Writing quality copy for your website or social media should inspire your audience to take action and engage with your brand. That’s the number one goal for writing copy, whether you’re a digital marketing freelancer or a copywriter. It’s important that you nail this part of the process in order to achieve whatever you have set out to do with your business, whether that’s selling products, landing clients, or growing your brand. Your writing, regardless of content, should be interesting and engaging in order to hook people in. Otherwise, what’s the point?
In today’s market, things like digital marketing are crucial to the success of any business, so it’s important to pay attention to detail here. If you’re a new brand starting out, or can’t afford to hire your own copywriter, here are some handy do’s and don’ts for how to write online copy.
Do’s
Do Your Research
Just because you feel clued up on a certain topic doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know. Even the most knowledgeable geniuses out there still need to do their homework. When it comes to putting out content online, researching before you start the writing process is a great opportunity to enhance your knowledge. It also lessens the chance of writing misleading or incorrect information when you are able to fact-check and make sure you have all the details before publishing your content.
Do Include A Call To Action
If someone has landed on your page and you’re not giving them a call to action, then that’s a valuable trick you’re missing! You need to give them a clear indication of what your intentions are and communicate that effectively and directly. There’s no point beating around the bush here. Whether you want your audience to sign up for a free trial, join a mailing list, start an online course, be notified of future events or products, subscribe, learn more… the clearer you are with your CTA, the more likely you are to see results.
Do Write For An Audience
When writing copy, you really need to know your audience so you have an idea of how to craft your message. If you have your target audience in mind then it will be easier for you to speak to them directly and be able to tailor your output in order to attract the right people. Make sure that your writing is clear and easy to read.
Do Cultivate a Writing Style
Your writing style is unique to you, so have fun with it! Decide what you want your brand’s tone to be and make sure it’s consistent across your platforms. Knowing how to appeal to your niche or audience will inform how to approach your writing. Of course, not all businesses will want to be casual and funny, but having that human element to your writing will allow people to connect with your brand.
Don’ts
Don’t Plagiarise
If you’re short on time or don’t know much about a certain topic, it can be so tempting to borrow text or copy from other webpages. But this isn’t a good tactic for a number of reasons. People will be looking to your brand for original content and if this is something that you cannot deliver on then your audience may not view you as a reliable or trustworthy source. It is also a really fast way to lose credibility and drop down in rankings on search engines.
Don’t Use Copyrighted Images
It’s easy to get caught out with this one, but our best advice is only to use stock images or your own content if you’re planning on having images or graphics on your website or socials. The latter can often be costly and time-consuming though, but luckily there are many websites out there such as Shutterstock, Pexels and Unsplash that have an extensive archive of royalty-free images.
Don’t Forget to Double-Check
Make sure you proof-read and edit your writing before you publish it. There’s nothing more embarrassing than having content out there in the world with loads of typos and grammatical errors. Even the pros can slip up here and there, so don’t forgo this last important step.