5 Mistakes To Avoid Like The Plague When Writing Copy

There are things we just are not good at. One thing we can all improve on is admitting our own mistakes. So here’s a list of mistakes I’ve made and still struggle with sometimes.

Mistake #1 Focusing on yourself and not on the prospect. Yes, I am guilty of this one myself. Often times it’s easier to start with what we are selling and what we have to offer. My only advice here is that there’s only person who will make you rich, your prospect. You should focus on them

Mistake #2 Thinking that your prospect is as interested in what you’re selling as you are. Most people who write their own copy suffer from emotional-product-attachment. It’s true, we fall in love with our products. Even though our products can truly change peoples lives, they still see our product as an object standing between them and what they want.

Mistake #3 Trying to be clever. Because few people take the time to learn marketing principles and their customers, they think that marketing is some sort of voodoo tactic that gets people to remember them. Our society doesn’t allow for that. They don’t want to remember, they want to solve. They have a headache, they want a pill to solve it right now. Being clever is not specific. You must be clear and concise with your offer.

Mistake #4 You’re trying to be professional. Your choice of language can significantly increase your sales. Counter intuitive, less professional, grammatically incorrect and mispellings have a higher conversion rate. This is true mostly because writing like we talk is not necessarily gramatically correct and we tend to use simple language.

Mistake #5 You haven’t frightened your prospect. As positive as I like to be, fear tends to work better than happy joy joy fantasies. You can take your dreams and put them against getting your pinky finger cut off. I am certain you’d be motivated most by avoiding getting your pinky slashed than by getting your dream.

These are mistakes most copywriters have been guilty of. To my knowledge, we all go through a learning curve and don’t start out as blackbelts. What other common mistakes have you seen others make?

Tags: copy writing mistakes, copywriting tips, mistakes to avoid when writing copy, why clever marketing doesn't work