Writing copy for your website or even content for your newsletter or blog can seem like a daunting task, but it really doesn’t have to be. The truth is, you’ll connect more with your audience and gain more loyal customers and fans if you just write like you talk.
So, what does that mean? Let’s look at five simple tricks we can all use to improve copy today.
1. Read Your Copy Out Loud
Every time I finish a piece of writing, I read it out loud. When we read something aloud, we engage the brain differently and can hear mistakes or breaks in flow that our eyes don’t catch.
It’s much easier to hear when a word is repeated, a sentence goes on too long, the wording sounds too formal, etc., when you read copy out loud. Give it a try.
2. Use Contractions
When you’re talking to a friend, do you typically say “you are” or “you’re,” “she is” or “she’s”? I’m willing to bet it’s the latter most of the time. So why not incorporate that into your writing?
Which sounds better to you?
“You are going to love our new book. We have interviewed hundreds of refugees and they have shared their personal stories of struggle and resilience. It is going to change the world.”
Or
“You’re going to love our new book. We’ve interviewed hundreds of refugees and they’ve shared their personal stories of struggle and resilience. It’s going to change the world.”
The second version sounds infinitely better when you read it aloud. Why? Because is sounds like you sound when you’re talking to a friend.
And that brings us to our next trick…
3. Pretend you’re writing an e-mail to a friend
Staring at a blank page, not sure where to begin? Try writing an email to a good friend about what you’re trying to say to your audience. Don’t sensor yourself. Just open up a fresh document, write “Hi [insert best friend’s name here]!” and start writing an email.
Tell her all about your new business/product/service/project using the exact language you’d use in an email to her. (When doing this exercise, I often find it helpful to set a timer for 10 minutes or so – depending on how long the final piece needs to be – and make myself continue to write until the timer goes off.)
When you’re done, go back and look at what you’ve written. What can you use, and what do you need to clean up a little for publication? Read it aloud. How does it sound?
Now that you’ve got all the general ideas down, it’s much easier to go back and add paragraph breaks, subheadings where necessary and fix up the language a bit.
4. Drop “That”
This is a trick I learned back in journalism school.
Here are a couple of sentences you might see is a person’s “About” page or something similar…
“You should know that I’m a licensed professional who has been in business for more than 20 years.”
“The truth is that I didn’t like working 7 days a week.”
Now, let’s see how they look when we drop “that” (and also add a contraction and drop “for” in the first example).
“You should know I’m a licensed professional who’s been in business more than 20 years.”
“The truth is I didn’t like working 7 days a week.”
In both cases, when we drop extra words like “that,” the sentence sounds tighter, more powerful and more conversational.
Do you have a special trick for improving copy? Please share in the comments below.
