10 powerful copywriting tips

4. Show, don’t tell

You can take your information to the next level by showing it in action. Instead of telling someone to “experiment with interesting fonts” it’s better to say “experiment with interesting fonts like Proxima Nova, Didot, Lato…” etc. Play around to make great copywriting.

Teachable’s Allison Haag recently used this phrase in her SlideShare “The 4 Steps for to Create Great Presentations.” As a result, her deck was featured on the homepage of SlideShare, and brought in almost 500 likes and over 6,000 views in the past week.

Allison has collected great feedback from people who’ve checked it out and influencers too (see point #3) to now insert even more examples.

5. Don’t write spam (especially in emails)

Given we all use and cherish our email inboxes, we thought this would be worth pointing out. According to research from MailChimp, keep the below words out of your subject line to make sure you don’t get sent to the spam filter:

1. Free
2. Help
3. Percent Off
4. Reminder

Being “spammy” and creating too much urgency all the time might work for a little while, but it won’t build your brand, so find a healthy balance. You don’t want to jeopardize your already great copywriting.

Also, pay attention to the “from” line in your email. It should work with your subject line to remind your reader who you are and make you stand out.

For the Teachable blog, when our co-founder Conrad sends an email, for example, he’ll set it as “Conrad (Teachable)” so you know where it’s coming from.

Also, don’t promote the same information over and over to your audience by simply changing an email subject line. Your open rates will dive bomb. Here’s a data-driven example from MailChimp:

Point is, similar subject lines will reduce their effectiveness over time, so change it up.

6. Kill these words

There are some common words that people tend to glaze over or deter them from reading forward. Try to avoid the use of these words:

1. Sincerely — In this article by Inc, “sincerely” used in an email often comes off as phony or overly formal.
2. Awesome — Adjectives are an opportunity to show your style and voice. Although “awesome” is good in moderation, don’t overuse this common descriptor.
3. Very — Rather than using “very” to emphasize your words, strong alternatives such as “crucial,” “essential,” “insightful,” or “actionable” might serve your point better.
4. Innovative — Any resume writer will tell you that innovative is a big word that you’re going to have to prove, it’s also over used. Avoid it.
5. Bespoke — A buzz word that has been overly used. This word is usually used when companies are over-promising.
6. Advanced — To keep your content evergreen, avoid the word “advanced.” You have advanced tactics or strategies? Since content moves so quickly, “advanced” may be a buzz word that can be replaced with something better for your business.
7. Emails vs. Email – Using AdWord Keyword tool, I realized that 5x more people are searching for the word “email” over “emails.” When finding AdWords to help you, figure out what exact word with what present/past, singular/plural ending. AdWords is a valuable tool, especially for the key phrases and words you want to rank for.

7. Write inclusively, not exclusively

It’s one thing to create a lingo and gather a tribe of people behind you who believe in your mission. It’s another to unnecessarily alienate people who could be part of that audience.

This should come as obvious, but seriously consider the filter you are writing through when producing content. Don’t culturally appropriate lingo from a culture that isn’t yours. Don’t perpetuate gender stereotypes.

8. Keep your copy clean

I love this advice from Pratik Dholakiya on takeaways content marketers can take learn from fiction writers who says: “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.”

On the web, we break the rules of grammar. We add ellipses, bold important phrases, and write in paragraphs composed of a few blunt sentences. We do this so you can more easily digest our content.

This becomes a problem if you break too many rules and no one can understand you, or if you’re me, just generally annoyed by pointless terrible grammar.

To help copy edit your work:

1. Print your post and then edit, or move to a different room than you wrote the piece in. A visual change can help the words seem more distant and allow you to edit more thoroughly.
2. Read your copy out loud. It will help you hear what sounds off.
3. Keep a record of your edits. You’ll start to notice that you’re making the same mistakes over and over. Once you are aware of a pattern, it’s easier to recognize when you’re falling into it.
4. Use a style guide. AP Style is used for most blog posts and press releases whereas the Chicago Manual of Style is used for editing books. You can also reference the OWL website in a pinch.

9. Cut out the fluff

Once you’ve put all your first thoughts down into a draft, it’s time to edit everything down.

Cut critically to make sure your content is focused on the takeaway. Anything else, even if it sounds “cool” will distract your audience.

Here’s an exercise for you: What’s a tagline that will make you stand out, be remembered (in a positive way), and talked about? If you were to summarize your personal mission, blog, course, etc. into a single tagline, how would you do it?

Alyssa Sitting, Content Marketer at LinkedIn talks about this in a post on writing taglines.

This doesn’t have to be perfect or something you obsess over for too long, just a quick exercise to get you in the right mindset.

This tagline should express your personality, which might be very different than anyone else’s. Both Marie Forleo who runs the popular B-school and Ramit Sethi who launched his own set of popular personal wealth building courses, have built raving fans and grown multi-million dollar businesses using a strong, consistent voice that are dramatically different.

While Ramit might say his products are “Thoroughly researched. Rigorously tested. Proven courses for a rich life,” Marie focuses on broader level “Make Money. Be Happy. Change the World.”

While the content and objectives are similar, both have tailored the details of their copy to persuade a particular type of person (see point #1).

Marie’s wall of love reveals a strong female slant of women who want to learn online marketing and are in the early stages of creating an online business. Ramit’s testimonials show an audience who values being more numbers driven.

10. Get inspired by other voices

We’ve mentioned a few in this power, but find and subscribe to your idols and indulge in reading them like crazy. Subconsciously, you’ll pick up tone, style, grammar and spelling as you learn their content. Win, win.

Below we’ve pulled and analyzed content from our favorite luminaries who showcase the writing tips we just covered. All so you can dive into great copywriting.

Here are 10 great online voices to subscribe and absorb:

1. The Copy Cure – This is free training from Laura Belgray and Marie Forleo that brings actionable tips to your inbox.
2. Noah Kagan – A dude who has built himself on his writing style. His blog OkDork is filled with tacos and personality.
3. MozBlog – Notice how clean each article is. Some of it is long and detailed, but it’s all there for a reason.
4. McSweenys – Writing that’s so funny, people actually read it just to be entertained.
5. Contently – They specialize in helping connect brands to writer, so of course their own writers are great. Also follow their Co-Founder Shane Snow.
6. TheSkimm – Signing up here gives you a daily email with all the curated news highlights of the day. They’ve built their company around this one email.
7. CopyHackers – Joanna Wiebe has some great content you can learn from on how to make your copy compelling.
8. Threadling – Dan Kaplan has developed a storytelling free course you can learn from.
9. Buffer – Check out Belle Beth Cooper who has a great article on 6 aspects of successful writing.
10. Want more? This is a great list from Jeff Haden on 50 Awesome Resources to help you be a better writer and content marketer on Inc.