4 copywriting mistakes you MUST avoid

What is the point of having good copy? 

Is it to sound professional? Or to be interesting? 

No. The point of good copy is to connect with the right people and compel them to take action. 

If you don’t have compelling copy on your website for example, when people come across your website they will just bounce over to a competitor’s website instead. Just recently, I was considering hiring a social media manager and ended up bouncing from six to seven websites because they didn’t have copy that converts. It’s so important to have compelling copy, especially when some is problem-aware and actively looking for a solution, otherwise they will keep looking until they find someone to solve their problem. I don’t want your website to be one that people bounce off. I want your website to make make your clients say “heck yes” to working with you, and compel them to take action. 

Hot Tip: You should definitely have a website. It doesn’t have to be fancy or even all of the pages. But you do need to have a digital home to sell your products and services. 

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So let’s dive into some copywriting mistakes that you may be making right now that are causing your dream clients to bounce away and not take action. And as you read through these copy mistakes, I want you have your copy in mind, whether it’s your website copy, Instagram captions or even the emails you’ve written lately. 

1. Writing about yourself and not about your clients

Is your copy all about you and not about your clients? 

This is one of the biggest copy mistakes I see people make. There are without a doubt times where you do need to introduce yourself and talk about yourself. But for your copy to be effective, it needs to actually connect with your dream clients. 

So your copy needs to be written with them in mind. This means less ‘I’ and more ‘you’. This means painting a picture of both the things that your client is struggling with and the things that they desire, as well as the transformation they need to undergo to get to where they want to be. You need to address the questions they may have and really meet them where they’re at. This is how you will connect with your clients.

2. Focusing entirely on the features of your offer 

Yes, you definitely want to talk about all of the incredible features of your offer, but you also need to discuss the benefits as well.

Think about you website copy for a minute. On what pages do you talk about the features of your offer? The homepage? Services page? Sales page? All three?

If you’re a photographer, the features of your offer might be that your clients get 10 hours of shooting time and 100 photos of a certain edit and an album. Or if you’re a social media manager, ti could be that your clients get 30 days of posts scheduled each month and 20 DM replies each day. 

These are the things that your readers will generally want to know before they book you, but the features aren’t what’s going to compel them to take action. 

What is actually going to compel your readers to take action is describing the benefits of your offer. They want to hear about the transformation your offer will give them. How will you get home from a place of struggle to where they want to be? 

It’s the fact that the 10 hours of shooting will create memories of their wedding that will last a lifetime and that they can hang on their walls. It’s the fact that they posts you create drive in new clients and new leads. It really comes down to the transformation your offer will give them.  

So make sure you talk about the benefits, as well as the features, of your offer.  

3. Your language is really formal, not conversational

I’m sure we’ve all been there before. You’re trying to write something for your business and then before you know it, you’ve slipped back into the formal writing of your corporate days. 

When you’re first starting out in your business it can definitely be tricky to transition from formal writing to personality-packed writing. But once you realise that you don’t have to be super formal anymore, your authentic voice will shine and you will draw your readers in. 

Just keep in mind that when you’re deciding how you want to write your copy, that you should filter your words through your brand voice filter. That way you will find the perfect intersection between the words and phrases you use and the words and phrases your dream clients use. And then you will really connect with your dream clients. 

4. There are no calls to action

The last mistake of this list is a big one… Not including a call to action for your readers. 

Have you ever been on someone else’s website because you want to book their service but you have no idea how to book them? Or maybe you were looking to buy a product but couldn’t find where to checkout?

There were no calls to action. No calendar link. No application form. There may have been a contact page, but the copy doesn’t tell readers what to do.

Think about when you invite people over to your home. You want to tell them where to sit  and where to go so that they feel welcome, and don’t just stand there feeling super awkward. Your website is like your digital home and you want to do the same thing. You want to welcome your readers and guide them through your website. And this is exactly what a call to action does. They help your reader feel comfortable and guide them to take the next step with you. And just by telling them what do so that there’s not room for second guessing, you’re already compelling them to take action. 

Those are my top four copywriting mistakes that you want to avoid if you want to convert your dream clients again. Let me know below if you’ve made one or more of these mistakes and what you’re you need to change up in your copy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts

Thanks for reading this post! I hope you found it valuable. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment down below and let me know what you found most helpful or surprising about copywriting mistakes you must avoid!