5 Pitfalls to Avoid as a Copywriter
Earlier this year, my colleague, Signe, gave you 15 specific tips for writing a good landing page.
If you’ve read the blog post, you’re already familiar with the SEO value of thorough keyword analysis, value propositions, calls to action, meta descriptions, and SEO titles—all of which are essential for your landing page to appear in search results.
Now I’d like to take a closer look at the actual writing of a well-crafted landing page. After all, the text should cement your credibility in the minds of potential customers.
Unfortunately, many people fall into the same bad habits when writing SEO copy. In this post, I've selected a handful of them.
Read on to learn more about what to avoid as a copywriter—and what to do instead.
1. Clichés and empty adjectives
The text on companies’ landing pages and “About Us” pages is often long, self-congratulatory ramblings filled with trite clichés and empty adjectives.
That’s why, as a Google user, you can find an overwhelming number of landing pages with virtually identical text, where it’s more or less only the company name that distinguishes one piece of text from another.
Typical examples of clichés include:
- We are committed to quality
- We put the customer first
- We collect happy customers
- We are flexible
- We deliver on time
- We have been around for X generations
If you've ever tried Googling a service, you've probably come across one of these clichés—or all of them on a single page.
Google has certainly come across them—many times. As of this writing, Google has 12,900 results for the search term “we put the customer first”—closely followed by “we deliver on time,” which yields 12,800 results.
It’s nothing new for a company to be quality-conscious, customer-oriented, and reliable. It would be surprising if a company weren’t—although such a company would likely have a fairly short lifespan.
So you don't need to explain it explicitly. There are already 12,900 others who have done so.
So what should you do instead?
Show it instead! Make it concrete—not abstract.
So how can you specifically show the customer that you are committed to quality?
If you’re a mover, for example, you can mention that you use packing materials and straps to ensure that fragile items don’t get damaged. You know your trade inside and out, and you know exactly what constitutes high quality. But your customers don’t necessarily know that.
That's why you need to show them that you care about quality—not just tell them you do.
In other words, you need to paint a picture for your potential customers. In rhetoric—the study of the art of speech and persuasion—the term “evidencia” is sometimes used. This means that texts or speeches have the quality of causing the listener to form a mental image.
And that is exactly what you should aim for in your writing: to get the reader—and thus a potential customer—to form a mental image.
So ditch the trite clichés and empty adjectives in your writing, and replace them with examples and evidence. Show it, don’t tell it.
2. Clichés and empty adjectives are—and not what they do
When you replace your clichés and adjectives with concrete examples, you’re already well on your way to avoiding the next pitfall.
The problem with clichés isn't just that they make your writing abstract.
The problem is also that while they may describe what your business is—they don’t describe what it does. For example, the fact that a business has been around for X generations is a piece of information that says nothing about the benefits or value it offers to the customer.
Who says a company is synonymous with quality just because it has been around for several generations? What if it has been treading water and never reinvented itself, despite several generational changes?
As a business, you should put yourself in the recipient’s shoes—not your own. Although very few people would probably admit it, most of us act in our own best interests. Your customers do, too. And it’s not in their best interest that your business has been around for X generations—only in yours.
So what should you do instead?
Ask yourself: What benefit does it provide the customer that your company has been in business for many years? And, just as importantly: What does the customer get out of it?
One advantage, for example, could be that the customer has the opportunity to consult with experienced staff who possess knowledge and expertise. One benefit could then be that the customer is assured of receiving the desired service or product.
In other words, you must explicitly state what a fact or a function does.
Does your company offer the largest selection of products in the Nordic region? Fantastic! Then highlight the benefits—and especially the advantages: that customers can meet all their needs in one place, and that they don’t have to spend time and effort shopping at multiple retailers.
In other words, you need to highlight the value you offer your potential customers. You shouldn't just explain what your business is—you should also explain what it does for the customer.
In sales and marketing, this strategy is known as the FFU model. And it’s a strategy you can benefit from using in your SEO content.
3. Companies that talk over their customers’ heads with jargon
As a dentist, you know that “gingivitis” is the Latin term for gum inflammation. If you work in law, you probably take it for granted that “disinherit” means to cut someone off from their inheritance. And if you work with SEO, terms like “dwell time,” “CTA,” and “keyword stuffing” are a natural part of your vocabulary.
Of course, you’ve mastered the jargon and technical terminology of your own field. And it’s perfectly understandable that you want to convey your expertise to your clients. But you risk shooting yourself in the foot if you take your own expertise for granted.
Your field of expertise isn’t your customers’ field of expertise—otherwise, they wouldn’t have Googled the service you provide. That’s why it’s important that your text doesn’t leave potential customers with unanswered questions.
Writing is subject to the condition that it is solitary. As the author of a text, you are not in the same room as your readers. Unlike conversation, writing is not a dialogue—but a monologue. There is nothing new about this. The Greek philosopher Plato already knew this in ancient times—and he indeed accused writing of being non-dialogical.
But just because writing is solitary doesn’t mean you should leave your readers all alone. And even though writing is non-dialogic, that doesn’t mean you should talk past your readers.
So what should you do instead?
Precisely because writing is a solitary and non-dialogical activity, it is important for a text to be self-explanatory. Your readers—and thus your potential customers—do not have the opportunity to have terms they do not understand explained to them.
That’s why they’re also likely to feel overlooked or talked down to if they come across a text full of jargon. So tone down the technical jargon and put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Think about the questions you encounter in your daily life. What do your customers ask about? What makes your patients wonder? What words would puzzle you if you didn’t have your own experience and education?
A clear, easy-to-understand text written at eye level will put your customers at ease—and thus make your business appear more trustworthy.
4. Convoluted phrasing—even written language can become too formal
Try to think back to your elementary school days. You’ve just gotten your Danish essay back. Full of anticipation, you look—only to be disappointed—at your Danish teacher’s admonishing comment: “Too conversational!”—written, mind you, in an ominous red color.
Do your Danish teacher's comments still haunt you when you write essays? And do you therefore do everything you can to make your writing as formal as possible?
In that case, it's time for you to forget some of what you learned in elementary school.
For example, I came across the following wording on a moving company's website:
“Once we arrive at the new location, your belongings will be placed where you specify.”
The sentence above might sound fantastic to your old Danish teacher. But it won’t look good to your readers—if they even bother to read it at all.
We’re hopelessly impatient on the internet and often skim websites for information rather than reading the text carefully from beginning to end.
That’s why it’s also likely that your readers will lose interest if they have to wade through long, convoluted sentences, foreign words, and nested clauses within other nested clauses.
Even writing can become too "written."
So what should you do instead?
Forget about high LIX scores, tone down the level of abstraction, and make your text sound more conversational.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should write the way you speak. Spoken language is fleeting and tied to a specific moment in time—and will therefore be marked by filler words, unnecessary repetitions, and impulsive outbursts. You should, of course, eliminate these elements from your writing.
However, you can benefit from using oral communication techniques.
Spoken language also has advantages that you can apply to your writing. For example, it is vivid, personal, dynamic, and concrete—qualities that can help make your writing more understandable and reader-friendly.
That’s why it’s a good idea to use conversational techniques in your writing. You can do this, for example, by:
- Write short sentences—only one piece of information per period
- Put the most important information at the beginning of the sentence—and the additional details at the end
- Useimagery and metaphorsto make your products or services more tangible
So how can you rephrase “Upon arrival at the new location, your belongings will be placed where you specify” to make it sound more conversational?
Try saying, for example: “We’ll put your moving boxes wherever you’d like.” Less is more.
5. Fear of filler words results in too few connecting words
As I’ve already mentioned, we skim through a lot of content when we’re browsing the web. That’s why it’s really important to remember to avoid unnecessary words that aren’t needed.
Yes, filler words can be annoying—especially for a reader who has landed on your page because they need to fulfill a specific need. We’ve also warned against the use of filler words in our post “15 Tips for Your Landing Page.” Countless other communications agencies have done the same.
And for good reason. There’s no need for more noise on the internet, and filler words can easily make your text get lost in the crowd.
That said: Everything in moderation!
For many writers, the fear of filler words leads to an overuse of conjunctions. I often come across texts where it’s clear that the writer has taken the advice to avoid filler words a little too literally.
The result is a fragmented text containing a lot of information that doesn't seem to be related at first glance.
So what should you do instead?
First and foremost, you can always try to determine by listening whether a filler word is actually a filler word that hinders understanding—or whether it is a connecting word that aids understanding.
Communications agencies often warn against using words like “so,” “well,” “just,” and “exactly.” And yes, these words are sometimes used as unnecessary filler words.
Conversely, they can also help give a text momentum and make it flow. Transitional words can therefore help make your text easier to understand.
It is possible that the word “altså” is sometimes used to reiterate a point. But it can also help emphasize a consequence and clarify the significance of a statement.
It’s also possible that, according to some, words like “namely” and “so” are colloquial and don’t add anything. But they can also help support a claim and create coherence in your text.
So how do you determine whether a word is filler or a connector?
Read your text aloud as you write. Did you stumble over the word while reading? Then it's a filler word. Conversely, does the text lose a clause if you remove it? Then it's a connecting word.
Avoid the Pitfalls with a Copywriter
Are you still worried about falling into these pitfalls? You’re always welcome to contact Amplify and have one of our copywriters write your landing page.
Contact us at+45 70 60 50 28,info@amplify.dk, or through ourcontact form.
Learn Even More
Whether you're a generalist or a specialist in marketing, our experts have put together a number of helpful tips for you on our blog.
