Online Marketing Tip: Avoid Writing Bad Copy

Writing great copy isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Blue Corona has the expertise to write great blog posts and landing pages for your website. Blue Corona has a team of in-house copywriting superstars. We’ve also decided to share some useful copywriting tip with you!

Ok, so what’s wrong with that introduction? I’ll give you a hint: a few of different things. Maybe the first thing you noticed was the typo (bonus points)! Aside from the typo, this paragraph also isn’t you-centric at all and borders on being too self-promotional right off the bat.

Ok, so how do you write effective copy? Without further ado…

Copywriting Tips

I’ll start with the four things I’ve already mentioned. Strive for the following when you write copy—for either the web or print:

Work Free of Typos & Other Errors

If you have a great page or blog post (and we have tips for how to write better blog posts, too) but it’s full of typos, sorry to be blatant, but it will still suck. Careless typos and, worse, errors like misspellings of proper nouns, can reduce your credibility and, frankly, just make you look dumb. Proofread, proofread, and proofread again—a fresh set of eyes can also be extremely helpful.

You-Centric Writing

Take a look at that opening paragraph again. Three consecutive sentences that start out referencing the company (::shudder::). Think about how you would have reacted differently had the opening been more along the lines of:

Is your writing suffering? Do you need copywriting tips? Great copy isn’t always easy, but with a little work, it can be achieved. Fortunately, we have some writing tricks up our sleeves and we are always in a sharing kind of mood!

It puts the reader first and is more engaging, and consumers respond better to that. And no, I’m not just writing that because me-centric writing is one of my pet peeves. There are actual professional studies out there that can back this point up—check it out! “But how can I be more you-centric?” you may ask. You-centric writing often is conversational and includes questions, another great way to engage readers (in fact, FAQs are great blog post potential). If you put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and truly think about what they are looking for, your writing will improve.

Helpful & Informational Content

Answering people’s questions and building authority by providing useful informational blog posts and landing pages is great, but what about conversion? Yes, your page needs to convert—and there are several ways to increase conversion rates, including writing better calls-to-action—but there’s a difference between writing good sales-y copy and being too self-promotional. In my terrible intro example, I was all about our services right from the get-go. This can be a turn-off to many readers, especially ones who are looking for an answer to their question and aren’t ready yet to learn all about your company.

Text Breaks

Nobody wants to read large blocks of text, whether in a book or a blog post. A page with huge chunks of text and no breaks is unapproachable and hard to digest. There are several ways to create page breaks and make your content more readable:

• Shorter paragraphs (try to keep each one no more than five or six lines)
• Bulleted or numbered lists
• Pictures
• Graphs and charts
• Text that stands out (bold, different color, etc.)

Empathy

One of the best things about Lord of the Rings (besides Faramir) is the writing. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s straight up corny at some points, but one of the reasons it’s so good is because it appeals to the emotions. Content that creates empathy and appeals to readers’ emotions (remember learning about ethos, pathos, and logos in your rhetoric classes?!) is the best kind of writing. Avoid “empty” content!

Think about this scenario: You’re writing a blog post about furnace replacement. Instead of starting out with, “Need to replace your furnace before the cold weather hits? Timely furnace replacement is essential to avoid inconvenient breakdowns,” write something like, “It’s the middle of December and 30 degrees outside when you wake up in the middle of the night, shivering cold. Your furnace has stopped working. But with timely furnace replacement, this kind of situation can be avoided!” I hope I don’t need to tell you that the latter one is better! Sensory and conversational, you-centric writing are great ways to “humanize” your content and empathize with readers.

Need Help Writing Good Copy?

Do you always try to write for your website but never have the time? No worries—the Blue Corona writing team has you covered! We offer SEO copywriting services, so if you need help getting your blog off the ground or want to add more pages to your site and want the best content possible, contact us today!