Ecommerce copywriting is always a crucial part of any ecommerce marketing or SEO campaign. After all, if you don’t know how to create powerful content and copy, your copywriting process might slow you down quite a lot and can even prevent you from achieving success with your marketing campaign. Hence, here are three common ecommerce copywriting mistakes and how to avoid them.
#1 Not Inspiring Action
The first big mistake you could be making already in your ecommerce copy is not inspiring action. If your text is “passive”, you won’t get the results you are looking for no matter how hard you try. Of course, you will get some sales or conversions, but it will be nowhere near to what you could actually be getting if you had written “active” copy. Here are some things you can do to inspire action with your content:
- Work on Your Reading Score: Your copy’s reading score shows what level of education your reader must have to be able to understand your text clearly. The lower your reading score, the more educated your target audience should be to be able to comprehend your text. That’s why making your reading score higher and decreasing the level of education can help you get through to more potential readers. This doesn’t mean that you need to be writing as if you are targeting kids – it just means you don’t have to be using college-level words all the time.
- Avoid Passive Voice and Adverbs: Passive voice and adverbs are both elements that can be great when used sparingly but can also be extremely harmful to the flow of your text if you overuse them. Moreover, passive voice is not as effective as active voice which means using it will decrease the effectiveness of your copy. Adverbs can often be replaced with adjectives or omitted entirely.
- Use Uncommon Phrases Sparingly: Uncommon phrases can add some character to your copy. If you want to add a unique touch to your content, you can sprinkle them in from time to time. However, don’t use them too often because this will decrease the reading score of your text making its “active” aspects less prominent.
- Simplify Complicated Sentences: Like passive voice, adverbs, and uncommon phrases, complicated sentences can also make your text more difficult for reading. Instead of using advanced tenses, use the more common ones. Don’t include too many clauses in your sentences and try to break them down as much as you can. In other words, the simpler the better.
- Add A CTA Where Needed: CTAs or calls to action are crucial for any and all marketing content. Likewise, using them in your e-commerce copywriting will increase the sales and conversions you get as a direct result of using this e-commerce copy. The key, however, is to use CTAs where needed instead of just placing them wherever you want to. Too many different CTAs can be confusing while too many of the same CTA can be annoying. Too few or no CTAs will be ineffective, so it’s really about finding balance.
- Encourage Positive Emotions: Copy that encourages positive emotions rather than focusing on something negative will be more effective than the opposite one. For example, if you want to report on the news in your industry or post an update about your business, stress the positive aspects of this news or update. Use negative language sparingly and focus on the good side of a bad situation.
#2 Not Having A Sense of Direction
Another terrible mistake you might be making with your copy is not having a sense of direction in your copy. If your text doesn’t have a sense of direction, it will be very noticeable and will frustrate your audience. One solution to this is to find the best essay writing service that can write your e-commerce copy. Alternatively, you can try to work on your content yourself by using these techniques:
- Set Goals for Your Copy: What do you want to achieve with your text? This could be anything from an increase in conversions to improved brand awareness. You might simply want to inform or educate your customers. Whatever it is, you need to set this goal beforehand, so you know what to aim for within your copy.
- Format Your Texts: Instead of just using blocks of text, format your copy into paragraphs and use subheadings to divide your text into sections. You can also use the underlined, italicized, and bold options to bring attention to the most important words and phrases in your copy.
- Have A Brand Voice: A brand voice is a unique way you word your text. It helps you set the mood for your entire copy whether it be funny and playful or professional and serious. It gives your copy character which is essential if you don’t want your text to sound like it was written by a robot.
- Prioritise the Right Things: When creating content for your campaigns, you will tend to prioritise quantity over quality – but that’s the wrong mindset. Always value quality because this will make you focus on copywriting itself rather than trying to create as much content as you can no matter how bad it turns out to be in the end. In addition to that, throughout your copy, focus on content over product.
#3 Not Using Additional Content
The third major mistake you could be making is not using additional content with your copy. Of course, text is your primary content type, but combining it with other types of content will actually help you get your message across better and make your content more effective for both organic visibility and conversions. Here are the different types of content you can incorporate into your ecommerce marketing and SEO strategy:
- Images/Photographs: Probably the easiest way to use photographs and images is by simply adding them to your articles and posts. They are perfect for grabbing the audience’s attention or supporting the topic you are discussing.
- Art/Illustrations: Art and illustrations are harder to create as they require a special set of skills and aren’t usually available as free or paid stock photos. However, they can bring a unique touch to your copy and can be used for branding.
- Infographics: Infographics are perfect for explaining complicated concepts in a more dynamic and appealing manner.
- GIFs/Memes: When you want to interact with your audience more in a fun way, GIFs and memes can be of great help.
- Graphs/Presentations: Like infographics, both graphs and presentations are great for explaining complicated concepts and processes.
- Videos/Animations: Videos are quite popular and don’t require too much investment (though this obviously depends on the kind of videos you want to create). Animations, on the other hand, are harder to make, but they can be even more effective by being original.
- Podcasts/E-books: When it comes to premium content, podcasts and e-books are the best choice because they can educate your audience quite well.
Final Thoughts
All in all, ecommerce copywriting is not as complicated as it may seem at first. There are a few major mistakes you need to avoid, but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to write better ecommerce copy. Use the tips from this article to improve your skills and maximise the results of your marketing campaigns.
