You’re never going to reach every single person who reads your copy, but you can make changes in how you write to positively affect how many you will reach. Employ these copywriting skills to reach more people from your audience and better convert on your copy’s goals while doing it.
Copywriting Skills
Write With Your Laziest Reader in Mind
You may like writing a wind up intro about what you’re about to write about (I do, too), but your entire audience won’t share in that sentiment. Keep the intro short and get to the point of your article which is what people likely clicked to read in the first place. While some people may like the intro, others won’t, but those who do like it won’t be upset (or know) if it’s not there, so write with your laziest reader in mind. Mine’s name is Steve.
Write Like You Talk
Informal writing goes against what we learned in grammar school, but we’re not writing an essay on the Civil War, we’re selling! The same goes for whether you’re selling a product or yourself; people like informal writing because it humanizes you as the author whether your reader realizes it or not. Putting yourself on the same level as your audience is always a good idea, especially when it comes to your copy. If you’re unsure of how to do this naturally, try out some voice recognition software and literally write like you speak by… well, speaking.
Break Up Your Paragraphs
It’s much easier to lock on to catch the point of what you’re writing about in shorter paragraphs as opposed to a longer drawn out one. You can retain what you’re reading much more easily this way, adding up the sums of all of those paragraphs to get the overall message of an article. This also improves the odds that people will read your article as opposed to skimming it; but it makes it easier to SUCCESSFULLY skim, as well.
Write. In. Short. Sentences.
The same applies to sentences as it does to paragraphs. I’m not even referring to run on sentences, but most perfectly acceptable sentences can be broken down further so that people can more easily digest the information.
Avoid the Passive Voice
Active voice example: I bought dinner. Passive voice example: Dinner was bought by me. Not only is the passive voice example 2 more words in this intentionally short sentence, but it’s sluggish and even a bit awkward to read considering the alternative. Note that passive voice is not incorrect, it’s just generally not the best way to convey what you’re trying to say.
Write Less!
You may be thinking, “I’ve just written a 4000 word post, I’m going to have something like 1000 sentences with these rules!” First off, that’s a bit extreme. Secondly, DON’T write 4000 words when 3500 will do. Eliminating passive voice is just one of many ways to cut the fat, so always be on the lookout for “the fat”.
See How Things Look in the Morning
Speaking of edits, this one is probably the easiest of the copywriting skills to learn because it only requires that you sleep. It’s always a good idea after you’ve finished writing new content to go to sleep on it and reread it in the morning before publishing. Odds are you can find a better way to say what you said the day before here or there. At the very least you’ll catch a spelling or grammar error or two.
Never assume that just because you have good content and an audience that they’ll read it in the way that you intended. Keep these copywriting skills in mind to increase the odds that you’ll meet the goal of your copy when it comes to your audience.