Five bad copywriting habits to break

Writing great copy week in and week out can be quite a task.

Sometimes, without knowing it, we can pick up some pretty bad writing habits that impact the quality of our content and growth of our brand. These bad habits can need to be recognised and avoided at all costs in order to ensure you are truly offering something valuable to your readers. Here are five bad copywriting habits to break:

1. Using too many adjectives

You may be excited about your product or services, so it can be tempting to use as many positive adjectives as possible. However, a sentence like: “Our super fun, really great, awesome products can be yours” doesn’t actually communicate anything of value. Instead try to keep the adjectives to a minimum and only use them descriptively.

2. Repeating the same thing over and over again

You can introduce or summarise your points, but beyond that it is important to avoid repetition in your article. Repetitive content is boring to read and does not offer value. Rather than saying the same thing over and over again, either expand the scope of your topic or simply keep the article brief.

3. Writing long paragraphs

All content needs to be easy to read. Long paragraphs are difficult to read and skim through, so you will quickly lose your reader’s interest. Break up your paragraphs into smaller segments and if fitting, add subtitles, bullet points, and numbered lists to make the content even more readable.

4. Having too many exclamation points

You may be really excited to share your content, but using too many exclamation points throughout the body can be distracting to a reader. If you are going to use exclamation points, use them sparingly for maximum impact. 

5. Forgetting a call to action

Once you’ve given your reader valuable information, you need to also tell them what to do next in a call to action. A call to action is crucial to helping drive potential customers to your products and services but it also helps them understand why the information you have is valuable. So make sure to always include a call to action so that readers who are engaged know what action to take. For some great ideas on how to include a call to action, here is a useful list of ways to implement a call to action from Hubspot.

We all slip into these bad copywriting habits now and then. However, if we are aware of them then we can break them. If you find you are falling into bad habits or just can’t seem to get the momentum you were hoping for with your copy, ALHAUS can help. Our expert writers can guide you through the copywriting process, find areas where you can improve, and can help you create the perfect content management strategy. Contact us today to see how we can help you break these bad habits!