After Digital’s 5 top tips for stellar copywriting

Bizarrely, copywriting isn’t a task exclusive to copywriters. In fact, most people in their day to day will need to employ some form of copywriting, whether it’s writing an email, a blog or an Instagram post. Of course, some take on sturdier tasks with their copywriting chops, but the basics remain the same if you’re drafting up an important proposal or simply a tweet. We don’t think the trade secrets should be kept under wraps, so we’ve revealed our top five copywriting tips to help even the most novice writers create gripping copy. 

Don’t go in blind

You wouldn’t embark on a 100-mile journey into the unknown without a map, would you? So why do the same when you’re writing something chunky? 

Let’s set the scene. You’re writing a blog for your company site and you’ve set aside four hours to do it. At least an hour of that time should be spent planning out the structure and content, as well as doing any necessary research. 

Once you have your structure sorted and notes relating to your research, writing the blog should be a lot easier. It’s just a case of actually writing it. Easier said than done, we know. But, it is significantly easier to get into the flow of writing when you’re not having to stop and start every couple of minutes to research your next point or figure out how to structure your argument. 

For smaller pieces like social media posts, you might not necessarily need to plan them out—but you’ll certainly need some context and an idea of what you want to say to your audience before you put your fingers to the keys. 

Stay away from cliches  

It’s a tale as old as time. It’s in with the bricks. They’re words to live by!

Do you see what we did there? Cliches don’t really mean anything. They’re empty words taking up space in your word count. 

And there’s no excuse! There are always new and interesting ways to say things. The world is inhabited by 6 billion people all with different thoughts and experiences. Why use phrases that have been used a million times before when we could think up our own? 

Finding unique ways to get your point across will help you grab the readers’ attention from beginning to end. 

Pay attention to rhythm 

Think about it. If you use the same sentence structure all the time. It gets boring. Your reader will get fed up. The rhythm is monotonous. They’ll probably stop reading. 

See? 

Ideally, when you’re writing anything at all, you should vary your sentence structure to create an interesting rhythm. We know, it sounds odd. But, as you can see, having a variety of sentence lengths helps your writing flow. 

When we speak to each other, we use long sentences, short sentences, half sentences and everything in between. So, it makes sense that our brains are more likely to stay interested in a piece of writing that follows the same premise. 

Keep it simple

That being said, although we should vary the sentence structures we use in our writing, it’s also important to keep things simple. Using a lot of parenthesis to elongate your sentences can mean they’re more difficult to understand. By the time the reader gets to the end, they’ve forgotten the point you’re trying to make. You should aim to keep your sentences—long or short—as simple as possible when it comes to their structure. Your readers shouldn’t have to work to understand what you mean, your copy should be digestible and easy to understand. 

And, the same goes for words. It can be really tempting to reach for the thesaurus when writing an important document or proposal. Sure, big words can make you sound smart. However, they also come with the risk that you use them incorrectly, which incidentally, would make you appear the opposite of smart. Plus, if it’s not a word you knew the meaning of before seeing it in the thesaurus, instinct should tell you that your reader might not be sure either. 

Basically, don’t be too flowery with your structure or your vocabulary. 

Read it aloud 

Talking to yourself may well be the first sign of madness, but it’s also the best way to ensure your copy reads and flows well. Good, old-fashioned proofreading is a must, so do read your copy in your head as well. 

Not sold? 

Reading your writing aloud will help you determine whether the rhythm, sentence structure and word choice amount to a final product that will grip the reader, or if it needs some work. It also helps your voice pick up the typos your eyes didn’t catch. 

Do you work in a crowded office? You don’t need to scream it from the rooftops. Muttering under your breath is generally frowned upon in the workplace, but for this reason, we think your colleagues will make an exception. 

Do you need help with copywriting? Our Digital Marketing team is on hand to help you write your blogs and social posts. Get in touch for more information.