In a perfect utopian world, every copywriter has a personal editor who patiently corrects all the faults and works out the kinks, brushing up the text to perfection. I do not have one. I get used to editing all my articles by myself. At first, reading and editing will take almost more time than writing, but this is a temporary problem.
Well, let’s stop pussyfooting around and find out what spoil your texts and learn some improving text techniques so that later it would not be painfully embarrassing.
5 things that mess your text up
1. Phlegmy adjectives
Adjectives themselves are copywriters’ enemies. But phlegmy adjectives are killers of the text, as this deadness flows from an adjective into a product you describe.
For instance, “High income,” “fast service,” “Quality goods,” and so on.
After reading such text, the client will ask even more questions: in comparison with what the income is considered high? What is the value expressed?
2. Ocean of promises
The main task of selling text is to sell. And here beginners begin to hold out promises: “Your site will be in the TOP in a month”; “You will lose 10 kg per week” and so on.
If the promise is not supported by concrete evidence, it is a lie. A good author will not stoop to over-promises, because the truth will be revealed as a result, and the loyalty of the buyer will disappear just like your value as a copywriter.
3. Failure to understand the business essence
This is one of the main reasons why a newbie cannot receive a substantial fee. A businessman knows the specifics of his business and immediately understands from the text whether you understand it or not.
If you do not understand, you will be given long and colorful explanations of concepts that are clear to every entrepreneur. You need to explain in lay terms what a “quota,” “exclusive,” are.
Professional advertising copywriting implies that a copywriter is no worse than a businessman and understands a business completely. Only in this case, the texts are really selling.
4. Plague words
Novice copywriters show special love for a number of words that do not carry any sense, but only litter the text and arouse suspicion:
- Basically, essentially, totally
- Problem – it is foolish to remind the client once again that he had a “problem.”
- Only
- Small, inexpensive – negative adjectives act badly on the buyer.
- Must is a word that is forbidden to use in texts.
- Probably, perhaps
- Irregardless
- Kind of or sort of.
5. Blurred lead-in
“Once upon a time” entries show that you do not understand anything in selling texts.
An experienced customer, seeing the phrases “it’s not a secret to anybody”; “Recently you can notice”; “We all know that …” will start looking for another creator.
If you recognize some of your mistakes here, here are 5 improving text steps.
5 ways to flesh out your text
1. Eliminate the unnecessary words
The aspiring copywriters can easily be detected by water bewitched. All the hackneyed phrases, odd words, the abundance of synonyms… If your texts start with “That’s common knowledge…” or “It’s an open secret that…”, it’s time to do the rethinking of your writing.
You have two options – to delete the triviality or to rephrase the whole sentence.
Now you need to remove everything that is irrelevant. Long introductions, a cliche like “we are a young promising company” should be forgotten. If you see words and phrases, after deleting which the meaning of the text does not change, delete it.
Try to avoid all the generalizations like “all the normal people have tried…” Such phrases do not make any sense and can significantly annoy your reader.
Thus, what to avoid?
- it’s not a secret for everyone, everyone knows, well known, everyone is familiar;
- few people thought few people know, few know;
- every person, woman, all children;
- in a rapidly changing world. in our age of information technology, now, when the rapid development of the network, today, when, progress does not stand still;
Do not use these expressions, there is no point in them; they increase the volume of the text.
We have mastered the first step. Complicated? If so, I will make you happy: after each such edit, your text will become the cleaner and cleaner.
2. Simplify the complicated
Your reader should understand you. If he/she can’t, you do something wrong.
Look through your article and answer the following questions:
Are there complicated terms or abbreviations that need to be explained/replaced with simpler and more intelligible words?
Are there parts of the text that the unprepared reader may not understand?
Are there too complex or long sentences which requires effort to read? To check this out, read the text out loud and mark difficult places.
Make the article easier. Divide too long sentences into short, remove all complicated parts.
Important point: do not forget for whom you write. If you write for experts, complex terms will not frighten them. But the reader, who is not into the subject much, need some assistance and care of yours.
3. Add facts
Figures, comparisons, and examples are necessary. They help the reader what you are talking about more clearly. Instead of “we have put a lot of projects across,” it is better to write, “we have completed 4527 projects”. If the numbers are not very clear and do not help present what you are talking about, use the comparison: “This phone is thinner than a pencil.” Perhaps a link to statistics or expert opinion would be appropriate in your text. In a word, add more useful information, the reader will be grateful to you.
It is especially important to use such techniques when writing selling texts. Facts will help a potential client to understand why it is worth choosing such a product or contact this company.
4. Format text
How to do it? Break the text into short paragraphs (5-7 lines), add subheadings, numbered and bulleted lists, images. When looking at an article, a person should not have a thought: “Damn, I can’t master such a huge, incomprehensible text.”
Important points can be italicized or put in bold. This will help the reader to find the necessary information in a few seconds. That’s the way of improving readability of long text.
Please note: we are talking about large articles. The text of 500-700 characters is enough to break into 2 paragraphs, and even then it is not necessary.
5. Proofread
Read the text aloud. It is desirable to do that twice. Before proofreading, take a break from the text, drink a cup of coffee. Otherwise, the look will be blurred, and you will not notice blunders that when you re-read in a couple of days will make you blush.
Done? Now you can send the text to the customer!
Leave a Reply