Copywriting mistakes can cost us potential customers. If you are here, it is because you know it and you want to deepen in those mistakes you should avoid to attract your consumers.
Many times we believe that because we know a lot about a topic, our texts will be incredible, however, copywriting, and especially digital copywriting, has a series of criteria that ensure that the final objective of the message is met.
Therefore, today we will show you which are the most common mistakes in copywriting so that you do not repeat them in your texts. This way you will be able to concentrate on what is really important: developing communication pieces that your readers will fall in love with.
Generic and unattractive introductions
Gone are the days of boring encyclopedia-style introductions. Formats have changed thanks to digital copywriting.
The sea of information that is the Internet today has made us question what copywriting really is. Surely you have seen hundreds of digital marketing pieces or articles that seem to have been written by people who don’t know what they want to say or how they want their reader to feel, this is more common than you think.
Highlighting a text from its introduction is a vital and sometimes difficult task. However, paying special attention to the introduction will save us from one of the main writing mistakes, as well as ensuring that our reader remains “hooked” and reads to the end. That’s what we all want, right?
This is another of the tricks of good introductory texts: to generate intrigue or expectation with respect to what comes next. We all want to continue something if it has aroused our curiosity to see what’s next, just look at the Netflix series.
Keep digging deeper on how to make successful introductory copy and get ready to learn about the next digital copywriting mistakes.
Tips and superficial information
We make a special emphasis on this point because one of the biggest copywriting mistakes copywriters make is to diminish the quality of their content for the sake of generating a larger quantity. Never do this!
In both digital copywriting and traditional copywriting, the mission will always be to deliver relevant, quality content to our consumers, regardless of whether you write one article or 500.
If you want to position yourself as a brand that people really come to when they want to learn and be informed about a topic, taking care of quality in your content marketing strategy is essential. Otherwise, people will perceive your brand as superfluous and irrelevant and, no matter how many marketing pieces you generate, none of them will meet their objective.
Remember: delivering quality information on the Internet is everyone’s commitment and should be the cornerstone of your content strategy. At the end of the day, if you’re not sure about your content, it’s better to turn to a “write my essay” type of service than to ruin your image. But we’re still learning how to do content on our own, so let’s keep going.
Don’t do research because you already have knowledge of the subject
While the best copywriters are those who overcome any challenge and can write about many topics, research is always an essential step of any creative process. Skipping this step is among the top most common writing mistakes.
Whether it is to look for relevant sources, see references or enrich the arguments of a text, researching what we write about will increase our authority on the subject and make us more credible to our reader.
Therefore, believing that because you have enough knowledge about a subject there is no need to do research, besides being a bad practice, becomes one of the biggest mistakes in copywriting because you may be losing arguments of relevance to your reader, shocking figures or information that will help you support your thesis.
Inadequate language
This is one of the most common copywriting mistakes among copywriters. It’s about not using the right language and type of communication according to our target audience. A text can be impeccable, but if it is written for the wrong audience, it will not achieve its purpose or will cost you a lot.
Let’s look at this with an example: a renowned scientist is invited to give a lecture at an important academic event where the participants are all famous scientists with a long career and achievements in their respective fields.
Naturally, this scientist will be able to give a complex speech with words specific to the field of science because he knows that everyone will understand his message. However, days later he is invited to share his knowledge, this time in front of high school students interested in science. Do you think he would be making a writing mistake if he does not adapt his speech?
The answer is yes. If he does, it could be another one of the big writing mistakes, because in the first scenario he was speaking in front of scientists who were at the same level as him, and therefore would understand everything without a problem. However, in the second scenario those listening to him were students who would probably not know the meaning of many concepts.
To do this, think about the objective of the text and know your customers like the back of your hand. This way you will be able to connect with them through the most appropriate language and you will reduce the chances of them misunderstanding the message. These questions to know your audience will help you in the process:
Who is your target audience?
Is your brand’s style too formal or is it a bit more casual?
If your brand were a person, what personality would it have: energetic, fun, elegant, traditional? Know your brand and how it would communicate.
The nature of the channels for which we write is also very different. Every good copywriter knows that writing an e-mail is not the same as writing a blog article or a piece for social networks. Confusing them or using the same language for all of them is also one of the most common copywriting mistakes.
Do you want to know what are the tricks to know how to write correctly in each channel? Discover them in our online course Introduction to digital copywriting, in which you will learn how to write articles for blogs, texts for social networks and adapt your messages to different online formats.
Lack of organization of ideas
Lack of organization of ideas is one of the writing mistakes that cost us readers the most, not only in copywriting, but in any type of writing exercise.
Creating a small general outline is always a good idea. This will allow you to have a clear idea of the structure of a text before you start writing it, thus preventing ideas from being disconnected and poorly elaborated.
Follow these tips when defining the general structure of your messages:
- List the subheadings you consider important.
- Organize them in such a way that they make common sense and chronological sense to your reader.
- Write down some of the main points that should be addressed in each subheading.
- Once this is done, you will only need to develop the ideas, choosing the best words, but the content itself will already be defined and delimited.
Lack of Call to Action
A Call to Action is a stimulus for the reader to do what you expect from him. Not using Calls to Action means losing an excellent resource for interaction with your readers, besides confusing them by not telling them what you expect from them. Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest mistakes in copywriting.
There is a lot to learn from Calls to Action, they are not just buttons or words in imperative verbs that tell a person what to do. Their use can make all the difference in the final process we all want to achieve with our content strategy: convert.
According to Shopify, in the case of a website, the call to action should be eye-catching and located in a visible area, it should also be in line with the brand identity and use a persuasive text that is consistent with the objectives of the page.
If you want to know more about this powerful tool, we explain what a call to action is and how it can be used to increase your sales, start putting them into practice and you will notice the difference!
There is definitely a lot to learn about digital copywriting. Sometimes, a word can be worth a thousand images and capture the attention of your audience.
Dare to catch readers by putting into practice the secrets of a successful text!