5 copywriting mistakes you’re probably making

How to avoid the most common copywriting mistakes and convert more of your visitors

If your landing page isn't converting leads and your email campaigns don't bring in significant results, something might be wrong with your copy.

Even if it's relatively easy to find talented writers these days, businesses are still making the same mistakes over and over again.

Check out our new Quick Win on how to write an effective sales letter or email.

Here are 5 copywriting mistakes you're probably making together with tips to help you fix them to deliver compelling copy for your product and boost your bottom line.

1. You don't really understand your audience

It's hard to address people you don't really know in your copy. How are you supposed to convince them to follow your call-to-action if you have no idea about their preferences, needs, or pain points?

Before crafting your copy, you need to have a full understanding of your visitors. Specifically, you should look into which stage of the buying cycle they're in.
Here are some questions you should ask to get all the information you need:

• Have your visitors heard about your brand before?
• Do they know your product?
• How intent are they on making a purchase?
• Do they have all data they need to make an informed purchasing decision?
• Perhaps they have unanswered questions, or fears which are holding them back from making a purchase?

The answers to these questions will be different depending on traffic. You need optimized PPC and search landing pages for this reason.

You should also know how motivated and aware your visitors are. Conduct qualitative research to find that out. You can do that by checking your live chat logs, and reaching out to customers to ask them some of these questions directly.

Their answers might vary. That's when you need to look for patterns and trends among the visitors – for example, by looking at their traffic source. Create dedicated landing pages with customized copy based on these similarities.

2. You focus on features, not benefits

This is a classic copywriting mistake brands still make. Marketers might easily fall into the trap of features over benefits. It's common to see your own product from the perceptive of what it does. But what you need to be looking at is what it does for the customer.

In other words, you need to orient your copy around the benefits of your product, not its features. Don't write how great your product is. Talk about how it can help your visitors realize their goals or make their lives better.

Make sure that you focus on the right benefits too. Even if you're convinced about the main benefit of your product, you're not your own customer so can't know that for sure. Reach out to your current clients to ask them how your product benefited them. Perhaps they found an unexpected use of your product? Their answers should guide your copy.

3. You haven't done your homework

Your copy needs to adequately convey the value of your product. But value is a subjective metric. It's based on your customers and their needs, preferences, or pain points.

How to know what makes your customers tick? By interviewing them. Do your homework and learn as much as you can about your target audience.

Your most persuasive sales points can emerge out of conversations with people who use your product. They might challenge your assumptions or validate them. That's why you need to do this research and get to know your visitors.

Before sending a brief to your copywriter or setting out to craft a copy on your own, talk to your sales and customer service representatives.

They're the ones who talk to your customers every day. They'll be able to tell you what prevents people from buying, and what their common issues are.

4. You have no defined goal for your copy

A copy without a goal isn't going to benefit your business. In fact, it's a waste of your time. If you want to achieve results with your copy, you need to start by setting an objective for it. Every single piece of copy you produce needs to have a specific goal.

For example, if you’re writing copy for a sign-up form, you need to focus on this critical objective: persuading qualified leads to fill out the form and sign up to your service or newsletter.

If you're looking to hire a copywriter, you'll need a specialized service aligned with your goal. Have a look at job boards like Gumtree – that's where freelancers who ace email copywriting or landing page copy advertise their services.

Copywriting is a kind of writing, so it can be creative and artistic. But it should be geared at one goal: to sell. That's why you need to set an objective for every paragraph and ensure that nothing distracts visitors from that goal.

5. You forget about legibility

Don't expect people to read your copy word for word. Consumers usually scan a copy. Once they spot an interesting point, they stop to read it for a couple of seconds and then continue to scan the text.

That's why you need to make sure that your copy is easy to scan. Focus on its legibility first.

Consider the font of your text:

• If the font large enough?
• Are the letters or lines too crammed together?
• Does the color of the font stand out against the background?
• Is the font clear enough if a visitor takes a step back from the screen?

Now that you've got your font covered, it's time to consider the structure of your copy. It's best to use simple, short sentences in each paragraph. Aim for no more than three. To check whether your copy is scannable, use this smart 5 Second Test.

Before you set out to write your copy, you need to decide what type of copywriting will be most beneficial to your business. Avoid these mistakes, and you'll be on your to creating copy that brings plenty of new customers to your business.

For example, if you’re writing copy for a sign-up form, you need to focus on this critical objective: persuading qualified leads to fill out the form and sign up to your service or newsletter.

If you're looking to hire a copywriter, you'll need a specialized service aligned with your goal. Have a look at job boards like Gumtree – that's where freelancers who ace email copywriting or landing page copy advertise their services.

Copywriting is a kind of writing, so it can be creative and artistic. But it should be geared at one goal: to sell. That's why you need to set an objective for every paragraph and ensure that nothing distracts visitors from that goal.

Thanks to Zoe Anderson for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Zoe Anderson is a tech-savvy blogger with a great passion for teaching. Zoe is a part of the team behind StudySelect where she often shares her stories pertaining to technology, marketing and social media.