Are you wondering why visitors on your site are not converting?
You seem to have done everything right. You’ve spent over $1000 on your blog design and even hired an SEO expert to make sure you rank for strategic keywords.
The visitors are coming, but there is still something wrong.
They are leaving as fast as they land on your site.
All your blog content goes unread, and nobody is signing up for your company’s newsletter. What have I done wrong? You ask yourself.
It looks like you have a copywriting problem.
Many business owners and online entrepreneurs like you make copywriting mistakes that cost them thousands, and even millions of dollars in sales.
It is disheartening, yet so common.
This article will show you 8 copywriting mistakes that you might be making on your website. You would also find simple suggestions that would correct these mistakes.
Table of Contents
Copywriting Mistake #1 Poor Grammar structure
Content or copy that is full of grammatical blunders is hard to read, and cringe-worthy. They simply make zero sense in the minds of your readers and potential customers.
If your readers are merciful enough, they might overlook one or two errors. But when they find your copy littered with mistakes, you would have them hovering over the “exit page” button in record time.
For the sake of this article, I would be using an imaginary real estate company as an example.
Let’s look at a line from the company’s copy:
“Our real estate services help you find a home of your choose. Sign up to grab you’re new home-buyer checklist. Its free.”
This text has alarm bells going off in my head. Can you point out the errors in the text above? I’ll help you.
The correct sentence without copywriting mistakes should read:
“Our real estate services help you find a home of your choice. Sign up to grab your new home-buyer checklist. It’s free”
What can help?
Take your time when writing copy. Make use of apps like Grammarly and Hemingway to check for errors. You can have a human editor to check all your copy before publishing.
Another great option is to hire a freelance writer to help you out.
Copywriting Mistake #2 Using Passive Voice
To gain better conversions, your copy needs to be direct and powerful. You cannot achieve ground-breaking results if you use passive voice when writing. Passive voice tends to slow things down a bit.
Notice the difference in these statements below
Passive Voice: The house was shown to me by the agent.
Active Voice: The agent showed me the house.
Passive Voice: Our eBook would be downloaded by you after you sign up
Active Voice: Sign up to download our eBook
Which of these examples would you say is more direct? It’s the ones with the active voice without a doubt.
So what should you do?
Ditch the passive voice wherever you can, and use an active voice instead.
Copywriting Mistake #3 Using fluff words
Allow me to borrow a statement from William Strunk Jr. it goes:
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary part. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
Fluff words add nothing but confusion to your copy. They dilute your message to the point where your readers no longer know what to do. You don’t want that.
What to do?
Remove words that make you sound smart. Replace them with simpler words that your readers can understand faster.
Don’t say in 10 words, what you can say in 4 words.
This example will help you:
Fluff: We would like to call your attention to the fact that our 20% home discount offer is on.
No Fluff: We would like to remind you that our 20% home discount offer is on.
Copywriting Mistake #4 Poor formatting
I am lazy when it comes to reading stuff online. Most of the time I look for subheadings and bullet points to get the gist of the article. The joke is on you my friend if you do not format your articles or copy well.
Why?
Millions of online readers are like me. Hardly would you find anybody who reads your copy word for word. So to make your readers extract as much value as possible from your copy, you need to format it well.
This means that you must use short and simple sentences. The kind that I have been using throughout this article.
Allow your copy breath by using white spaces.
Use clear subheadings and bullet points too, as they help to improve your copy’s flow.
Copywriting Mistake #5 Not understanding your ideal audience
One thing is clear from the copy most small business owners put out – they don’t understand their ideal audience.
Many small business owners believe that every breathing thing is their potential customer. And so when they write copy, it falls with its face to the ground.
To beat and outwit a sh*t ton of your competitor, you need to understand who your ideal audience is and write to this audience.
For a real estate business, your ideal audience is not a teenager struggling with maths homework, neither is it old granny Nancy who is already in a retirement home. A vague idea of your ideal audience should be a 27 – 45-year-old man or woman who is looking to buy their first home (your ideal audience should be more detailed than this).
So when writing copy, write to this 27 – 45-year-old man/woman. Speak to the pain points of this person and move them to take the desired action.
Copywriting Mistake #6 Not using calls to action (CTA)
Copy without a CTA is like serving your readers with a well-prepared meal without cutleries. How do you expect them to eat?
Many businesses write fantastic copy but forget to tell their readers what to do next.
Make clear what you are trying to get your readers to do. Do you want them to fill a form? Or download a book? Or signup to your newsletter?
It does not matter how simple the call to action is. Use it. You should use CTAs too when making social media posts.
Copywriting Mistake #7 Not using an SEO keyword
Unless you want to stay invisible on the World Wide Web, your article titles need to have an SEO keyword. This is the keyword that your potential customer uses when searching for your product and services.
While you might not need an SEO keyword when writing sales letters or ads for social media, you do need them if you are writing blog posts.
If you are a real estate company in California, it would make sense to use this keyword frequently in your copy if you want people to find your service on Google. An SEO keyword tells your reader what to expect when they come across your website.
Copywriting Mistake #8 Trying to be Apple
Stop trying to be Apple, or Slack, or Twitter, or Little Joe from down the street.
Many small business owners make this mistake when writing copy. They try to imitate and sound like other successful businesses online. While it might sound like a great idea at the time, you would soon find out that a countless number of other businesses are doing the same thing.
So be brave, and find your brand voice. Write your copy in a way that readers would still recognize your style and voice even when there is no logo on your site.
You can hire a freelance copywriter if you find it hard to communicate or develop your unique brand voice.
