Even the best copywriters occasionally leave typos, grammatical mistakes and missing words in their work sometimes. Error-free copy can still include unnecessary words or superfluous adjectives that muddle the message and don’t speak to the target audience.
Having a thorough proofread done by a second or third set of eyes can help flag such problems and prevent weak copy from circulating to your business’s stakeholders. But knowing how to avert the most common missteps in your copywriting is half the battle.
Below, members of Forbes Communications Council share some of the most common copywriting mistakes and how they avoid making them.
1. Leaving A Typo In The Subject Line
It is easy to write an email, review it over and over again and then miss a typo in the subject line or forget to attach a file. You can avoid this by closely reviewing every subject line before sending a message. Also, attach the files before you start typing your message and click on them to test that they are accurate and open correctly. - Gina Katzmark, Engine Shop
2. Writing Too Much Text
One of the most common copywriting faux pas I have seen repeated time and again, especially in B2B product-led companies, involves the “kitchen sink syndrome” (a.k.a. scope creep). There is no need to dive into every minute detail in a single piece of content. Content should flow from trying to attract to engaging and, finally, to asking readers to take some action. Less is always more. - Ash Parikh, Druva
MORE FOR YOU
3. Creating Narratives Or Images That Don’t Stand Alone
Copywriting for video and digital-social mediums requires additional skill. For video, it’s important to review a script in isolation from the images. Does it stand alone? And if you were to take away the narrative, do the images themselves tell a cohesive story? For digital or social ads, brevity is critical, as is using words the target audience would use in the way they’d use them. - Michelle Stark, Red Sage Communications, Inc.
4. Not Being Clear And Straightforward With Complex Ideas
Copywriting is challenging, especially when you want to communicate complex ideas to a professional audience. I am always striving for my writing to be clear and straightforward even if the topic is complicated. Once I have that down, I try to make it a little fun! - Sarah Falcon, Object Edge
Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Using Unnecessary Filler Words
This may seem silly, but my biggest hack is to eliminate unnecessary words. Specifically, see where you can cut “that,” “just,” “actually” and “in order to” (instead of “to”)—if the sentence still makes sense without these fillers, remove them! - Jocelyn Sexton, Dover Fueling Solutions
6. Relying Too Much On Spellcheck
It’s important not to rely too heavily on spellcheck to catch mistakes. Online tools have gotten better at recognizing mistakes, but they’re not perfect, so carefully rereading your content is critical in catching errors that might have been missed. Collaborating, brainstorming and sense-checking with colleagues are also great ways to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. - Lynn Kier, Diebold Nixdorf
7. Not Having Writing Copy Edited By Another Set Of Eyes
There are two areas I struggle with. First, ensuring that every word is purposeful. We can’t write like we speak, and superfluous words just deteriorate your message. Second, being in too big of a hurry to have it copy edited by someone else. Amazing how much better your writing can be with another set of eyes! - Ira Gostin, G8 Strategies LLC
8. Burying The Lede
As storytellers, we sometimes spend too much time on the build-up and don’t get to the point fast enough—or at all. So start with the big news, a meaty statistic or a punchline, then fill in details if they are still needed. - Erica Morgenstern, Virgin Pulse
9. Misunderstanding The Target Audience
Copywriting requires clarity into who the targeted audience is, what they understand (or don’t) about the topic, what contextual information they need to be provided and what you want them to take away from the reading. Without such clarity, the writing might be excellent but completely irrelevant. - Isabelle Dumont, Cowbell Cyber
10. Focusing On The Wrong Benefits
One easy mistake for copywriters to make is focusing too much on product/service features rather than benefits to the customer. We’ve probably all made that mistake at least once, as we forget to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes to focus on the value they will derive from our products and services when writing about those features. - Tom Wozniak, OPTIZMO Technologies, LLC
11. Leaving Out A Word
Sometimes, I will leave a word out of a thought I am trying to communicate, which makes the sentence incomplete. Our minds have a tendency to autocorrect when we proofread what we have written, so we glaze over those mistakes. The trick is to read right to left, rather than left to right. It forces the mind to process each word and catch typos and mistakes. - Chris Cline, State of Missouri Information Technology Services Division
12. Not Understanding Different Style Guides
Not understanding the differences between writing styles (for example, AP style versus The Chicago Manual of Style) can feel like a simple mistake, but it makes the difference between someone who can write and a writing professional. Brush up once a year, at the very least, on writing styles and rules of grammar. - Maura Kennedy, Strategic Elements
13. Letting The Dreaded Typo Through
Copywriters like to think that we’re too professional to leave the dreaded typo, but the truth is, they happen, and we can miss them when they occur. If you’ve been writing something for a while, send it to a friend or a colleague out of your department. A fresh set of eyes will often catch mistakes that you can’t when you’re so close to the words. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio
14. Not Optimizing Content For Search
It’s a mistake to not keep search engine optimization in mind when writing for online publications. A copywriter should keep search engine bots in mind by ensuring their central idea is presented in the title tag. The meta tag should be a brief description of the content. The body should contain relevant header tags with appropriate keywords. Such content will fare better in search engine results, and more eyeballs will land on it. - Asad Kausar, Dabaran
15. Not Being Succinct
In today’s world of information overload, keeping it short and meaningful is key, even when you have a very complex product or service. Training ourselves to read and reread our material and edit to more directly communicate our value is so important. - Caroline Lyle, Driven-Brands.com
