In the land of sales,

And a time of conversions and engagements, 

The success of any marketing strategy rests on the shoulders of great copywriters who know their stuff. 

Emphasis on ‘Copywriters who know their stuff.’ Not copywriters who use big—and sometimes unnecessary— words or those who are suckers for clickbaity headlines. And definitely not copywriters who make deadly copywriting mistakes.

As a copywriter, you understand people and what drives and interests them, right? Knowing how unique people are and their penchant for perfection, part of your job is to deliver readworthy content that adds value to your audience.

This means avoiding several mistakes at all costs. After all, you want to make a remarkable first impression on your audience, don’t you?

We want you in the category of copywriters that know their stuff, so we want to show you five common mistakes copywriters make so you can avoid them. 

Sound good? Okay, great! 

Let’s dive in.

The cost of copywriting mistakes

Before we let you in on some of the costly copywriting mistakes you may be making, you must know the potential damage they can cause you and your clients.

As writers, one of the things we crave most is attention from our audience. Sadly, with the human attention span down to eight seconds, we can’t have it on a platter. To hold your audience’s attention, you either give them something worth reading or watch them slip through your fingers.

Imagine working so hard to gain a reader’s attention only to lose it because of a weak and poorly written copy riddled with grammatical errors. Heartbreaking, right?

You have one shot at making an impression. Very rarely will anyone come back after a bad experience to be convinced the second time.

Some other downsides of bad copywriting include

• Low sales and conversions.
• Poor copywriting can put your audience off.
• Loss of credibility and trust.

Here are 5 common mistakes in copywriting.

Okay. Okay. Here we go—let’s jump right into it now.

1. Using the wrong tone

One mistake you want to avoid is using the wrong tone.

Readers will interpret your words based on how you express them. Consequently, the tone you choose for your writing should reflect the personalities of your audience.  

There are several writing tones for various content types, from humorless and witty, to official and casual or even comical. One of the keys to effective writing is knowing which to use and when.

A conversational tone, for instance, is casual and relaxed. It can help establish an immediate connection with your readers and improve readability. A Formal writing tone, on the other hand, is less casual and more objective. The last thing you want is to use a conversational and informal tone for contexts where informal writing is better suited, such as academic papers and official correspondence.

My advice? Learn to read the room.

2. Using unnecessary words/jargon

It is easy to lose the attention of an average reader with a declining attention span who is most likely already distracted by a thousand and one other things. What do you think would happen when on top of that, you fill your copy with unnecessary words and hard-to-understand jargon? 

My guess will be that they click out of your page, and just like that, you lose a prospect.

As a copywriter, your goal should be to ensure that everything you write is crisp, concise, and very clear. If the copy is rambling or unclear, the reader shuts down and disconnects from the content.

Here are a few tips to keep your copy simple and clear:

• Eliminate unnecessary words: Embrace the blanks and don’t fill them with meaningless words. Reading short, sharp passages that get the point across is much more enjoyable. You’re not showing off your vast vocab here. Your copy needs to be instantly relatable, not just to the Literature majors. 

• Cut out the ‘fluff’: Words like ‘very’, ‘really’, and ‘actually’ are generally pretty useless. You can cut them out and your sentence will still make complete sense. 

• Play around with structure: The first sentence you write will probably not be the last version. Shuffle wording around and make cuts until it’s as crisp as possible.

3. Not knowing your target audience

Ever heard the phrase ‘talking to everyone is talking to no one’? The same is true about writing for an undefined audience.

Do you know your target audience?  

What words are meaningful to them? 

Why would these words have such an impact on them? 

When it comes to audience and platform targeting, untargeted content ruins conversion rates and squanders important time, money, and resources. This is because it fails to address the specific needs of its intended audience.

Without proper targeting, you risk losing your target audience or drawing in a different group that may not convert.

Your ability to connect with your audience makes all the difference. 

It starts with understanding personas, pain points, and interests— everything that makes them tick. It also involves learning the language that resonates with your crowd and what tone to use. 

4. Using clickbaity headlines

Whether you like it or not, clickbait has expanded the content marketer’s toolkit. No website seems to be above using sneaky techniques these days to entice you to click on their material.

There is a difference between creating an attractive headline that delivers what it promises in the article or post and creating a headline that is as juicy as possible merely to get people to click on it, only to disappoint them with either completely unrelated or inferior content.

Content with clickbait headlines rarely delivers on its promise, as it’s usually never as ‘mind-blowing’ as it claims. However, powerful headlines will grab the attention of the reader and leave the reader feeling satisfied. 

Want more happy readers looking forward to clicking your content? Then make sure your content is valuable and delivers on the promise of the headline. That is how you build trust with your readers.

5. Plagiarism

Do you feel the burning urge to copy someone else’s written content and paste it on a blank page, claiming it as yours? You know, wanting to take the easier route and save yourself the stress? That, dear copywriter, is plagiarism calling out to you with all its unpleasant penalties and consequences. 

Plagiarism is a form of intellectual property theft. It is stealing. Period. 

Although it seems like an easier route, it’s all fun and games until you get caught and are faced with the penalties, some of which include:

• Loss of professional credibility.

• Imprisonment (for severe copyright infringement cases). 

• Monetary costs.

• Future professional career prospects can be damaged.

How to avoid plagiarism in your writing.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure you are fully aware of what plagiarism is, and what form it takes. Here are a few ways to avoid plagiarism in your writing: 

• Paraphrase
• Include quotations where necessary.
• Add citations where necessary.
• Utilize plagiarism checkers.

Avoiding plagiarism is not so hard. One of the secrets is thorough research and understanding of an idea, to enable you to make it your own and form a unique opinion. 

Are you making any of these mistakes?

On a scale of 1-10, how guilty are you of making the mistakes highlighted above? Whatever your score is, now is a good time to make the necessary adjustments to become a better copywriter.

This article contains no earth-shattering revelations. Your only takeaways from this blog article should be positive habits to develop as you make it part of your routine to get rid of these common copywriting mistakes.

Your readers and conversion rates will thank you for it.

And that’s it!