Category Archives: Copywriting

Oh ruddy heck. You have to write some text for an advert and you just can’t come up with anything that flows – or that sounds particularly interesting. We’ve all been there! Assuming you’ve got something interesting to say (and since you’ve set up your own business, it stands to reason you’ll be passionate about what you do), it shouldn’t be too difficult to make it sound absolutely sparkling – you just need to know how. Part two of our copywriting series: using words that sell.

We work with an awful lot of people who offer an absolutely incredible, unique service. They have exciting, innovative businesses but are too afraid (or modest) to shout about it, and that means the words they use fail to compel the reader to buy. Good text really can be the difference between winning or losing a sale, and this alone is a good reason to swot up your writing skills. When we want to make something sound exciting, we could easily use words such as amazing, authentic, exclusive, expert, quality, incredible, fantastic… I could go on. But littering your text with shouty, American-style power words isn’t actually going to do very much to impress your customers – it’ll just show them you have a list of pre-approved superlatives to chuck into a sentence every so often which will win you no favours. Powerful writing is all about really engaging with your customers and convincing them that buying from you is a good idea, and that’s where direct language and empathy comes in.

You know the way you trust people who look you in the eye an awful lot more than those who don’t? We can tap into that same instinct by using direct language and empathising with the obstacles our customers face. Take the following, for example: ‘At Bob’s Computers we fix computers at offices or at customers’ homes’ we could write ‘At Bob’s Computers we’ll come to your office or your home to fix your computer – whichever is most convenient for you’. We’ve instantly reassured our customers that we’ll do whatever we need to to make their life easier, and by using words such as ‘we’, you’re already creating a relationship with the reader which invites them to trust you. Not only that, but by rewriting the text we’ve created some words which give the impression that a lovely, helpful engineer will assist you rather than some grumpy old technician who just wants to get the job done and go home. Perfect!

Think about how you might explain what you do to a friend – you’re more likely to be emphatic and confident with the words we use, and you’ll certainly use lots of ‘you’s and ‘I’s. Give it a go next time you’re writing some text for your business, I promise you’ll see the difference! Next time, we’ll be looking at the way we structure what we say to have the maximum impact. How do you get on with writing for your business? Does it come easy to you or do you tend to get writers’ block?

Have you read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss? It’s a marvellous read for anyone fanatical about punctuation (I have to admit for being a bit of a stickler for that myself), and demonstrates brilliantly that punctuation is incredibly important when it comes to getting your message across effectively.

So, the idea behind the book cover goes like this: A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at everyone around him. ‘Why?’ asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and throws it over his shoulder. ‘Well, I’m a panda,’ he says. ‘Look it up.’ The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.’ Pop a comma in the wrong place and our panda goes from innocently seeking a snack to a blood-thirsty villain. So how’s this relevant to your business?

Well, if you’re remotely involved in writing copy for your sales literature/website/e-shots, you need to be good at this stuff. Poor grammar is a massive turn off, looks unprofessional and sends out a pretty shoddy message about your business. How well you communicate your message determines how your potential customers perceive you. Trip them up on badly constructed text and it sends out a message that you’re sloppy, second-rate and unprofessional, and will make them wonder why they should trust you with their business. Take the following example, for instance:

‘Bob’s lawnmowers are offering our clients new and old a discount on our new range of lawnmowers which are quicker and better than the other lawnmowers that we sell and are very popular with people who have big gardens especially in the summer months. Discount valid this sunday.’

The lack of punctuation means you’ve run out of breath by the time you get to the end of the sentence, and to be frank, these people could be offering lawnmowers for free and you wouldn’t care in the slightest – the impression has been made and it isn’t pretty. Aside from the poor choice of words (more on writing copy that actually sells later!), it’s nonsensical. As well as giving a sentence meaning, punctuation gives clear signals to the reader as to when they should pause, stop or pay attention to a particular word or phrase, which is absolutely essential.

It’s amazing how many businesses fail to dedicate sufficient attention to the quality of the words they use to convey their message. While it would be unrealistic to expect everyone to be brilliant at writing (after all, most business owners didn’t get into business because of their exceptional copywriting skills), with a few tips and tricks you can really transform the way you write and create engaging copy which compels your reader to buy from you. I’m going to be writing a series of blogs on copywriting for business – will you join me? If there’s anything you’d like me to cover in the series, I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment or email me. Let’s get started!