Website copy – brochure copy – email content – newsletters – sales letters etc.

It doesn’t matter what you are writing copy for, if it isn’t effective, interesting and commanding it won’t have the desired effect.

The copy you are writing is designed to be read by your potential clients. Therefore it should always address them and their needs.

What is the simplest and most effective way of doing that?

By using the words you, yours, you’re and your.

I want to ‘we’

Well if you do you’ll become very lonely. The one thing that I see again and again are websites (and brochures etc.) that constantly bang on about the company.

“We were established in 1989….”

“We utilise the full range of skills offered by our diverse workforce….”

BORING

Remember what I said earlier? You are writing for your potential clients. They are reading your copy therefore it should address them.

Tell them how you will help them.

“The comprehensive financial review will save you time….”

“Your life will become so much easier when you buy….”

“An effective website will make your company standout and get you noticed….”

See how much better that sounds? You are talking directly to your reader. You are showing them exactly what you can do for them. They will be able to see at a glance that yours is a company that puts their needs first – a company that cares.

So, when you’re next writing some marketing material remember, ditch the we and go for you.

This is the first guest blog written by Jamie Hudson a freelance copywriter based in the Midlands. In this post he writes about the simple steps you can take to improve your writing. Hopefully this will be the first of many guest blogs to be featured on FreelanceCopywritersBlog.

Do you have something to say about copywriting or marketing? If so get in touch with your ideas and perhaps you too can appear here on a guest bloggers slot.

But now, without further ado here are Jamie’s 7 easy ways to improve your writing.

Everyone needs to be able to write well.

It will help in every area of your life, professionally and personally. It will help you to recognise good writing in your own advertising and marketing communications. And spot bad writing which is harming your brand, proposition and offer.

It will help you to communicate more effectively with your colleagues, business partners and outside suppliers. Use these guidelines and you’ll be able to write better creative briefs, internal documents, proposals, complaint letters, even love letters to your partner.

The ability to write well is vitally important for all of us. After all, if you can’t say what you mean, how can you mean what you say?

These seven tips can be applied to any kind of writing. They will give you a set of guidelines you can refer to.

1. Never, ever try to be clever

Communicate your thoughts and feelings, your views and opinions as simply and clearly as possible. You are not trying to show everyone how clever you are. If you come up with a word or phrase that you are particularly proud of, cut it out immediately.  Any piece of writing should make the reader think, ‘Great, I want that product now,’ or ‘That strategy is spot on – let’s do it’, or ‘That’s a cracking brief’

Not, ‘Wow, that’s really clever.’

2. Read it out loud

By reading aloud you’ll see if it flows nicely and leads smoothly from one point to the next. You’ll also quickly discover any passages which hold up the flow and need cutting or rewriting. And remember, a piece of advertising copy shouldn’t sound like advertising copy. If it does, rewrite it. 

3. Give us a KISS

It’s a much-used acronym, but one of my favourites: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Use short, simple words, not long, complicated ones. Use short sentences. Did you know that the easiest to read sentence is eight words long? While sentences of more than 32 words are very difficult for most people to take in.

Use short paragraphs with only one thought per paragraph. In particular, try to ensure that the first paragraph is no longer than one sentence.

While we’re talking about simplicity, lots of writers think that if they’re writing about complicated subjects, they have to use complicated language. Not so. The Wall Street Journal is written in a language that’s understandable to a 17-year old. But not the front cover. That’s meant to be understood by a 15-year old.

4. Mind your language

In almost every type of writing, you should use words that ordinary people use every day. Sit on the bus or tube and listen to people talking. Hear the kind of words that they use. For example people don’t undertake things. They carry them out. Or better still, do them. Get the idea?

Oh, and forget jargon too.

5. Don’t use that tone of voice with me.

Tone of voice – when it’s right, you don’t notice it and you take in the message. When it’s wrong, it’s irritating and you feel either talked down to, or up to which is just as bad. Above all, always try to write in the language of the person you’re writing to. The language they themselves will use every day.

6. Your most powerful word.

So what’s the most powerful word in any kind of writing? Suppose you’re inspiring your colleagues, selling a product online, writing a DM pack or wooing a lover – what’s the one word they want to hear more than any other?

Free is good.

So are Save and Save money.

Even New will attract attention.

But the best word you can use is You. Along with Yours and Your.

7. Get a freelance copywriter to write your copy for you.

OK, how many of you realise the potential a blog could have for your business?

Out of those who put your hand up, how many of you actually blog to help generate traffic to your main website and raise your profile?

I thought as much. Blogging is one of those things that most of us know we should be doing. Most of us realise that it is one of the best ways to generate traffic and links to your business site. But few of us actually take time out to create one and make it work.

I guess the biggest barriers to blogging regularly and well are time and energy. When you throw into the mix the fact that results are slow and only become apparent over time, people give up before they’ve even got started.

Blogging well takes time and patience, but it is well worth it.

If you have a blog but don’t think it’s working for you take a look at this recent post on Copyblogger and make sure you’re not committing any of the 7 deadly sins to blogging.

I guess we’ve all seen websites that just go on, and on, and on, and on….

They are full of information we don’t need to know and certainly don’t want to know. Things like Our company was formed in 1890….We have 35 members of staff….Our MD drives a Smartcar…

What were they thinking of when they wrote it?

It’s rather like a kid in a sweet shop. Do you remember that feeling? You are stood in the shop, peeking over the counter at the rows of jars containing delicious sweets in all shapes and sizes. You can’t decide what you want so you buy everything you possibly can. When your mum sees you she tells you not to eat them all at once because you’ll be sick.

‘OK mum,’ you shout as you disappear up to your room.

What’s the first thing you do? Scoff all the sweets as fast as possible. You don’t known when to stop. The result? One very sick child.

It’s the same scenario with the website. The sweets in this case is the information. When you write your own website copy you just want to include everything because you believe it is important. You’re proud of your company’s achievments, and quite rightly so. But your reader only wants to know what you will do for them. They couldn’t care less about anything else.

If you overload your website with material it won’t take long for your reader to get rather sick of it, hit the back browser and look elsewhere.

So, the moral of the story is to be economical with your information. As the title of this post says, less is most definitely more. Tell your reader simply what you’ll do for them i.e. the benefits of your service (you’ll save them time, money etc.). Take a step back and resist the urge to fill your website with information that only you want to read.

Be ruthless – your readers will love you for it.

As a copywriter I am asked to undertake a huge variety of projects for my clients. They can range from website copywriting to providing copy for brochures or writing features/articles to interviewing people to write case studies and just about everything else in between.

A recent project I was involved with was to not only write a clients web copy but to also produce an awards entry for their company. They are a freight forwarding company and were looking to enter the IFW Freight Forwarder of the Year Award for the first time.

Working closely with the company, I produced an entry for them and guess what?

The Managing Director phoned earlier this week to tell me they had been shortlisted as finalists!

Superb! Now it’s fingers crossed time that come September there’ll be even better news – a win?