12 Copywriting Mistakes that You Need to Avoid

It often happens that some of the best copywriters leave typos, missing words, and grammatical mistakes in their writing. Only with the help of thorough proofreading by the third set of eyes, we can have a 100% error-free copy. Minute issues such as unnecessary words can weaken the work and serve a complex message to the readers. So, in this article, we are going to look at 12 copywriting mistakes that you need to avoid.

Writing A Lot

As they say, less is always more, you don’t need to include all the information in one article. Your content should flow from attempting to attract the audience, to involving them in your content, and finally, asking the audience or readers to take some action.

Leaving Out Words

We often neglect or glaze over words even when we are re-checking. The reason behind this action is our mind tends to autocorrect things when we are proofreading, so we frequently leave out words and think that this is an error-free copy. However, there is a solution to correct this situation, while proofreading, try to read from right to left. This action will compel your brain to concentrate on each word that you are reading and help you to notice the mistakes and typos.

Unnecessary Filler Words

One of the best ways to write straightforward content for the readers is to remove the filler words. If your sentence makes sense without words such as “that”, “in order to”, “actually”, and “just”, get rid of these words.

Not Being Straightforward with Complicated Notions

Copywriting can be challenging when you are dealing with a complex idea with a professional audience. Even if the topic is complicated make sure that your way of writing and communication is clear and understandable to the professionals. By being clear and straightforward you will have their attention. On the other hand, if you try to make your writing as complicated as the idea the reader will lose interest making it harder for you to convince them.

Typo in the Subject

It might be shocking but even if you read one article 5 times, the third party would still be able to find out a typo or error in your subject line. Make sure that you keep a close on the subject line before pressing send. Moreover, attach the files before start typing the message and click on them to check if they are accurate and functional or not.

Narrative or Images that Don’t Stand Alone

Copywriting for digital-social mediums requires additional skills. In the case of video, it is important to review the script in remoteness from images. Does the narrative stand alone? Or, if you take the script away, are images conveying a separate story? For digital ads, succinctness is crucial as is utilizing words the target audience would use.

Relying on Spellcheck

It is highly important to not rely on online spelling checkers. Although online tools have gotten better at identifying errors they are not one hundred percent perfect. So you must be the critic and carefully reread your content to catch and correct the mistakes you have made. Brainstorming and collaborating with colleagues is also a great way to avoid any possible minor errors.

Not Having Writing Edited

We always struggle with making sure our content is perfect or not. It is because you are restrained from writing the way you talk because it lacks formal vocabulary, however, you cannot use an abundance of superfluous words as it deteriorates the message you are trying to convey. You will be surprised how much better your writing can get with the help of another set of eyes.

Not Understanding Style Guides

Not understanding style guides such as AP style or The Chicago Manual can feel like an insignificant or simple mistake. However, not understanding this difference can figure out the dissimilarity between a professional writer and someone who can write. Make sure to go through different style guides and grammatical rules once in a while.

Misunderstanding the Target

The first and foremost requirement of copywriting is clarity. You need to comprehend the target audience, what they don’t understand and understand about the topic, what specific knowledge they should have, and what you as a writer want the reader to take away from your content. Without these specific clarities, the writing can be still incredible but entirely irrelevant.

Concentrating on the Wrong Profits

One of the most common and easy mistakes for copywriters to make is concentrating too much on the service/product features they are trying to sell. This easily neglects the profit of the customer. When you are trying to convince someone to focus on a particular thing, you have to make sure that you are paying equal attention to the product services and customer benefits. You need to look at the situation from a customer’s point of view.

Not Keeping Search Engine Optimization

It is a major mistake to turn a blind eye to search engine optimization or SEO when you are writing for an online publication. A copywriter must focus on the search engine bots to make sure their central topic or keyword is present in the title tag. Other than the title tag, there is another thing called a meta tag. It is a brief description of the article or content. The body of the content must contain relevant keywords. This type of strong content fares better in the search engine results.

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