact you or read more on your website, but if it isn’t presented properly, it will fall on deaf ears—or is that blind eyes?
Remain PC (politically correct): In other words, don’t offend! Word choice is everything. Leave copywriting to an inexperienced soul, and you just might find a large portion of your audience taking offense to the words or ideas that are conveyed.
Focusing on features: It’s one of the most common and repeated copywriting mistakes. People don’t care about the features as much as the benefits. What’s in it for them? Why are you more beneficial than the other guy?
Saying too much: According to Crazyegg.com, it’s not about long vs. short copy. It’s about rambling. The inexperienced writer has a tendency to say more than needed. Say too much, risk losing your audience.
Keyword optimization/density: Over or under optimize your keywords, and you’ll feel it in your search engine rankings. Does your writer know the ins and outs of the most recent keyword standards?
Too much product focus: The customer wants to know about your product and/or services, but they also want to know a bit about who they’re buying from. Don’t forget to give them a taste of what you and your company stand for.
Too much fluff: We all love marshmallow fluff, but only in moderation. Strong copy cuts the fluff in favor of the meat and potatoes.
An adjective overdose: According to Shopify.com, adjectives are the handy dandy words that help us explain what our product looks like, what it does (features), and how it makes the buyer feel (benefits). They’re fine in moderation. But if you over do it, the reader will OD; thus, slowing them down and causing confusion.
Lack of personality: Appealing writing has personality. It speaks. Your brand should reflect its personality through your copy. Fail to do this, fail to produce quality.
A sheer lack of editing: The pro copywriter has an editor. Somebody proofs over their work and catches the tiny errors that can make or break the copy. Working with a pro is like getting a two-for-one. Doing it yourself or hiring a friend means you had better get yourself an editor, and they had better know what they’re doing.
Lack of a unique selling point: Why are you different? Your writer has to understand how and why you are unique and then highlight that selling point to the customer. Otherwise, you’ll blend into the crowd.
And The Biggest Mistake of Them All
Investing in the wrong pen: Copy is the blood of your online presence. It is essential to life! Sure, you can opt to do it yourself or hire a local buddy, but is it worth the risk? Revisit your best friend’s wedding. What if Aunt Jo catered? Her mashed potatoes are spectacular, but can she make them for 1,000 people? Can she create a thrilling three-course meal for such a huge event? Does she know how to bake the cake? And what about Uncle Jim as the photographer? Is he going to capture every once in a lifetime moment in stunning clarity, at the perfect angle, with the best light? As much as we love Aunt Jo and Uncle Jim, they’re just not cut out for the task. To put them in such huge and stressful positions would jeopardize the day AND their relationship with the family. Why would you put yourself or your buddy in the line of fire when it comes to your copywriting needs?
Advertising and copywriting go hand-in-hand much like caterers, photographers, and weddings. According to BizCommunity.com, if you search back through the history of advertising, you’ll discover that the industry was built on copywriting. It’s a hard, cold fact that not all copywriters are created equal.
Don’t entrust the very survival and livelihood of your business to just anyone. Can you guarantee anyone other than a skilled expert could avoid the 25 mistakes we’ve covered? And these mistakes are just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t be the Titanic! Avoid the pitfalls of second-rate copy and make an educated investment
There are some blogs and websites out there that stand out for their awesome content, catchy headlines and creative personality. We all strive to be like them, but it’s hard to crack open the code and know just how to offer your readers that same genius website copywriting. While there are literally hundreds of steps you need to take to offer SEO-dominating content, there are a few essentials that you need to know now if you plan on boosting your content for the future.
11 Website Copywriting Secrets (That We Will Tell)
1. Quit Being So Complex
Why is your website so complex? It’s unlikely your readers are that complex. Using abstract statements, hidden meanings, and confusing your audience with irrelevant fluff isn’t going to keep them coming back. People like it simple. In fact some of the best website copywriting is ridiculously simple. When you’re writing your core message to your audience, convey your message, but do so without your readers needing a thesaurus to figure out what you’re saying.
2. Show Your Readers, Don’t Just Tell Them
You must show your readers through dialogue, pictures and facts. No matter how great your opinion is or how knowledgeable you are, you still need to show your readers there’s salt to what you’re spouting off.
Write personal stories and share your experiences with readers. Use case studies (if applicable) to show how others see a product or service you’re writing about.
And, use credible statistics—don’t just pull numbers from thin air.
3. Be Super, Not Superlative
There’s nothing more distracting that sentence fluff. Superlatives and adjectives don’t drive as much punch as you would think, instead, they distract the readers from your core message. Use facts, images and figures to add that extra “something” to what you’re saying.
4. Write About What You Know, Only What You Know
Great website copywriting is written that way because it is well researched and thoroughly thought out. Even the best writers have to research. You’ll get a stronger message and teach your readers more if you write from expertise.
5. Take the Imaginative Road
The Internet is teaming with sites that don’t offer much creativity. In fact most are drowned in facts and boring language, which makes the average Internet user click through to find something else. When you’re thinking up your copy, be imaginative and step out-of-the-box. Look at your competitors sites and avoid doing the same thing they’re doing. Offer your readers something out of the ordinary and something creative. According to the Custom Content Council, 61 percent of consumers buy from companies that showcase personality and uniqueness above the competition.
6. Be Organized and Think Ahead of Today’s Post
There will be days your creativity isn’t there or you can’t come up with something brilliant and that’s okay. If, however, you’re not organized those days are going to hurt your content strategy. Awesome website copywriting starts with organization. Create a content calendar that outlines what topics and days you’ll post those topics. When you’re feeling creative, write more than one post a day—tackle those topics—and get ahead. That way, if you have a slow writing day you’re not hurting your content or your readers.
7. Quit Using the Exclamation Points! No One Likes to be Yelled At
A well-written sentence doesn’t need an exclamation point to deliver a powerful message. In fact, using too many exclamation points can ruin the message you’re trying to say and it’s downright obnoxious.
Website copywriting is all about using the right words and understanding when exclamation points and punctuation matters. Punctuation should enhance a message, but it shouldn’t be the boat that delivers the message.
8. Deliver the Unsayable
A website copywriting professional is hired to say what cannot be said. They speak to the reader, articulate and deliver a message that was otherwise undeliverable. If your website copywriting doesn’t deliver the right message, it won’t be as powerful. In fact, according to Social Media Today, one of the top five reasons people follow companies and brands on social media is because they write entertaining content.
9. Don’t Skimp on Quality
Whether you’re writing the content or hiring out, quality matters. Low-quality content not only discourages readers from continuing on, but it can impact your search engine ranks too. High quality website copywriting is free from errors (including grammar and spelling) and offers readers quality information. In addition, it isn’t copied. Copied text (that copied/pasted from other websites) can damage your website’s rank.
10. Compare Yourself to the Rest
Good website copywriting is honest, even when it means comparing yourself to the rest. If you’re going to compare your company, product or service to the competition, you need to be honest. Naturally you want to mention the differences that put you ahead of the competition, but don’t short change the competition or make up negatives they really don’t have—that tells the reader they can’t trust what you have to say.
11. Edit or Hire Someone to Edit for You
Poorly-edited website copy can be the death of your website. No one wants to read things that don’t make sense or that is riddled with typos. Sloppy content just puts your website and company in a negative light. If you’re not the best editor, hire someone or ask a friend for assistance.
Website copywriting is certainly a skill, but not an impossible feat. There’s nothing wrong with trying to write your own content and plenty of website owners write their own content. As long as you follow these tips, you just might have the best content on the virtual block.
Ghastly website copywriting is a sure fire way to frighten your website or blog’s visitors. Whether you’re in advertising and marketing, or you’re just writing your own blog, you have to always be a step ahead of your readers and the expectations of consumers. That means staying on top of events and holidays, especially those that generate buzz. You might already be prepared for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s and you might have killer content ready to go, but one of the most missed events is Halloween.
Website Copywriting Gone Wacky: When It’s NOT Good
Halloween is technically the first holiday of the “season” and it’s a prime opportunity to spice up your website’s content. According to National Geographic, 158 million American consumers will take part in Halloween festivities of some kind in 2013. While Halloween isn’t an official holiday—banks still operate, school is in session and you’re not going to get the day off—it’s celebrated worldwide. So if you’re website copywriting doesn’t contain a little Halloween spirit, you’re missing out on a spook-tacular topic that is sure to generate a little buzz.
Before you sit down at the keyboard and start typing away about pumpkins, your favorite trick-or-treating experience, or spout off a ghost story, you have to remember you’re still selling something. Integrating holidays and events into your website copywriting requires a little creativity. Avoid clichés or tacky puns—they’re just frightful. Trying using a couple of our tips to write great seasonal content without spooking your readers.
Don’t Go Overboard
Halloween web copywriting doesn’t need to be over the top, but it still needs to be present. Write just one Halloween-themed blog or a tiny series. Every sales message, call-to-action or general content post can have a few Halloween-themed ideas, but less is always more. Use seasonal events, like Halloween, to show a little personality.
Have a Great Eye for Detail
Mistakes can cost your business hundreds to thousands of dollars and they’re difficult to recover from. Your website copywriting shouldn’t scare people away. It should be friendly for your targeted demographics as well as anyone else who might accidentally stumble upon your site. While you’re at it, check your content twice. Take extra time to spot grammar or spelling errors in the process. If writing isn’t your thing, consider hiring a web copywriting service to brew up some creative, Halloween and holiday-themed content for you.
Do Your Research
If you’re going to write about Halloween, do some research first. Perhaps offer a few historical tidbits about where the stories about witches and brews came from or where the tradition of candy corn was born. Offering little tidbits that teach your audience something can take your web copywriting to the next level.
Don’t Forget SEO
You might be writing a Halloween-themed copy or blog post, but you still have to keep SEO in mind. People regularly look for your site and services based on keywords, and it’s unlikely your products happen to be named after Halloween themed items year-round. So before you swap out services, products, or useful keywords for Halloween-themed terms, remember what people will be searching for the other 364 days of the year.
Remember the Purpose
No matter what your Halloween website copywriting entails, remember the purpose of the content. Ultimately you are writing to sell, promote or get readers to take some form of action. Your content should be entertaining, but the reader should still know you expect something out of them in the end.
Tie in Halloween When It’s Appropriate
If you’re sale is because of Halloween, tie that into your content. If you have products that can be related to Halloween, tie those into your blog content too. Only tie in when it’s appropriate and avoid throwing products and services into your Halloween website copywriting just to throw them in there.
Some Last Minute Blog Ideas That Don’t Bite
Not sure where to get started? Here are a few last minute blog ideas that are frightfully awesome for any industry.
Horror Movies – Everyone knows the classics and even if you’re not a fan, it’s likely the majority of your readers have heard of those classics too. Tie in a few well-known movie quotes to add a little pop culture to your content.
Halloween Tunes – “Monster Mash” and “Thriller” are popular songs for Halloween. Quote them in your content or have them playing when visitors come to your site.
Post a Halloween Recipe –Halloween-inspired recipes are a lot more versatile than you might think. Your website copywriting can share a favorite Halloween appetizer, dessert, snack or even a wicked cocktail in celebration of the season. You don’t have to actually make them yourself, but offering your readers a little something extra can go a long way to draw them in.
Halloween copywriting should be fun as well as purposeful. If you need help, hire professional website copywriting services. Web copywriting services have a team of writers that can generate content that won’t scare away current or potential customers—no witchcraft required.
Your website’s copywriting says a lot more about you than you might realize. It not only tells users what you’re all about, but it also helps a user decide whether or not they want to become your customer. And, if you don’t have high-quality copywriting on your site you’re probably not telling them much good stuff about you. Copywriting is one of the most essential elements to creating an effective marketing campaign. This art isn’t something just anyone can do either—it’s all about delivering the right words with the right impact that makes a reader jump into action.
There’s a reason companies fight for good copywriters. They’re experts at taking words and making a story. They can dig deep within a reader, make intensive statements and generate profitable results.
Back in the early days of the internet as we now know it, getting your website recognized by the search engines with or without web copywriting as an authority, was a simple process. All you needed was web writing — any web writing — and plenty of it. You decided what key terms you wanted to rank for, stuffed your web copywriting with as many instances of those keywords as you could, and called it a day. Quality wasn’t something that was necessary at all. In fact, you could post web copy that was barely intelligible and still easily rank, so long as it was packed with the right keywords.
Web Copywriting That Ranks – Gaining the Respect of Today’s “Smart” Search Engines
