50% of the creative copywriting for information flow ads is incomprehensible!

About 50% of the creative copywriting in information flow ads is incomprehensible.

This article lists 7 types of "incomprehensible" copywriting, and then gives three principles for writing "plain language" copywriting. It also includes several copywriting tools, which I hope will be helpful to you.

1. 7 typical "incomprehensible" copywriting

Let's look at a few typical cases (because e-commerce platforms have more activities and more complex information, most of the cases are based on e-commerce, but these phenomena are real in all kinds of businesses):

1. The lowest level: the copywriting and content do not match

This situation generally comes from the separation of promotional material production and page production work . The people who generate traffic use the most exciting copywriting and pictures to attract traffic and complete the KPI of traffic generation, and they don’t care about the quality of the introduced traffic.

"In the following example, the 90% off gimmick is very attractive for clicks, bringing in a large amount of traffic looking to grab bargains, but the landing page seems to be a regular product list page?"

2. The copywriting priority is inexplicable

They believe that the title of the plan PPT should be the largest text on the activity page, without caring about what information users actually need to know.

"I really don't care how many years your anniversary is. The label in the upper left corner reminds me all the time. What I need to know most now is what product page you are selling, how strong the promotion is, and what the flagship products are?"

3. Creating a meaningless atmosphere

Using atmosphere creation as an excuse to post some text that you think is cool is not only uncool, but it just confuses users.

"As an example, I really don't want to be excited. I just want to know if you are selling shoes or boots exclusively? Is it a promotion? How strong is the promotion? Which brands are they? Although I still wasted a click to take a look, I found that they were all bulk goods and then I left."

4. Outdated trend-chasing

It is true that sticking to trendy trends can easily catch people’s attention, but the danger is that trends are fleeting, and if you catch up too late, you will look tacky and outdated (of course, it would be great if you could respond within a few hours like Durex), but there are still a large number of event operators who are constantly catching up with outdated trends.

"I haven't found a good example at the moment, but I believe everyone has seen it before. For example, the palace memes used these days are quite outdated. When I entered a page with a big title 'Respectfully welcome the young lady', the smell of dust raised by just a few words made me piss myself and turn off my phone."

5. Write down professional vocabulary

The specific practitioners of each business must be very familiar with your industry and field. One problem that easily occurs is that some abbreviations and professional terms that are often used internally will be written directly. When you raise this question, they will often question you, "Who doesn't understand the official account? Tell me."

Big sale on common vocabulary, add to cart, make reservation, limited time. . . (Of course, the abbreviations that have been used offline for decades and have cultivated user habits can be used boldly, such as bargain hunting...)

"People in the industry certainly know that adding to cart means adding to the shopping cart, but the senior financial industry intellectual who was playing games next to me thought it meant refueling and purchasing in advance."

6. I want to say everything, whether you want to read it or not

There are always ten thousand things you want to say to users, so just say them all.

"The following cases are definitely not the most exaggerated. I have seen special page titles with ten lines of copy."

7. Rough data-oriented

People think that a copy is good if it gets a lot of clicks, and this becomes a so-called methodology that is passed down from generation to generation. Then they wonder why the clicks are getting lower and lower and are not as good as before. They never think that the users have just been deceived by you, but there won’t be a second time.

Common cases :

"The following cases are actually not limited. Stimulating copywriting often attracts attention and deceives users into entering at the beginning, but after being disappointed again and again, users tend to return to rationality. Stimulating copywriting instead creates a sense of oppression, feeling that it is a click that cannot be turned back, and fear that this click will cause me additional costs. At this time, they need 'view details' rather than 'buy now'. This can actually be figured out with a little thought."

The above are just some examples of situations. The increased cost of understanding, user loss, and even increased aversion to the platform caused by rough copywriting are happening every day on major Internet platforms.

2. Copywriting should speak human language

From actual observation, the time invested in copywriting in the process of event operation and special planning is extremely small, and it is often just a fixed routine that is hastily written and finished. But have you ever thought that if your users can’t understand your activities and your copywriting doesn’t convey effective information, is there any point in all the work you do?

1. Why should we “speak human language”?

Due to the large number of practitioners in the industry, it is not a feasible solution to improve the copywriting expertise of practitioners in a centralized and unified manner (at least not at this stage). Here, I would like to advocate a brand new copywriting planning orientation: Let’s not talk about concepts, feelings, or X or Y copywriting, can we make it clear first.

Abbreviation: Human language copywriting planning orientation

This requires a two-part effort:

Business leaders and managers at all levels , please greatly improve the copywriting of every front-end page and activity that directly affects your most important users.

Executives , please take "Am I speaking human language" as the only criterion for judging copywriting planning, and first ensure that the copywriting can effectively convey information.

I think there are several benefits to a consistent, human-speaking copywriting strategy:

By meeting user expectations through consistent detail in copywriting, users’ trust in the entire platform is enhanced over time.

Down-to-earth and easy-to-understand copywriting can improve the final conversion efficiency of the event in the long run.

It is easy to form a consistent copywriting style for the entire platform , reducing the style confusion caused by differences in personal tastes (of course, copywriting planning controlled by designers like Yoho and unified and rigorously implemented style standards are also great).

For individuals, mastering the ability to write straightforward and understandable copywriting can serve as a solid foundation for advancing to the ability to write copywriting that influences users and evokes emotional resonance (how can you influence users if they don’t understand you).

For users, all copywriting is written in human language without any deception, and is understandable (but that does not mean that no stimulating promotional methods and copywriting are used). It reduces a lot of search costs, and I will be more willing to consume online.

Of course, it cannot be denied that after years of being exposed to a rough copywriting environment, users have automatically evolved the ability to find valid information in messy information and translate professional jargon into human language. It seems that even if the copywriting is a bit crappy and the price is low, the product can still be sold.

But if every bit of experience can be done well in this environment, who can guarantee that the accumulation of these detailed experiences will not be a part of the later explosion? At least as an excellent event operator, please don’t come up with crappy copywriting anymore. It’s unprofessional.

2. What is “human language” copywriting?

Imagine you were going to introduce this activity to your mother back home. How would you describe it?

"Click this follow button first, and you will be reminded when the promotion starts."

“This page sells furniture. It’s having a National Day promotion in the last seven days. You can get a 100 yuan discount as long as you spend 300 yuan.”

"And here you can get a 100 yuan discount for every 300 yuan you spend, which means you can get a 1,000 yuan discount for every 3,000 yuan you spend."

So you should know that the button under your product on the pre-heating page should not be called "Make an appointment to buy", but should be called "Remind me when the promotion starts".

My definition of “human language” copywriting is:

Using the oral logic and form used in daily explanations of a concept, taking into account the reader's position and role, the text is transformed into the simplest and most direct copy.

No need for exaggeration or emotional resonance, just speak in plain words and explain something simply.

The copywriting strategy of "speaking human language" :

Directly convey information, pre-empt user decisions, and improve traffic utilization efficiency;

Closely follow user expectations and do not pursue click increases brought by deceptive copywriting in single-point activities;

Stick to the same consistent copywriting style for a long time to make users accustomed to communicating with your activities.

The concept is as above. Now let's talk about something practical. The following is one of the checking tools I use to help you write copy that speaks human language. This is not the only answer, but for unsystematic event operations, you can use this tool first and then derive your own methodology.

3. How to write a copy that speaks human language

Principle 1: Speak human language

There are two levels of interpretation for the principle of speaking human language. After completing all the copywriting planning work, it is recommended to use these two principles to examine all your copywriting:

① Don’t impose subjective consciousness on users

No matter how exciting the product advertisement is, as long as it is available for sale, users will want to check for more information; don’t put a buy now button just because you think the product is a high-price buy. Please think about the most likely reason why users will move on to the current page, and convert it into copy. Do not impose your own understanding on it.

② Can all the texts be directly narrated to one person like a stream of words?

Check your page copy, functional copy, and exception prompts to see if they are described in the simplest and most direct way. If there are outdated and trendy jokes, please remove them. Experience it: Make an appointment - remind me when the promotion starts; Year-round promotion - the biggest promotion of the year;

Principle 2: Expectation consistency principle

To put it simply, manage the copywriting of all your key steps in a centralized form, remove other elements and polish them; simply examine whether the copywriting of each link is saying the same thing step by step and conveying the core value accurately and clearly. Avoid sending inaccurate traffic to the next link.

This section introduces specific tools in the activity operation model framework. Let’s review them as a whole:

Recommend an event planning proposal/copywriting practice/polishing tool to help you interpret classic cases more clearly and polish your own proposal.

① Draw an activity logic diagram. From the moment the user sees your ad, draw all the paths the user takes and mark the key points.

② Extract the form and copy of the key points, integrate them together, score each key point by yourself or ask others to score it, analyze this key point, and how confident are you in your interaction and copy to guide users to the next step.

③ Review and refine the form as a whole, polish and evaluate the consistency of user expectations, and ensure that the user focuses on one thing from beginning to end, so that you can effectively guide the user to move forward. (Don’t expect that the users you bring in with your 1 yuan sale ads will follow your 50% off button for all items).

④ If you are using it to polish your own plan and practice, it is recommended to break down the KPIs of key points, set clear jump rate targets for each link, observe and continuously optimize after the actual launch, feel the changes brought about by each adjustment, and form your own feelings (this is your core competitiveness).

Principle 3: 1 main 1 auxiliary 1 operation principle

In each page, distinguish the primary and secondary aspects of the copywriting, tell the user two things he wants to know most and one operation he needs, and the standard templates for two typical scenarios:

Topic page header template:

Where am I (page main title) + Why should I stay (page main gimmick) + What can I do (action guide).

Ad Template:

Why should I look at you (a gimmick to attract attention) + What exactly are you (explanation of the activity theme - continued by the main title of the page) + I want to click on you (click guidance, in various forms, a common one is a button with a strong sense of click; a little experience: on the wireless side, since the click operation is performed by fingers rather than mice, a round button that fits the shape of a finger will have a stronger desire to click, and the actual measurement is about 20% higher).

There can be other corner label atmospheres, background image atmospheres, price tags, etc. The layout can be discussed freely with your UI colleagues, but the most important copywriting is these three, don't add more! I believe that by applying these two templates, the disorderly copywriting planning work can be helped to find a better feeling. The 1 main 1 auxiliary 1 operation principle can be applied to more scenarios, and everyone can learn from it.

If you still need a feeling, you can refer to two benchmark cases: Apple App Store and Xiaomi, which speak human language but make you want to click, and occasionally appear some masterpieces that resonate with emotions.

The above is the "plain language" copywriting method. Of course, this is only the first step to understand the three levels of copywriting planning. Based on this step, we will discuss the higher levels of "influencing users" and "generating resonance" later.

Ultimately, speaking human language is the ability to forget your identity as an Internet worker, return to the role of an ordinary user, communicate with your users, and deliver effective information .

Keep observing the good experiences in your daily life, and use the above tools to continuously help you practice your copywriting skills in a human way. I believe that this will lay a solid foundation for your copywriting planning skills, which is actually not difficult at all.

Author: sky

Source: sky