Category Archives: Copywriting and Content Writing Tips

8 types of headlines you can use in copywriting

8 categories of headlines you can use and copywritingKasauli simple and syndicate the

Do you know that 8 out of 10 people read your headlines but only 2 out of 10 read your main copy?

Since 80% people are going to read your headline, you can make the maximum impact writing effective headlines.

Therefore, writing power packed headlines has always been a critical part of the copywriting process.

In fact, copywriters like Bob Bly and David Ogilvy suggest that out of the total time you get to write copy for a project, spend 50% time on coming up with an effective headline, and then remaining 50% for the main body content.

When writing copy, should you write your headline first?

There is debate regarding this among copywriters.

If you ask a content writer, he or she will tell you it hardly matters as long as the headline represents the main gist of the content they are writing.

Consequently, many content writers first work on the copy and then based on the contents of the copy, create the headline.

The same happens with headings and subheadings.

First, they quickly jot down whatever thoughts come to them and then later they format the document with a headline, headings, and subheadings.

It depends on your process.

I write the headline first.

This is because my entire copywriting and content writing process centers around the main headline.

I believe that once I have worked out the headline, it becomes easier to write the rest of the copy.

Even when writing headings and subheadings, given a choice, I write them first and then the subtext beneath them.

Headlines and headings are interchangeable.

The term headings are used in terms of formatting and document referencing, and headlines are used as general terms to draw attention from people.

Headlines improve your conversion rate

Whether you want to improve your click through ratio or on-page conversion rate, your headline plays an important role.

Websites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy spend lots of time and effort on headlines that draw massive amounts of traffic from social media websites and search engines like Google.

You may have seen that the quality of the primary BuzzFeed content is not great but their headlines shock, intrigue, and humor.

BuzzFeed headline example

According to American Writers & Artists, there is a “Four U’s” approach to writing headlines.

Your headlines must

Be USEFUL to the readers.
Instill a sense of URGENCY in them.
Communicate to them that the message on the web page is UNIQUE.
ULTRA-SPECIFIC in nature to tell the readers precisely what you’re offering.

Questions to ask to write effective headlines

Want to write effective headlines?

Here are some questions that can help you write click-worthy headlines.

Does your headline offer a clearly understandable reward to the reader for reading the main copy?
Is your headline believable?
Does your headline contain specific facts that are easy to believe?
Does your headline figure a strong, actionable emotion?
Does your headline offer an answer to a question the reader is seeking?
Does your headline offer an irresistible proposition that is relevant to the needs of the reader?

Effective headlines can be of different types.

Listed below are eight types of headlines that popular copywriters and content writers often use.

Direct, straightforward headlines

Such headlines don’t beat around the bush.

30% discount on our holiday package
Buy the custom printed T-shirt now and get 20% off.
Free e-book: Data visualization made easy

These headlines offer straightforward proposition.

There is no mincing of words.

There is no guesswork.

The reader immediately knows what is being offered.

Indirect headlines

Some examples of indirect headlines are

Stop eating this meal now; want to know why?
The future of technology is right at your doorstep – find out how
You are never going to get this chance again
This is how you should have used your phone in the first place

Why are these indirect headlines?

They simply intrigue your curiosity.

They don’t provide any information.

To make sense of these headlines, you need to read the copy that follows.

News headlines

You can learn a lot from news headlines because they are meant to make people read news.

In the olden days when newspapers were sold on the roads, their sales depended on the headlines.

In the newspaper industry, headlines were written so that the newspaper sellers could scream them and prompt people to buy the day’s newspaper.

Some examples of newspaper headlines are:

NASA launches a new probe to Mars
The government in Bihar falls, the 3rd time in 5 years
The corruption charges reveal an interdepartmental web of intrigue
Credible Content decides to put more stress on day-to-day content publishing

You can see that news headlines are like direct headlines with the big difference that they are about news and not about selling stuff.

How to headlines

These types of headlines are quite prevalent in the blogging world.

Even on my own Credible Content blog, I have written a number of blog posts on the theme of how to.

Some hypothetical examples of the “how to” headlines are:

How to hire the perfect copywriter for your website in 3 easy steps
How to make an omelet that is not hard on your stomach
How to write copy that instantly converts
How to improve your English writing skills in just 2 days

Question headlines

As the name suggests, a question headline asks a question from the reader.

Questions are always intriguing.

Whenever you come across a question, if you know the answer, you want to respond, and if you don’t know the answer, you want to know it, especially if it is relevant to your need.

Some examples of question-based headlines are

Are you looking for a content writer who understands your business?
Are you sick of your current accounting software?
Do you know that germs can be life threatening?

Command or action headlines

Such headlines directly tell people to take an action.

Strong action words are used in the beginning of the command or action headlines.

Some example:

Download our FREE e-book now
Avail 20% discount now
Subscribe to our newsletter today
Order your biryani today
Do command headlines work?

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.

It depends on your messaging.

My personal take is that such headlines work better as subheadings or call to action buttons.

Readers should be exposed to such headlines when they have already read a major portion of your copy.

‘N’ reasons why headlines

Such headlines have become popular in the age of web content.

First, a few examples:

13 reasons why you want to use WordPress as your preferred blogging platform
5 reasons why you must hire a trained copywriter for your business
25 reasons why people are abandoning your shopping cart

“Reasons why” headlines can be very effective.

When people come across them, they know exactly how many points you are going to cover.

There is no magic figure.

Nonetheless, the grapevine is that odd numbers perform better than even numbers for “reasons why” headlines.

Testimonial headlines

Testimonials come from real people.

From real customers and clients.

Some examples:

Our business registered 5% growth after switching to this accounting software
Initially I was doubtful, but then I was blown away
They delivered a project in 2 weeks after committing to a deadline of 4 weeks

Testimonial headlines are easier to believe in.

Instead of you blowing your own horn or using some sort of verbal trickery, the customers and clients who have used your product or service themselves are vouching for you.

Listed above are the main categories of headlines that you can write for your web pages, blog posts, and articles.

Different headline categories may perform better in different situations.

No matter how great a copywriter you are, you need to experiment.

Are you doing customer centric or products centric content writing

Leave a reply

Should content writing be customer centric pr product centric

How do you draw the difference between writing customer centric or product centric content?

I was reading this blog post on the importance of being customer centric or product centric when designing products or mobile apps, and thought that this philosophy is also applicable to content writing.

What is customer centric content writing?

In simple terms, customer centric content writing means focusing on benefits rather than features.

Features are important.

A mobile phone that comes with 280 GB memory sounds quite impressive.

This is a feature – our phone has this much memory.

What is the benefit to the customer?

You’re not going to have to delete data to make more space very soon.

Many phone users face this problem.

They go on making videos and taking photographs unmindful of the space they are taking, and then suddenly, they begin to get the warning that they are running out of space.

280 GB is a lot of space.

You can tell your customers that they can store up to 10,000 videos (depending on the length).

You can tell them that they can store more than 100,000 photographs.

They are not going to have to delete data for at least a few years.

As a content writer, you need to be the customer’s advocate.

It is the customer who buys a product or a service.

It is the reader who reads your content.

If there is no connection, the customer is not going to buy, and the reader is not going to read.

How to write customer centric content?

To be able to write customer centric content you must understand what the customer needs.

Instead of thinking about what you are offering, think about what the customer wants.

Here are a few things you can do to write customer centric content.

Use the language your customers use

Every industry has its own set of jargon.

Jargons may be important within the industry because they make your communication unambiguous and eliminate scope for contradictions and confusion.

Sometimes, something that can be explained in a couple of sentences can be explained in a single word using a jargon.

But your customers may not understand them.

Take for example if someone tells you, “Give me a hard copy.”

Most people won’t know what “hard copy” means unless they have used the word before.

They won’t be able to make out that “hard copy” simply means giving some information on a printed sheet, through a printer.

Hence, if you are writing content for a printer, instead of saying, “it gives you 500 hard copies per cartridge” you can say, “you can print out 500 sheets per cartridge.”

Write in a very simple language

Although I don’t believe in dumbing down readers, when people are quickly reading, they don’t want to spend time deciphering what your sentences mean.

When I’m writing content, as much as I can, I use simple sentences.

When I’m writing content, my intention is not to showcase my prowess as a writer or a content writer.

My only purpose is to make my writing convincing and simple so that people do business with my clients.

Sometimes my sentences contain just three words.

In a copywriting e-book I read that even if sometimes you make grammar mistakes, don’t worry.

Though, I don’t agree.

Grammar mistakes make you look unprofessional.

Nonetheless, use as many simple sentences as you can.

Avoid writing compound and complex sentences as much as you can.

Write for a clearly defined persona

Write for a person.

Don’t let it be a vague person.

Before starting to write your main content, on a sheet of paper or in a Word Doc, make a list of the attributes the person has (for whom you are writing).

You can write her age, her income, the region she comes from, her marital status, how much she generally spends on similar products and services you are promoting, how she has conversations, what are her habits, and so on.

Creating a persona can be time-consuming but it improves the customer centricity of your content writing process.

Once you have defined the persona, imagine the person is sitting in front of you and you are talking to her.

Have a conversation – use a conversational tone.

It is very important to use the language your customer uses on day-to-day basis.

Answer all the questions and fears your customer may have

Your customers may react with “so what?”

They must come up with, “what if?”

Suppose you’re promoting a cloud-based accounting software.

Think of all the questions your target customer may have.

Think of all the apprehensions.

Make a list of all the reasons why that customer may not take a decision in favor of your cloud-hosted accounting software.

Will they be able to port their existing data as it is?

Is there a steep learning curve?

Is the software going to cost more in terms of time and money compared to their existing software?

Is the software accessible on all devices?

Is it customizable?

How many reports does it generate?

How is it going to improve your accounting?

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages to such an extent that they should start using the software?

Why shouldn’t they use your competitor’s software?

And so on.

Think in terms of what your customer may think.

Speak in a definitive language

Instead of telling them many people are using your software, tell them 1500 people are using your software.

Don’t just tell them that yours is the best software – show them the accolades it has acquired.

Tell them stories of people who have improved their businesses or their personal lives with your software.

Don’t use vague expressions like “etc.” or “so on”.

Even if you have just three claims to make, just make those three claims and then leave it up to the customer whether she wants to be impressed or not.

Write a list of problems your product solves

Customers are more interested in knowing what problems your product solves rather than what cool features it has.

Your mobile phone has haptic touch? What does it mean?

How does it solve the phone user’s problem?

How does it give more feature to the user?

You offer storage space in the cloud?

How easy is it to upload and sync files?

Can the files be synced across all devices?

How much data can be stored?

How secure is the data on your servers?

Don’t assume solutions to what sort of problems people are seeking.

Talk to them.

Conduct interviews.

Conduct survey and polls.

Have one-on-one chats.

What is product centric content writing?

Product centric content writing is when you talk about the features and the parameters of the product without telling your customers how these features and parameters are going to improve their lives.

There is a dialogue in a Kevin Costner movie, Field of dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

This is pertaining to the Las Vegas city that was being built, but does it hold for products?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

When Steve jobs came up with the idea of an iPhone people laughed at him.

It was hard to imagine a mobile phone without a keyboard.

Nonetheless, he went ahead with the innovation and the rest is history.

In such a context, you can say that sometimes the product-centric approach works.

But these are rarest of the rare events.

When writing content, you must strike a balance between customer centric and product centric content writing.

Even when you talk about features, talk about them in such a manner that they read like benefits to the customers.

How to improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

Leave a reply

Improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

Do you want to improve your content writing? Then these three easy steps can take you a long way.

Content writing is the process of writing for websites, blogs and other digital pieces of information that businesses may use to nurture leads and keep their visitors engaged.

As a professional content writer, I work on the following content writing assignments:

Main website content
Blog posts
Case studies
White papers
Landing pages
LinkedIn profiles
Email marketing campaigns
Social media updates

Do I work on all content writing assignments by myself?

Not necessarily.

These days I’m closely working with at least 15 content writers.

They write well.

They are hard-working.

Their English is good (most of my content writing involves writing in English).

I regularly mentor them.

You may like to read: 15 Content Writing Best Practices

Just being able to write well doesn’t help you improve your content writing

If you want to improve your content writing in the sense that you want to work on more lucrative assignments and get paid better, you need to understand one thing:

Professional content writing isn’t just about knowing how to write well. This is not how you improve your content writing.

Even English professors can write well. There are grammarians who can give you sleepless nights with the length and breadth of their knowledge.

No.

Content writing isn’t just about writing. It is a combination of various factors – inherent and acquired – that makes you a professional content writer worth paying for.

Sometimes when I tell my clients that I am working with other writers and I’m not writing all the content by myself, they become reluctant.

They come to my website.

They read my content.

The go through my blog posts.

They ask for samples and like them.

They want similar content writing.

For that, they want me to personally write for them.

It is humanly not possible.

After years of writing content, I am more interested in getting content writing assignments – as many as possible – and then making my writers work on them.

Nonetheless, when other writers do content writing for me, I go through every individual page and unless it satisfies benchmarks I have defined, I don’t forward the documents to the clients.

So, how do you improve your content writing?

Frankly, a book can be written on the topic, but here I’m going to list three fundamental steps that you can take to improve your content writing.

Incorporate these steps and you will instantly notice a marked difference in your writing. Here they are.

Define the search intent clearly to improve your content writing

The term search intent comes from SEO, but it can help you become an effective content writer.

You can read more about search intent on this blog post: What are the benefits of writing content for informational search intent?

Understanding search intent helps you understand why would people read your content?

What information are they looking for?

What is the intention of looking for that information?

Are they looking for information just to get educated and have some knowledge?

Are they looking for comparison and reviews?

Do they want to buy your product or service?

Are they still in the process of making up their minds?

These differences may be subtle and even indistinguishable to the untrained eye but for an experienced content writer, the ability to know the differences is invaluable.

Suppose your intention is to attract people who are in the process of deciding whether they need your services or not.

Suppose you provide content writing services.

They have realized that they need a professional content writer but they haven’t yet decided whom to hire.

They are ready to hire.

This is commercial search intent.

They may search for

Content writing services for educational content
Content writing services for accounting website
Content writer for your digital marketing company

Yes, people use longer, specific queries.

For the above-mentioned queries they are not looking for educational or informative content.

There is no need to convince them that they need to hire a professional content writing service for their business.

They already know.

What you have to do is, convince them that yours is the right content writing service for their accounting website or for their digital marketing company.

This is where you may commit a mistake as a content writer.

Instead of explaining to them why your content writing service is the perfect fit for their accounting website, you may end up explaining why a content writing service is beneficial to their accounting business.

They don’t want to be informed.

They don’t want to be educated or explained.

They simply want to know why they should hire you.

Knowing the difference can generally help you become an effective content writer.

Write simple sentences to improve content writing

I have seen this is a problem with content writers who don’t habitually speak English.

Maybe they want to prove how well they write, but they use long, convoluted sentences and expressions when a simple sentence can do the job.

Avoid sentences having multiple independent and dependent clauses – complex and complex compound sentences.

Take for example the sentence:

The late 1950s was a key era for programming languages because IBM introduced Fortran in 1957 and John McCarthy introduced Lisp the following year, which gave programmers both an iterative way of solving problems and a recursive way. (source)

Structurally and grammar-wise there is nothing wrong in the sentence, but it is needlessly long and makes a difficult reading.

It captures multiple ideas in a single breath.

I can easily write this sentence in 4 sentences:

The late 1950s was a key era for programming languages.

IBM introduced Fortran in 1957.

John McCarthy introduced Lisp the following year.

These languages gave the programmers both an iterative way and a recursive way of solving problems.

I’m not saying there is something special in these four sentences, but it makes the narrative easier to read.

The sentences are more engaging.

It is easier to focus on them.

I’m not saying that you should always write smaller sentences.

But make sure that there are fewer conjunctions and commas in a sentence.

Another tendency that I have seen among writers is to use passive voice because they think that officially it sounds good.

It does not.

Instead of saying

This has been brought to our notice

you should say

We have noticed.

Instead of writing

The assignment will be done by our outstation team.

Try to write

Our outstation team will do the assignment.

Sentences in active voice are easier to read and less tiring.

Additionally, when you are writing for the web, write in a conversational manner.

This will improve your content writing: write as if you are talking to someone sitting in front of you.

As a writer this advice may seem strange, but it actually works on the Internet.

You will notice that your writing will certainly improve when you start writing the way you talk (without abuses, of course).

Use headings and subheadings strategically

Frankly, headings and subheadings are the heart and soul of your content writing.

Many clients are aware of the importance of headings and subheadings, and they insist that you format your content using them.

Unless they are looking for something very specific, most of the people, when they read on the Internet, first quickly go through the headings and subheadings.

It doesn’t make sense to use headings in a short document.

Usually there must be 3-4 headings and subheadings in 1000-word long document.

On the Internet you have 15 seconds to capture the attention of your readers.

Your main headline or your main heading is the proverbial foot inside the door.

It must be punchy.

It must ask the right question, or it must provide the right answer.

Take for example this headline

7 silly grammar mistakes that can embarrass you

Nobody likes committing grammar mistakes.

Nobody wants to be embarrassed.

Even those who write well would like to take a look at your blog or article to make sure that he or she is not committing these silly grammar mistakes.

Even if you are a professional content writer, to improve your content writing you may want to go beyond the headline and see what all grammar mistakes are covered.

What about subheadings?

These are sectional headings.

For example, above you can see the subheading

Use headings and subheadings strategically

You use subheadings to sectionally divide your content and make it easier for your readers to skim through it.

Even if you don’t read this blog post in its entirety, by simply going through the subheadings you can make sense of what suggestions I am making.

Therefore, it is important to write subheadings in such a manner that they truly represent the information that is presented below them.

There are innumerable suggestions that I can make to help you improve your content writing, but these 3 steps can give you an instant start.

You can implement these suggestions right now and create an effective web page or blog post.

5 things to know about copywriting for direct response marketing

Leave a reply

5 things to know about direct response marketing copywriting

Direct response marketing is the sales technique that invokes on-the-spot response.

It is different from lead nurturing which can take a long time.

Direct response marketing gives measurable results almost instantly.

Therefore, copywriting for direct response marketing is quite different from copywriting for content marketing.

Whereas content marketing is a sustained effort, direct response marketing elicits a response instantly.

Performance can be measured the moment the campaign is launched.

The call to action of a direct response marketing campaign isn’t always buying something or subscribing to something.

It can be downloading a white paper. It can be subscribing to a mailing list. It can be opting for a free offer.

In that sense, you can nurture long-term leads even through a direct response marketing campaign. It is just that, more than focusing on making the readers aware, your copywriting must focus on eliciting a response.

How is copywriting for direct response marketing different from content marketing?

Content marketing is all about building a long-term readership or an audience.

You inform them. You educate them. You engage them.

The primary purpose of content marketing is to remain in front of your audience in a meaningful manner and keep them engaged through informative and useful content.

In direct response marketing on the other hand, you want people to act immediately.

Through your copywriting you make a compelling case for taking an immediate action.

You create a sense of urgency.

You make an irresistible offer.

You make it clear that not acting would be a great error of judgement.

Here is a good example of direct response marketing that elicits immediate response.

Direct response marketing example Scrib

As you can see, this advertisement doesn’t inform people about what Scribd is. It is assumed that people are aware of its content.

They are simply offering people an irresistible offer.

Readers can access all the content of the service for two months just for $ 0.99.

You either take the offer or you don’t take it.

The result is immediate.

Content marketing is a sustained effort.

It involves publishing blog posts, social media updates, and broadcasting infomercials on TV and radio.

There is no need to ask people to do something.

They can passively consume your content and if they want, they can interact with you.

In direct response marketing, people are asked to sit up straight and act immediately.

There is less of education and information, and more of action-taking.

The return on investment in content marketing comes somewhere in the future.

The ROI in direct response marketing comes immediately, during the current campaign itself.

Hence, you write the copy accordingly.

Listed below are 5 things you must know about doing copywriting for direct response marketing.

1. Immediate action is required

When copywriting for direct response advertisements and marketing materials, keep in your mind that immediate action is required.

What does that mean?

You use lots of action words like download (if you want them to download an e-book), or download immediately, or download for free, or no-obligation download, and such.

If you want them to subscribe, use expressions like subscribe now, subscribe immediately, subscribe for free, or submit your email to download our free e-book, and such.

Right now, immediately, urgently, and now, are some powerful words when writing copy in direct response marketing.

2. Invoke a sense of urgency

You often come across expressions like

Buy before it’s too late
You are running out of time
Only two seats left
Final call
It may be your last chance
Your last chance to save 50%

No matter how often these expressions are used, advertisers and marketers vouch for them. They always work.

You must have heard the expression FOMO when reading about content writing and copywriting.

It stands for “Fear of Missing out”.

A good example:

You just booked a flight to your favorite vacation destination, and you are wondering which hotel rooms to book.

Suddenly a message pops up on the website where you are booking your flight:

“Hurry! 2 premium rooms available at regular rates for these dates.”

Isn’t this an irresistible offer you wouldn’t like to miss?

Urgency here is important because advertising research has shown that the longer someone ponders over an offer, the greater is the chance that he or she will talk himself or herself out of it.

There is a psychological term called “Loss aversion”. It comes from the concept of “risk aversion”.

We have a primal fear for risks because in the olden days when humans lived in wilderness, risks could be deadly.

Various studies have shown we are more averse to losses than we are eager for gains.

In direct response marketing copywriting sense of urgency is invoked keeping this human tendency in mind.

Your offer needs to be time sensitive or quantity sensitive.

You need to invoke a strong take-it-or-leave-it situation.

Other expressions that raise a sense of urgency

Prices going up soon
Only 3 copies of the book left
We are accepting just 2 more members
Buy now or the offer expires
This offer expires in 2 hours
Valid only today
Delaying will cost you money
Your last chance

Direct response marketing copywriting example of shirts

3. Come to the point immediately

People have a short attention span.

It is even shorter when one is reading direct response marketing copy.

People are anyway averse to receiving offers that ask them to spend money.

Therefore, whenever you make a strong point, come to the point immediately.

There is a nagging habit among many copywriters to keep beating around the bush (creating the atmosphere) and by the time they come to the meat of the offer people are bored or distracted.

What is their most vexing problem?

What solution do you offer?

Why your solution is the best (in case there are multiple solutions available in the market)?

Some copywriters ask multiple questions before offering a solution.

Something like

Are you facing this?

Are you in this type of situation?

Are you suffering?

Are you facing problem with your current infrastructure?

This goes on until they have asked 10-15 questions and by that time, the reader is bored.

I’m not saying this type of copywriting is bad.

You just need to be very sure that these questions are highly important to the readers.

Even if you need to ask a question, make sure they are relevant.

Otherwise, get on with making your point.

Take for example this banner advertisement from Fizzle that provides productivity tools to content creators who want to make a living doing what they love.

Direct response marketing banner copywriting example

Most of the content creators love doing what they do but their biggest problem is that they don’t make money, and to make money, they often must ignore what they love doing.

This banner represents and provides a solution for their biggest problem – they can continue doing what they love, and they can also make a living doing the same.

4. Understand your readers

Before one of the greatest copywriters Claude C. Hopkins launched the Pepsodent campaign in America most of the people didn’t brush.

This was the late 19th or the early 20th century.

Their teeth were dirty and there was a discolored film over everybody’s teeth.

People didn’t even know that they wanted to get rid of that annoying yellowish film.

When he started working on the Pepsodent campaign he did extensive reading to know what would get the prospective customers of the toothpaste interested.

Going through different dental textbooks he came across a reference of mucin plaque that gets deposited over your teeth when you don’t brush for a few days.

It makes your teeth look yellowish or grayish.

He decided to call it “the film”.

He knew that everybody wanted beautiful teeth.

His campaign was

Just run your tongue across your teeth. You’ll feel a film – that’s what makes your teeth look ‘off color’ and invites decay.

The campaign was a huge success and within three years almost 50% of America was brushing its teeth.

If he hadn’t read all those dental textbooks, he wouldn’t have come across the concept of “the film” and then use it in his campaign.

In direct response marketing copywriting, it is very important to understand the needs of your readers.

The more you understand the needs of your readers, the better will be your copywriting, and the more effective will be the response.

5. Carefully choose between long form and short form copywriting

Advertising legends like David Ogilvy were big proponents of longform copywriting for marketing.

Consider this example:

Direct response marketing copywriting example – long form

I remember when we used to actively read newspapers and magazines and they often published advertisements that look like articles.

Even these days such articles are called “advertorials”.

Direct response marketing isn’t something like you throw dirt at a wall and then see what sticks and what falls.

You need to test with various formats and various lengths of your copy.

Some people don’t like long form copywriting, and some people do.

You need to see how much information your prospective customers need before they can make a decision.

I neither support nor oppose long form content when it comes to copywriting because it differs from situation to situation.

Just focus on how much you need to communicate, and then communicate with full sincerity.

The key elements of direct response copywriting are

Customer centricity
A clearly defined CTA
A sense of genuine urgency
The ability to hook your readers
Personalization and targeting
A complete understanding of the needs of your readers.

Stop committing these 5 copywriting mistakes immediately

Leave a reply

5 copywriting mistakes to avoid

There was a time when copywriting used to be in the realm of advertising and marketing.

These days, when you are writing for websites and blog posts, in many instances you are copywriting.

This is because if your content is being used for content marketing, it is meant to generate leads and sales.

Copywriting is slightly different from content writing. In copywriting, you don’t just inform and engage, you also prompt your readers to take an action (CTA – Call to Action).

This is a necessity whether you are writing a blog post, a landing page, an email marketing message, or one of the main pages of a website.

After reading your copy people must act. Even if they leave your website or blog without taking an action, enough impact must be made so that they remember the website, remember what the website stands for, and when the time comes to seek more information, or even to do business, they come back to the website.

Therefore, copywriting mistakes can be costly.

Copywriting mistakes can adversely impact the way people react when they read your copy.

Mistakes can negatively affect your search engine rankings.

They can deteriorate your conversion rate.

Your CTA gets affected if you commit copywriting mistakes.

Frankly, there can be hundreds of mistakes that you can commit when writing copy for a website, or a landing page, or a blog post, but there are at least some common, and significant mistakes that you can avoid making your copy effective and profitable.

Below I am writing 5 common copywriting mistakes that you can avoid when writing copy for your own website or for your clients.

1. Writing unnecessarily long expressions

Copywriting needs to be crisp.

People should be able to read your sentences effortlessly and fast.

If they have to make an effort, they lose concentration and after a while, they lose interest.

For example, there is no need to write “It has been brought to our notice”, when you can simply write “we have noticed”.

Further, there is no need to write “Ask me a question” because when you ask, you are anyway asking a question, so you can use “ask me”.

Why is this an important copywriting mistake that you must avoid?

Why do you write your copy? You write so that people respond favorably to your copywriting.

Every small thing matters. You don’t want to distract them. You don’t want to bore them.

Do you know that sometimes people get bored even when they don’t realize it and then leave your page?

Although on the Internet there can be zillions of reasons why people get distracted and leave your page, one of the biggest reasons is that long sentences and words with multiple syllables bore them, even unknowingly.

Write short sentences. Get rid of as many unnecessary words as possible. Avoid using words with more than two or three syllables.

2. Using unnecessary or meaningless expression

You must have come across expressions such as “#1 software” or “the best app development service”.

Do your readers really get impressed that you’re calling yourself “the best app development service” without backing it up with a believable proof?

Instead of using such hyperbolic language address the core problems of the people reading your copy.

How do you intend to solve their problem? Not by being “the best app development service” but by your ability to understand their problems and offering them the right solutions.

Some copywriters also use expressions that are called “intensifiers” such as

“Really exceptional”

“Totally free” (what is partially free?)

“Absolutely stunning”

Really, totally, and absolutely are completely unnecessary. In fact, I shouldn’t have used completely unnecessary myself but I wanted to make a point.

3. Not understanding the reader’s perspective

There must be a direct connection between

What you say as a copywriter.
What your reader wants to read as someone who is dealing with the problem and is looking for a solution.

You may think that it’s obvious, but many copywriters make this mistake: there is no connection between what is being written and what the copy is required to achieve.

It always helps to prepare a persona. Make a list of all the problems and solutions your prospective reader has in mind when he or she comes to your web page.

Don’t hold yourself back. Make as many points as you can think of.

Since your copy needs to be focused you don’t need to tackle all the points, but whatever you want to tackle, underline.

Keep the list in front of you when you are writing your copy so that there is a direct match between what you are writing and what your reader wants to read.

4. Ignoring the importance of headlines

When you are writing for the web, headlines solve multiple purposes.

They are good for your search engine rankings.

They make your copy easily readable.

When people come to your website or web page they first see your headlines.

Most of the people skim through your content so write your headlines keeping such tendencies in mind.

When your headlines fail to make an impact, most of the people skip reading your remaining copy.

Don’t just create headlines for the sake of creating them.

Using the product name or the service name as your headline doesn’t make much sense.

Instead of saying

“The cloud hosted accounting solution”

you can maybe opt for

“Anywhere access to your accounting system, from any device, through any browser”

In just one headline you have captured almost all the benefits of using your cloud hosted accounting solution.

The headlines must represent the gist of what you are talking beneath them.

For example, the headline

“Ignoring the importance of headlines”

tells you that not taking your headlines seriously is a grave copywriting mistake.

5. Having multiple CTAs on a single page

CTA stands for call to action. This is especially important when you are writing copy for a landing page or an email campaign.

Every landing page or email campaign has a central purpose.

Whenever you construct a landing page or send out an email campaign, it is intended to achieve a singular task.

The task might be selling clothes.

Maybe you want to build a mailing list and for that you are inviting subscribers to submit their email IDs.

Or maybe you want them to download your case study or white paper.

Maybe you are an architect, and you want people to fill up your contact form for an appointment or an online consultation.

These are different focuses.

Sometimes on the same landing page or in the same email campaign, people are asked to download the brochure, or contact or fix up a consultation appointment.

Multiple choices confuse the readers and recipients.

On every landing page or in every email campaign, use a single expression for your call to action.

If you want them to download your white paper, whenever you use the CTA button, prompt them to download the white paper and exclusively talk about the white paper.

If you want them to contact you, then for every CTA button prompt them to contact you.

Don’t club multiple calls to action in a single campaign.

In case you have multiple calls to action, use multiple campaigns.

How to make your copywriting effective after avoiding these mistakes?

Write for the reader.

Keep search engine optimization in your thoughts but don’t get overwhelmed – remember eventually it’s the humans who read your copy.

Write according to search intent.

Search intent, on the Internet, is the intention with which people use queries on Google.

My personal approach is always writing from the reader’s perspective.

What is the reader going to get out of my copy?

What information am I providing?

How is that information helping the reader?

Take for example this blog post.

What was the primary purpose of this blog post?

It was highlighting the 5 main copywriting mistakes that you should avoid.

There may be scores of other mistakes, but these are the important mistakes I want you to avoid.

This was the purpose of this blog post.