3 common copywriting mistakes to look out for

Can you spot the mistake in this sentence? While some marketers are of the opinion that copywriters need to have perfect grammar, spelling, and punctuation – this is just not true. Even the most skilled writers make mistakes (although they are few and far between). Copywriting, especially in the marketing and advertising sense, is more than just typing out a few coherent paragraphs of text. Much thought and planning go into copywriting – and that’s before a single letter has been typed. Let’s have a look at the three of the most common mistakes copywriters should look out for.

• There’s no structure

Headings, sub-headings, and paragraph layout will significantly influence how useful a piece of content is in terms of readability. For example, most industry professionals argue that if a piece of copy doesn’t grab a reader’s attention within three seconds, it’s probably not going to at all. With a logical, concise heading and sub-heading structure, and paragraphs that make sense and don’t feature rambling sentences that go on forever, a piece of copywriting will be read, enjoyed, and remembered.

•  The headline sucks

Speaking about structures and headings, if your main heading – also called the page title – is not written to the best of a copywriter’s ability, it’s not going to grab much attention at all. Take the comparison of these two headlines as an example:

1:  The effects of caffeine on unborn babies

2:  Are you turning your unborn baby into a coffee addict?

The first heading sounds like a scientific journal, while the second poses a question to the reader. It also uses personal words (you, yours, ours, mine, etc.) which make the topic more personal for the reader, where they are likely to read further because the topic is something that could affect them.

• The buyer is forgotten

Lastly, the biggest mistake copywriters make is to write copy from their own perspective. Modern marketing communications need to be holistically customer-centric. In other words, everything that a business does should keep the customer in mind. Copywriters should put themselves in the customer’s shoes. What would the customer want to read? How would the customer like to be spoken to? If you were a customer, would you read the entire piece of copy? By asking these questions and others, copywriters will get an idea as to the effectiveness of the piece of content.

Copywriters are only really effective at what they do when they have a solid understanding of how their craft fits into the broader marketing field.

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