The thing I love about copywriting is that there’s SO much flexibility in what you can say and how you can say it. Which allows you to write vibrantly-unique copy that perfectly matches your unique brand.
That being said, there are a few copywriting mistakes to avoid if you want your copy to connect with your people—and convert.
In our copy, we should always aim to be clear, concise, and compelling. (Bringing it back to the 3 C’s of copywriting!)
Anything that drastically takes our copy away from those tenets? It probably needs to go.
So let’s dive into the copywriting mistakes to avoid to make sure your copy is fully carrying its weight.
Common Copywriting Mistakes To Avoid
Talking to EVERYONE
It’s natural that, when writing copy, you want to include everyone and make each of them happy. But the thing is, when you try to use language that talks to everyone, you’re targeting no one.
The best copy is hyper-specific and hones in on the frustrations of one specific kind of person. As soon as you try to take that message and include another, less-aligned audience, the message gets muddled and vague. It doesn’t have that same impact anymore.
Stick to one of the golden rules of copy: speak to one person.
Trying to be clever
What writer doesn’t love when they think up something super clever to throw into their copy? It’s such a good feeling!
But the problem is that, often, these clever little lines aren’t always super clear to the reader. And if it’s not super clear, then the message isn’t getting through and the copy isn’t effective.
So when going back and forth on whether you should cut a certain bit of copy, read it through the eyes of your reader and pay attention to any confusion!
Not thinking about spacing
We’ve all been primed in high school about the correct structure of a paragraph and that it should have an appropriate beginning, middle, and end, with at least 3-5 sentences.
But when it comes to copy, we can throw those guidelines out the window.
Paragraphs can be one sentence!
Or just 3 words!
Or even just 1 word.
Yup.
Part of copywriting is keeping our reader’s attention from one sentence to the next. A helpful way to support that goal is to break up large chunks of text and make it more digestible.
And always check out how your copy looks on mobile. The copy there tends to look even more condensed, even if you did add plenty of line breaks!
Focusing too much on you or your services
Sure, your readers are on your site to learn how you can help them. But that doesn’t mean they only wanna hear about you.
Like anyone, readers wanna talk about themselves!
So make sure you’re keeping them in your copy.
- How do your services give them what they need?
- How well do you know what they’re frustrated by?
- How well do you know what they’re dreaming about?
Keep all of that right upfront and center!
Not updating it often
Checking back in every so often to give your copy an audit is a can’t-miss item to add to your to-do list.
As time goes by, you’ll continue to get clearer on who you serve and better understand their journey. So it’s likely that you’ll find copy on your site that no longer feels aligned and will need to be tweaked to better speak to your people.
Or for your blogs, there may be tweaks you can make to make certain content more evergreen.
One other thing I do every so often is read through past blog posts and seek out opportunities to link to more recent, relevant blogs that I’ve written.
Saying too much
Ever get into a good flow and get all kinds of good copy down, only to realize you’ve basically written a novel?
(Same ✋).
It can be easy to want to put lots of copy out there to make sure you’re targeting everything your audience wants to hear.
But that’s overwhelming for anyone.
Good copy says what it needs to say succinctly.
So be ruthless with that backspace button. (But actually just save the extra copy in a “Cut Copy” folder to save for next time. Pls don’t delete it!)
Spending too much time stalking competitors
When putting your website together, it can be tempting to peak at other competitors to see what they’re doing so you can make sure you’re doing all the right things.
And stalking competitors *is* a good starting point. But not for this reason.
When you’re looking at other sites with similar offerings, look at them through the lens of what they’re not mentioning. What opportunities are they NOT talking about that you can talk about?
This keeps your copy and site unique to you and your business! (With no copying, cause *yuck*).
Focusing only on features and not the benefits
Don’t get me wrong, the features of your offering are important. Your readers wanna know all the details.
But to make those features shine, you want to highlight the benefits of them.
Sure, you’re a home stager who can have the home staged in as soon as 2 weeks. That’s great.
But what’s even better is that you seamlessly stage any space in 2 weeks so that your clients can quickly show the house and sell it even faster.
Make sure to make that connection where relevant!
Not Proofreading
The last copywriting mistake to avoid is not proofreading!
You could have the BEST copy in the entire world. But as soon as your reader finds a typo (or worse—multiple typos), they’re pulled out of it.
Lots of times, people read through copy looking for a reason not to make a purchase. And you don’t want a silly lil typo to be the reason why someone chooses to work with someone else!
(But also, we’ve all been there and I also like to think that while it does turn some people away, there’s an equal amount of people who see the human-ness in typos!)
I use the free version of Grammerly and it works pretty well for me!
If you’re avoiding all of these copywriting mistakes in your writing, you’re off to a wonderful start!
But if you feel like you need help getting your thoughts down on paper, I’m here for you!
→ Let me write your website for you
→ Send me your copy for a copy audit!
→ Check out the blog for more copywriting tips to getcha goin’!
Hey, I’m Kristie! And besides writing website and email copy for the best businesses, I also help business-owners like you feel grounded and less chaotic.
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