Copywriting Blunders Do You Make These 10 Common Mistakes

Improve your copywriting by eliminating the 10 most common (and most harmful) mistakes that wreck your copywriter career

Last updated 2022-01-10 | 4.6

- understand the 10 most common mistakes amateur copywriters make
- avoid 10 common mistakes in copywriting
- write better copy

What you'll learn

understand the 10 most common mistakes amateur copywriters make

avoid 10 common mistakes in copywriting

write better copy

* Requirements

* You must know how to write in English
* You must have a basic understanding of sales and marketing concepts

Description

THIS COURSE IS ALSO INCLUDED IN MY NEW MASTERCLASS ON UDEMY. TAKE IT HERE AS A STAND-ALONE COURSE, OR ENJOY IT ALONG WITH 20 HOURS OF OTHER CONTENT. MY MASTERCLASS ON UDEMY IS CALLED: Alan Sharpe's 20-Hour Copywriting Masterclass

You know bad writing when you see it. You know that bad writing is flowery and verbose and full of convoluted sentences. You know that bad writing is filled with typos, grammatical mistakes, inconsistencies and poor reasoning.

But do you know what bad copywriting looks like? Do you know bad copywriting when you see it, or when you write it? This course teaches you the ten most common blunders that new and amateur copywriters make.

I’m Alan Sharpe, and I’m your instructor. I’ve been writing copy, and I’ve been teaching other folks how to write copy, since 1989. I’ve seen all of these mistakes, and I’ve even made a few of them myself.

The main benefit of taking this course is that you’ll learn how to spot the ten most common mistakes that wreck otherwise good copy. Once you learn them, you’ll avoid them.

You and I are going to look at 10 copy killers. Here they are:

Slow in getting to the point
No single-minded proposition
No logical flow
Redundancies
Generalities
Features only
Navel gazing
Claims without proof
No offer
No call to action

Some of these mistakes you already know about, and you don’t make them anymore. But a few of these blunders may have crept into your copy unawares. You’ll be glad to learn what they are, and you’ll be glad to know how to avoid ruining your copy with any of these common mistakes.

I designed this course mainly for aspiring copywriters and new copywriters. The perfect student is someone who is new to copywriting, and who is worried about making mistakes that make them appear incompetent. But this course is also for intermediate and senior copywriters who want to make sure their copy is clear, concise, and compelling.

You’ll see from the course description that there are ten copywriting blunders to avoid. But there’s actually an eleventh mistake as well. And that’s the mistake of not taking this course. Despite what some people say, what you don’t know CAN hurt you. These copywriting blunders will wreck your copy, and sink your career.

So take this course.

Who this course is for:

copywriters
aspiring copywriters
anyone who hires freelance copywriters
managers and supervisors who review copy
copywriters who want a checklist to compare their copy against

Course content

1 sections • 11 lectures

10 Copywriting Blunders to Avoid 11 lectures

Blunder 1: Slow getting to the point Preview 05:30

One of the top blunders that amateur copywriters make is taking too long to get to the point. They lose their prospect as a result. Grabbing someone’s attention with a powerful visual or a great headline isn’t all that hard. The hard part is keeping that person’s attention. You have three seconds, max. After that, your reader is either still paying attention or they’ve turned the page, clicked to another website or changed the channel. Learn how to get to the point sooner rather than never.

Blunder 2: No single-minded proposition Preview 03:45

Your goal with every piece of copy you write is to communicate one essential message to your reader. The single-minded proposition sums up the most important thing you can say about your product or service or brand. Learn why leaving this out of your copy is a blunder.

Blunder 3: No logical flow Preview 03:06

The designer’s job is to make your copy work visually. But your job is to make the copy flow logically. When you make your copy easy to follow, something else follows easily: sales.

Blunder 4: Redundancies Preview 05:08

Next time you finish writing a piece of copy, I want you to examine it for redundancies. Redundancies in copywriting are the mark of a careless or ignorant writer. In copywriting, a redundancy is usually an adjective that modifies a noun to make the noun mean what the noun already means. See what I mean.

Blunder 5: Generalities Preview 06:36

If there is one rule you need to learn early on as a copywriter, it is this: specifics sell, generalities don’t. If you want your copy to sell, don’t make the mistake of writing in generalities. Write with specifics.

Blunder 6: Features only Preview 06:11

There are two ways to describe the same product. You can simply list the features, and hope that your potential buyers understand what those features mean, and understand the benefits of those features. Or, you can list your features, explain those features, and then describe the benefits that the buyer gets from those features. Buyers don’t care about features. They only care about what features do for them.

Blunder 7: Navel gazing Preview 03:39

Always make your copy about the buyer, not your product, not your firm, not your brand. Aim your messages at the prospect and say everything from the prospect’s point of view. Don’t begin your copy with “we” when you can begin with “you.”

Blunder 8: Claims without proof Preview 07:17

You have to back every claim with proof because, without proof, your potential customers won’t believe your claims.

Blunder 9: No offer Preview 03:48

The quickest way to make your copy irresistible is to include an offer. One of the reasons that so many advertisements and product pages don’t convert prospects into buyers is that those pages do not have an offer.

Blunder 10: No call to action Preview 02:47

One of the biggest blunders you can make in your copy is to not ask for the order. Simply put, if you don’t ask for the order, you won’t get the order. With a few rare exceptions, every piece of copy you write must have a call to action.