[This article was written by Samantha Carroll and published on the Catalant Blog – a fast-growing company originally called Hourly Nerd and advised by Mark Cuban of ABC’s Shark Tank]
With the myriad articles online about how to optimize your website or create compelling content to attract new clients, we’re all rushing to implement these new strategies. Why not, right? Create the content, keep them coming back for more.
While it’s true that having dynamic content on your website is essential to better search engine ranking and website traffic, you need to make sure to avoid common mistakes that may be giving your readers a different impression than you had intended for them to gain.
In this article, we’ll walk through 4 common copywriting mistakes, so you can avoid them before they happen and keep attracting and engaging with your ideal prospects.
Poor grammar and punctuation
It seems like a no-brainer to keep your writing clean from grammar and punctuation mistakes, but I see too many websites that are trying to attract high quality clients with poorly written copy. Be careful – sloppy writing can send the message that you either aren’t detail-oriented or don’t place a high value on how you present your company.
Believe me, your brand is directly tied to your consumers’ impression of you. In fact, according to a 2014 article on AdWeek.com, “A study conducted late last year by U.K. firm Global Lingo found that 74 percent of consumers pay attention to the correctness of the prose on company Web sites, and 59 percent of respondents said they would avoid doing business with a company that’s made obvious errors.” Yikes!
Remedy
If you aren’t a strong writer, don’t fear – investing in a strong copyeditor can be your best tool. Copyeditors should maintain the great information you have, but simply polish the writing to ensure it’s presenting you as a qualified company.
It’s all about you
Here’s a quick exercise – take a look back at some of the blog articles you’ve written or interviews you’ve given or client presentations you’ve crafted. Is your writing focused on your company or on the reader? We tend to want to share all of our great qualities or company successes, but making your content too focused on these aspects can actually inhibit your client attraction.
Remedy
Clients want to hear how you can help them, solve their problems, and be their answer. Position your writing to communicate not just how great you are, but how your greatness can solve your clients’ problems. For example, statements like “we create educational programs for children between the ages of 3-6” could be changed to “our educational programs have enabled children between the ages of 3 and 6 to improve their pre-reading skills by … [you fill in the blank]”. See how we’ve shifted from what you do to how you provide value?
Straining your readers’ eyes
Here’s a common mistake companies make – great information, too hard to read. Readers find your article, glance at the first paragraph, click to a new page. Making your writing too long with no visual breaks can turn off prospective clients before they’ve read your little gems of information. And, the opposite can be true. Thin content that doesn’t fill your page well can leave your readers confused.
Remedy
Break up your copy with paragraphs, headers, bold text, italics, images, whatever makes sense to use with your content that can give your reader the ability to quickly skim if they’re pressed for time. You want to pack as much info into their brains as you can before they go on to another page. Keep them reading = keep them engaged.
“Speak” to the right audience
Knowing your ideal audience and writing for that audience can be opposing forces for some companies. Offer small business consulting? Then, your articles should be targeted to small businesses in industries that you serve. Writing a million blog articles about corporate consulting won’t serve you well to attract your prospects or rank well in the search engines.
Remedy
Before you write your content, think about the audience reading your articles and what you want them to take away from that article. Everything you write should connect back to that audience. For articles you’ve already written, think about using that copy as a starting point and repositioning it to appeal to your ideal prospect.
Investing in strong copy can make a big difference in how you’re presenting your brand. If you’re not a strong writer or don’t have a powerful communications team driving your content strategy, think about hiring a qualified copywriter and/or copyeditor – you want your brand to drive client engagement, not halt it.