Copywriting is a specialised form of writing. It is not enough to have imagination, ideas and possession of a rich vocabulary – although these things certainly help. It is mostly about having a keen insight on what your potential customers would like to read, and what types of arguments and writing style would persuade them to buy your products or services.
Small business owners who can not afford to hire a creative agency to take care of all the marketing and ad copy they need are their own wordsmiths. Looking over blog article ads and social media posts, copywriting specialists have identified a set of mistakes which occur with great frequency. These are mistakes which demonstrate a lack of deep understanding of what copywriting is supposed to accomplish and the means through which these goals are achieved.
Therefore, today we will approach these common copywriting mistakes, which you may be making, too. They may not be apparent to you right now, but they will be once you finish reading this article. Let’s get started!
- Not Writing for Your Specific Audience
Attempting to address and attract a large audience is tempting. It is also a mistake. In trying to please everyone, your copy will be bland, lifeless and will please no one. In truth, your business is not capable of competing with large supermarket networks or international corporations. Your key to success is to identify your niche audience and to address those people, using messages and language which appeal to them.
Thus, your message will gain a personal tone of voice which they recognise and like, because it is similar to their own mentality and the way they talk. As a consequence, they will feel related to your business, because they feel that you understand them and you can solve their problems and satisfy their needs.
- Writing with an Elite Audience in Mind
You are tempted to show off your writing skills and knowledge in your copywriting. This is wrong, because such writing would be understood only by people with a similar level of education and skills as yours. In reality, you must address your target audience, using terms and words which they can understand and relate to.
Before you start writing, tell yourself that this text should appeal to your customers, focusing on their needs, their interests and their pain points. If you want to show off your writing and technical skills, keep a separate personal blog in your spare time, but do not mix it with your copywriting.
- Describing Features of Your Products and Services
This mistake happens even among professional copywriters on occasions. It is caused by the fact that you lose the focus on what you want to accomplish. You are not selling product features. You are actually selling people a solution for their problems and needs. Therefore, what you really want to focus on is the benefits they will enjoy while using your product or service. Once you have the right objectives in mind, you will realise that the entire concept of your copy will change and take another shape.
- Writing without a Plan
Copywriting is, as we said at the beginning, very different from leisure or literature writing. You cannot afford to wait around until your muse decides to show up. You have to produce copy on a constant basis if you want to keep your potential customers interested. This requires careful planning and sticking to that plan.
Decide how much copy you need to produce each week, how much research each article needs and how long each piece of copy should be. Set a timer to find out how long it takes you to do your research and write a regular type of copy – this will help you create a clear schedule for your writing.
- Great Article, Weak Call to Action
Last, but not least, the purpose of copywriting is to persuade your prospects to buy your products. Thus, no matter how useful, interesting or funny your blog article or newsletter may be, if it does not include a call to action of sorts it is useless. People will nod in agreement or laugh a little and will move on with their daily schedule, forgetting about you and your article.
As you can see, the biggest copywriting mistakes are generally related to how well you understand its purposes. Once you realise that you should focus on your customers and not on yourself and your products, you will certainly learn how to produce better copy.