Copywriting Do’s And Don’ts for every professional

Content Marketing

Copywriting Do’s And Don’ts for every professional

Read Time: 6 minutes

Considering a career in the digital space? 

While there are ample of options out there, one particular career option can help your career path blossom into a world of new opportunities.

Copywriting. 

If you’re someone who’s got a creative bent of mind and are a stickler for grammar in sentences then look no further. Copywriting has got your back.

But for professionals in the field, if they’d tell people about their career, people would assume that it’s either something to do with the “copyrights” business or something on the lines of a typewriter. 

Can’t blame them. It’s both, the name and the images of copywriting that portray this perception. 

So let’s first take a look at what copywriting is all about. 

Who is a copywriter? 

Opposed to common belief, copywriters are those who have learned and practice the craft of writing. Although copywriting is a niche that’s slowly gaining exposure, it’s still pretty exclusive due to the lack of information about this career path. 

Copywriters are essential to business. This is especially true for those brands who aim to have a wide digital presence.

74% of internet users pay attention to the spelling and grammar used on the website and 59% would avoid a purchase from a website with poor grammar.

This is why the business world needs copywriters. The messages that you wish to communicate to your audience wouldn’t be engaging enough nor as high quality, as to what they can become with the help of a copywriter. 

A copywriter's work involves the writing of articles, blogs, infographics, etc. the copy of which is responsible for attracting the consumers to the brand.
A copywriter’s work involves the writing of articles, blogs, infographics, etc. the copy of which is responsible for attracting the consumers to the brand.

In technical terms, copywriting mostly aids inbound marketing. Inbound marketing which, instead of seeking out for customers, focuses on rather letting and helping customers discover your platform or channel. 

According to CopyBlogger, this is done by strategically creating and publishing a copy that focuses on the readers perspective, inevitably pursuing the target audience to go ahead and push that call-to-action button.

Since 61% of internet users research a product on search engines before they make a purchase, the demand for copywriters especially in ecommerce is booming. And that is why businesses are increasingly looking to partner up with professionals who know how to write a copy in an intriguing manner. 

Sounds like something you’d like to do for a living? Well, then go ahead and begin your training! Here are some key do’s and don’t to swear by for a professional copywriter.

5 Copywriting Do’s for every professional

These are the key essentials to follow if you’re aiming to be a full-time professional copywriter or even if you are planning to take up copywriting as a side hustle. 

Do a lot of reading

As writing is critical to your profession, thus it does require you to grow and practice your writing skills quite often. This can only happen when you start reading other people’s work.

Although you’re a copywriter, don’t forget that you too are writing for an audience, very much like the novelist of the novel that you’re reading. 

Observe the tricks that they use to entice the audience into reading further. And you can go beyond books and read up online articles, magazines, blogs and newspapers. 

Widen your choice to get exposed to a variety of works which will help you understand the different strategies, practices and nuances used by the different writers. 

The more you read and the more research that you put into your copywriting work, helps you stay informed and updated of the different ongoing trends in the respective industries.
The more you read and the more research that you put into your copywriting work, helps you stay informed and updated of the different ongoing trends in the respective industries.

This will definitely help and will make your work more rich and credible.

Check what you’ve written 

This cannot be emphasized enough. If you’re a copywriter, reading your work is part of the job. 

People read what the website states and if there’s a spelling mistake or a grammatical mistake, it could be a deal breaker which may not only lead to a loss of business but also a loss of trust on the part of your audience. 

You obviously don’t want that to happen.

Further, check and revise to see if your copy meets the client’s requirements and expectations. Ask yourself this important question – Have I missed out on something?

Sometimes there are certain requirements or asks that you cannot afford to forget or ignore. For eg. Copy must include a Spanish word. Have you added that? 

Also ensure to check and verify if you’ve spelled the product and the brand name right. 

If you have factored all this in and it’s all good to go, then your copywriting material is perfect.

An ideal recommendation is to make a checklist to refer to before finalizing your copy. Also, get accustomed to the practice of double and triple checking.   

Observe the competition

The best of copywriters follow one common practice. They do a thorough research about the brand, the product and possibly go through any other social data available. Now, this research also includes, checking out what your client’s competitor is up to so that your client is already one step ahead of them.

Also ensure that, whatever you have to state hasn’t in quite literal terms been already stated by them. If yes, tweak your statements enough to come up with something that presents your client as unique and different from all of the competition.

At the same time, observe what the competition is doing to create their own unique brand identity in the market through their copywriting techniques. 

Clarity with CTAs is a must

Before you begin writing your copy, ask yourself this – Why am I writing this? 

Although the answer may seem obvious, you need to ensure that you have fully understood what your message needs to convey and if it is as per the clients goals and requirements.

This is an important aspect to keep in mind for all quality copywriters as the call-to-action also determines what the brand is aiming to achieve with the message that you have created. 

Call-to-action buttons in copywriting
There are various call-to-action buttons like “learn more”, “discover”, “sign up”, “shop”, “buy now”, etc.

As a copywriting professional your copy must be well aligned with the CTAs or else, the message would fall flat and be lost, and your audience would rather end up all confused.  

Use enticing and interesting ways to highlight your message

Do you know that 90% of the data processed by the human brain is visual?

Now use this fact to your advantage! Creativity is part of the copywriting process and so you should be able to come up with some different interesting ways to grab the attention of your audience.

The best way to do that? 

Graphics and colour. 

A 2006 study illustrates the relationship between brands and colours and prompts this question, of whether the brand’s colour actually suits what it sells.

Thus colour is important and moreover creatively use graphics to your advantage. 

5 Copywriting Don’ts for every professional

Most copywriting professionals tend to make these mistakes that could affect the quality of their work. Here are the 5 key mistakes that you need to avoid to ace your game.

Don’t write for your entire traffic

It’s nearly impossible to write for your entire audience or traffic at one go. This simply means not writing for everyone. It’s okay if you’re leaving out a particular type or segment of an audience because you won’t be able to please everyone with your words. 

Aim to write only for a few or one key segment or strata of your audience and write well. The industry average of organic traffic that’s likely to convert into leads is about 16%. And if you try to write for everyone, you’re going to have a very low conversion rate.

Avoid boring headlines

You’ve got to have a creative spark in you, and use it!

For instance avoid using words like “Welcome to XYZ website.” Although it’s straightforward, it’s quite usual and boring and doesn’t have any such appealing quality like that of relatability, fun, etc. that can attract the audience. 

When copywriting keep in mind the client’s brand voice and the principles that drive their business.
When copywriting keep in mind the client’s brand voice and the principles that drive their business.

Try to incorporate some qualities that will make the headline and the copy engaging for your audience.  

You shouldn’t lie at all costs

This shouldn’t even be mentioned but it’s one of the most important rules of copywriting. Professionals should create a clear copy indicating the client’s product or service offerings along with a clear cut call-to-action button. 

Today, audiences care a lot about honesty and transparency. If the client does not have a particular achievement, it’s better not to brag about having that particular achievement. 

You don’t want the audience to have trust issues with your client’s brand, do you? 

Try not to limit your word use all the time

It’s great to be flexible with word use and your writing style. While some clients prefer short sentences, you can also turn this around and use long sentences every once in a while.

At the end of the day, you too are a writer, so it’s great to be versatile with your style of writing.

For example, if you think that your long headline clearly communicates what the client has asked of you in the brief, then it’s okay. You may leave it at that.  

Stop assuming that your audience is like you

Most times, the copywriting professionals make this grave mistake of writing something that’s related to their own culture, experiences and beliefs though this may not be related to that of their audience’s. 

That is why, it’s important that you should study your audience before you write for them. Avoid thinking that your audiences share the same set of experiences and sentiments as yours because the truth is, they may or may not. 

Experiment with content preferences of your audience before you create a complete and finalized copy that’s free of your personal bias.

Your audience then might not only completely read on but also thoroughly enjoy and engage with your copy.

Conclusion

In the end, copywriting is an art and a skill and if you’ve got that creative bent of mind and also enjoy research, and at the same time you are also an avid reader, then copywriting job is best suited for you.

Remember that to hone any skill, it takes a lot of practice and perseverance. So be patient and keep trying out different writing techniques. It takes a good degree of effort to create a high quality, a well structured and clear beautifully communicated copy for your audience. 

And do not forget to incorporate the above dos and don’ts about copywriting before you finalize and submit your copy. 

So then, are you all geared up and ready to become a professional copywriter?

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