Image courtesy of @dustinlee via Unsplash.

Copywriting is a skill that’s in high demand – marketers, copywriters, bloggers, business owners, designers…

Everyone needs, at the very least, a general understanding of what makes good copy.

There’s been a massive focus on SEO and content creation over the past few years, and it’s not looking to stop any time soon.

So it’s worth checking these copywriting tips, even if you’re a seasoned pro, to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your copy.

Are you ready?

Let’s dive in.

Contractions

Where possible, write in contractions – you should be writing as though you’re speaking directly to your reader, not a formal audience with the Queen.

If you’re not sure what contractions are, they’re essentially abbreviated words combined of two (or more) words.

Here are some examples:

Here’s, not here is
They’re, not they are
Don’t, not do not
I’m, not I am
We’d, not we would
Could’ve, not could have (definitely not could of – that doesn’t even make sense!)
Isn’t, not is not
I’ll, not I will

Even when writing for businesses, you’re still writing for people within those businesses – not robots.

Write like a human to engage with humans.

Know Your Hyphens

This is a controversial opinion of mine – one that sets me apart from editorial teams around the world.

I love hyphens.

I find that they add more of a dynamic feel to copy.
But you need to know when to use them.

There are a few ways you can use hyphens.

Compound adjectives
Compound adjectives usually come before a noun, combining two words to describe something, e.g. “eye-catching design”

Ages and periods of time
Usually, whenever you’re writing about periods of time, e.g. “three-year-old”, but not if it’s a plural, e.g. “three years old”.

Em dashes
Sometimes, a comma isn’t quite enough, but a new sentence is too much.

Here’s where em dashes can help.

To be clear, em dashes are not hyphens.

Hyphens connect words with no spaces, but em dashes connect thoughts.

I find that em dashes help make a sentence sound more conversational – think about it, when you’re talking, you don’t speak in perfectly-constructed sentences.

As you read through my writing, you’ll see that I use a lot of em dashes – it probably says more about my flitting state of mind than anything else!

Find the best use of em dashes to suit you and your brand – you don’t have to copy me!

Numbers

There’s a very simple rule when it comes to writing numbers.
One to ten are written as words, and anything beyond that is written as a number.

e.g. “Two people came to the shop today looking for fresh fish.”
or
“15,000 people visited the website from the new blog article we wrote.”

However, marketing copy can be the exception to the rule.
In advertisements, email subject lines, or anywhere else where text is usually limited to catch the eye, the norm is to write all numbers as numerical values.

e.g. “3 x more foundation shades added to our collection”

Capitalisation in titles and headers

When writing titles, you should generally capitalise nouns, verbs, and adverbs, but not conjunctions.

“My Title’s Perfect with Capitalisation”
not
“My title’s perfect with capitalisation”
or
“My Title’s Perfect With Capitalisation”

If in doubt, visit TitleCaseConverter.com, type in your title, and it’ll capitalise it for you.

However, this goes for actual titles – not email subject lines or advertising copy.

Keep it simple!

Keep your sentences short.
Be considerate to your reader – they don’t want to get exhausted reading a 50-word sentence.

Don’t believe me?

How does this sentence read to you, is it particularly easy to read, or are you getting mentally knackered from having to read so many words, one after the other, with no reprise, and no consideration of your poor eyes straining to read so many lines stacked on top of each other?

Not quite so easy to read, is it?

Keeping it simple also extends to the words you use.

Don’t use long words when shorter, simpler ones will work just as well.

Shorter words have more punch and ‘oomph’ than longer ones.
Plus, not everyone has the same reading level.

Your longer, ‘more complex’ words could be alienating your audience.

Write so a nine-year-old could understand what you’re saying.

Keep it simple.

Write in an active voice

Always write in an active voice, not passively.

Know the subject of your copy, and mention that subject as soon as you can.

e.g. “Liza hired a new marketing manager”
NOT
“A marketing manager was hired by Liza”

Be active!

Take out unnecessary words

This ties in with keeping it simple – editing and cutting down words is the best thing you can do to your copywriting.

If you can take out a word, take it out.

Every word should serve a clear purpose, and all deadwood should be cut out.

Don’t write for the sake of adding words – you’re not writing a school essay anymore.

If you need to re-jig words around so a sentence can be shorter, do it.

Here are some words you can generally cut out of your writing:

That
Make sure/ensure
Really/very
Just
Rather/quite
Completely/totally
Literally
All of

e.g. “Make sure that you take out all of the unnecessary words.”
becomes
“Take out unnecessary words”

If you don’t think you use these words very often in your copy, just hit Ctrl+F and search for them – you’d be surprised!

Edit, edit, and edit again!

Spell-check!

Another massive bug-bear of mine is poor spelling.

I get it – not everyone is good at spelling, but there’s so much out there that can help you become better at spelling, and a lot of these resources are free.

One tool that I use a lot is Grammarly, which flags up whenever I’ve written something generally considered to be grammatically incorrect, or spelling errors.

I’m a furious typer, and often get quite a lot of typos when I’m on a hot streak, so Grammarly is handy to catch a lot of those.

Of course, it doesn’t catch everything – after all, it’s a free tool.

The best way of catching spelling and grammar mistakes is to hire a proofreader to check your copy.

But that can be time-consuming and costly, so it’s generally best to use Grammarly to catch the more obvious slip-ups, and have a colleague or friend cast their eye over for those easier-to-miss errors.

Write with confidence

Self-confidence is something a lot of writers have to tackle every day.

I know I definitely do!

You’re not alone, we all struggle with confidence.

It’s tempting to use words like “try”, “maybe”, and “possibly” – non-committal words that hack away at the authority you’re building up.

Swap your ‘weak’ words with strength – will, not maybe, can, not try.

Yes, we can!

Apostrophes

There are three general rules with apostrophes:

Apostrophes for contractions – to replace missing letters.
e.g here’s rather than here is or heres

Apostrophes for possessives – to indicate that something belongs to someone.
e.g. Nidia’s hat rather than Nidias hat

However, the rule changes a little when the noun (person, object, place, etc.) that the item belongs to ends in an s.
e.g. Francis’ hat rather than Francis hat or Francis’s hat

This same rule generally applies to possessives for plural nouns.
e.g. I’m saving for all of my friends’ weddings for the weddings of several friends rather than my friends weddings or my friend’s weddings

No apostrophes for just plurals.
e.g. Look at those cute rabbits over there rather than rabbit’s

Of course, as with any ‘rule’ in the English language, each of these can be broken in unusual circumstances.
If in doubt, look it up online – someone’s usually got the answer you need!

Give credit where it’s due

We all take a lot of inspiration from people, companies, books, TV programmes, movies… everything – and that’s great!
But if an idea isn’t your own, or you’ve built on someone else’s idea, always give them credit.

If you’re using an image in a blog article, book, on your social media page – anywhere – give credit to the photographer and the source.

If you’re referencing someone else’s idea or quoting them, use their name.

Better yet, check with them that they’re happy for you to refer to them – they might even share your reference to their followers!
Don’t steal ideas or quotes from people – plagiarism is the absolute worst sin a copywriter can commit.

Create a style guide for your brand

It can help you write quicker if you set yourself specific rules for writing.

Something I find particularly helpful is a writing style guide.

Make a note of all of the rules that you want to follow when writing – format, tone of voice, or even specific spellings.

For example, at Night Sky Creative, we always write each sentence as a sort of paragraph, because, as a blog, all of our copy is digital, and readable via a screen.

I want to make it as easy as possible for our online audience to read our blog, so I space it out as much as possible – just like this book!

Make a template of your formatting, too – set up what headers, subtitles, bullet points, and body copy looks like on your website.

Your copywriting style is part of your brand – be faithful to it.

Consider SEO

SEO is fundamental to good copywriting online.
But don’t sell out to the bots.

There are still people reading your work, and they are who you should be writing for – if they land on your site because you’ve scattered it with nonsensical keywords, they’ll cast an eye over it, and bounce off straight away.

And you will have wasted your time writing that copy.

Ultimately, the search engine bots are looking to EAT your copy.

The bots are looking for your copy to be:
Expertise
Authority
Trustworthiness

Expertise
Show how much you know about certain subjects relating to your brand, product, or service.

Expertise can mean a few different things, depending on the industry.

What you’re writing should be useful for your readers, and not misleading or fake.

Authority
If you write about a subject often, you’ll be considered an authority.

So if you’ve just started a blog for your business, keep at it.

Every post you write boosts your website’s credibility and authority.

Trustworthiness
If your copy is spammy, full of links to lots of other untrustworthy sites, and if lots of people click to your site and bounce straight off, your trustworthiness level will drop drastically.

Don’t try to pull the wool over your readers’ eyes, and don’t try to scam them.
Your search engine ranking will suffer, and you’ll have fewer visitors to your site.

Write to persuade

Now we’re getting into the advanced side of copywriting!

Let’s face it, the majority of copywriting is written in order to persuade people to do something.

All copywriting serves a purpose, particularly marketing copywriting.

So how do we write to persuade?

Centuries ago, Aristotle broke it down for us…

There are three elements of persuasion: logic (logos), emotion (pathos), and values (ethos).

Logic
This is writing as a sort of argument – using facts and figures.

Engage your readers’ rationale and reasoning with data, statistics, and proof.

Make a claim (what you assert to be true), provide evidence (what supports your claim), then explain why you’re making your claim based on the evidence – this part of your argument is often implied, rather than explicitly written.

e.g. “Market leader for metals conferences, producing the biggest industry conferences for over 30 years.”

Emotion

This is based on human feelings – often triggered by pictures (particularly pictures of people), using stories to convey emotions.

Get to your readers through their hearts.

Here are some key emotive words to inject more emotion into your persuasive writing:

Love
Hate
Risk
Care
Best
Worst
Win
Lose
Safe
Live
Kill
Lonely
Magic
Friend

e.g. “Becoming an entrepreneur is lonely, so we’ve created a community of like-minded businesspeople to share their experiences at our friendly, relaxed workshops.”

Values
Writing based on shared beliefs of you and your readers – as individuals, a community, and as a culture.

It’s what’s important to you and your reader, and why they would come to you rather than one of your competitors.

You should always communicate your brand values to your audience with your everyday copy

You can write value-focused persuasive copy by establishing credibility – get praise from sources your customers know and value (influencers), quotes from people your customers respect and relate to (inspirational figures), and curated content from credible sources.

e.g. “Our latest mascara, loved by eco-warriors worldwide, is cruelty-free, vegan, and free from harmful chemicals.”

Features & Benefits

As advertising genius, David Ogilvy, said:
“Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.”

Features are facts: What your product or service does – logic-based, sometimes more numerical.
Benefits are results: What your customer gets out of it – more emotional and value-based.

Here’s a hard-to-swallow fact: consumers don't really care about your product.

All consumers care about is what your product can do for them – why should they buy it?

Lead your copywriting with your benefits, then follow with features to validate your claim, as with logical persuasive writing.

If you’re not sure what your benefits are, use the ‘so what?’ technique to find out.

Start with a feature, and keep asking ‘so what?’ until you get to your key benefit.

Let’s say you’re writing copy for a new fast-boiling kettle.

“It boils water super-fast” (feature)
So what?

“It takes less time to make a cup of tea” (advantage)
So what?

“You can enjoy a cup of tea sooner” (benefit)
So what?

“You have more free time to do what you want” (ultimate benefit)
SOLD!

Of course, knowing your audience can help tailor what your benefits are, for more personalised and engaging copy.

So, if your target audience for this kettle was people who are planning their wedding and want to add items to their gift list, you could say:

“More time with the people you love with super-fast boiling function.”

For more information on Features & Benefits, check out Dean’s blog: Features & Benefits 101

‘You’ before ‘Me’

In general, you want to refer to ‘you’ (the reader) more often than you refer to ‘I’ (the writer or brand).
After all, you’re writing for the reader, not for yourself.

Just as the reader doesn’t care about your product, they also don’t care about your brand.

They care about what your brand can do for them – they care about themselves, their lives, and the people in their lives.

Browse through your copy to see how many times you mention ‘we’ or ‘I’, and cross-check it with how many times you address your reader (‘you’, ‘your’) – you should be talking about/to them at least twice as much.