Copywriting isn’t as difficult as some people make it out to be. But it is important to know some of the more common mistakes that can have a negative effect on your results. If you’re learning about copywriting, then you’ll want to remember the following three mistakes.
The purpose of your copy is to make sales and gain the trust of your prospects.
It is never a good idea to inject negativity in your copy regardless of what you’re discussing. If the tone of your copy is negative, then your reader will not be in the proper state of mind to be open and receptive to your offer. The reason all this matters so much is that your copy needs to cultivate a positive mindset and emotions within readers, and negative words can interfere with that and prevent a sale. It’s just that using negative words, concepts, or ideas inadvertantly may be counter-productive to your efforts. However sometimes you have to use certain descriptions that seem negative such as when you’re trying to appeal their feelings about the problem you’re trying to solve. Another place where it’s acceptable is in the headlines and subheadings when you’re trying to capture attention. Therefore when your prospect reads your sales copy, he/she should feel good about the product you’re selling, not the other way round.
Reading a long sales letter can take a toll on your prospect, so don’t make the mistake of writing in large paragraphs that are hard to read. You want your reader to actually read the copy and understand, and one way to help accomplish that is to be sure to use white space in your sales copy material. Readers of sales copy can be picky, and if you can discomfort or annoy them in any way they’ll turn around and be gone. So just like in English class, each paragraph supports a single idea and no more. You need to maintain the flow and keep all the content relevant, because sometimes you tend to stray away. A good idea is to write the sales copy like you’re telling a story. You can open your copy with a story, but don’t make it too long and keep referring back to it in your copy. But keep in mind that you don’t want your story to be too long, and be sure to format all paragraphs into the short style for copy.
Failing to include a clear and strong call to action within your copy is a copywriting mortal sin. What is sales copy suppose to accomplish? It’s a no-brainer that it exists to create sales and revenue. That cannot happen very well if there is no call to action.
Make no mistake about it, your prospects always need to be told what to do next. You have to clearly; specifically instruct them to do what you want them to do. If you’re offering a download for something, you can simply say; “Download Now.” It’s a must that you say it in the fewest number of words. Don’t forget to test different types of call to action messages to improve your conversion ratio.
You can learn how to write copy that is good enough to get the job done, and one way to improve your copy is learn about unnecessary mistakes and then avoid them. Another professional approach is to simply check your writing – or proof read it, and then make the necessary corrections.