How to write copy without any flaws? Here are 4 practical tips

How do top writers treat their writing?

Hemingway changed the ending of A Farewell to Arms 39 times just to find the right words.

Haruki Murakami usually spends six months writing the first draft of a novel and another seven or eight months revising it.

If Raymond Carver's first draft of a novel was forty pages, he would usually only have twenty pages left when he finished revising it.

Flaubert told Maupassant: There is only one word that is most appropriate for what you want to express, there is no second one, you must find it.

This is the attitude that a first-class writer has towards words: paranoid, tough, and as precise as mathematics, honing superior craftsmanship and intuition through constant self-subversion.

Sober writers all understand that a flash of inspiration sounds romantic, but expressing it appropriately requires a huge project. For commercial copywriting , solid writing skills are as important as inspiration and insight.

If your copywriting is often evaluated as "vague", "missing the point", or "vulgar", then for you, rather than thinking about "how to make the copywriting better", you first need to make sure that the copywriting has no major flaws.

1. Avoid ambiguity and make the copywriting transparent

Text is essentially a medium for conveying information, and clear expression is a basic requirement for it. Good copywriting must present information to users in a neat and tidy manner, rather than using words to create a maze that confuses them.

A copy that is full of abstract words (adjectives, adverbs) will fail, as such words make it difficult for users to easily understand the core information behind them.

There is a trick that can make your copy clearer: when you are describing a product or an emotion, try to make your words "go one step further". That is, after the copy that you think is clear enough, try to "translate" it again using more concrete words.

For example, if you were asked to describe the feature of a car's cabin that it has high space utilization, how would you write the copy?

A Copywriter

At first glance, the Austin looks smaller than other American family cars, but once you open the door and get in, you'll be surprised to find that the cabin is so spacious and comfortable.

B Copywriter

At first glance, the Austin looks smaller than other American family cars, but once you open the door and get in, you'll be surprised to find that the cabin is so spacious and comfortable. There is no extra space inside, every inch can be utilized.

C Copywriter

At first glance, the Austin looks smaller than other American family cars, but once you open the door and get in, you'll be surprised to find that the cabin is so spacious and comfortable. There is no wasted space inside, every inch is utilized, and it is large enough for four 6-foot people to sit comfortably in it.

When describing the feature of the car's interior space being "spacious and comfortable", most copywriters are most likely to stop at copy A. Users can read the concept of "spacious" but don't know how spacious it is. A slightly better one will stop before copy B, letting users know that “generosity” comes from “every inch of space is not wasted.”

However, first-class copywriters will find ways to make the text message clear enough. Compared with copy A and copy B, copy C is obviously better. This is the copy written by Ogilvy founder David Ogilvy for Austin Motors. It is spacious enough to accommodate four 6-foot (1.82-meter) tall men. It is a concrete "reference object" that makes the abstract concept of "spacious" suddenly clear.

If you want to express the luxury and extravagance of a Rolls-Royce seat cushion, how should you write it? Here is David Ogilvy 's copy:

The seat cushions are made from the hides of eight English cows - enough to make 128 pairs of moccasins.

Each word is concrete. It takes "eight British cowhides" and "128 pairs of leather shoes" to make the seat cushions of a Rolls-Royce. Only when the copy is written to this extent can it be truly called unambiguous.

2. Refuse to be long-winded and have a pair of scissors in your heart

This is an age of scarce attention. Data released by Procter & Gamble shows that the average viewing time of digital media ads is only 1.7 seconds, almost a blink of an eye. Only 20% of ads are viewed for more than 2 seconds.

In 2 seconds, an average person can only read 6-10 words. At this point, you should have realized the importance of "simplicity" to copywriting.

If you want your copy to be remembered and spread, you must give in to people’s natural laziness and make it as short and simple as possible.

This short and simple is in a relative rather than absolute sense. When writing, you'd better have a pair of "scissors" in your mind to cut the text during the writing process and discard the redundant and useless parts.

After completing the first draft, do not be lenient. Please follow the "50%" principle to make drastic cuts to your text : for a 300-word copy, try to express the information contained in it in 100 words. For a 2,000-word copy, try to cut it to 1,000 words while ensuring that no information is lost.

3. Reject confusion and connect each sentence with logic

It’s easy to hear complaints like: I have it clear in my mind, but I don’t know how to write it clearly.

Such complaints are just an excuse. If a person's thinking is truly clear, then the writing he writes will definitely be clear and fluent. The logic of text and its literary talent are two different things. Your writing is a mirror of your thinking. If the text you write is confusing and lacks logic, it only shows that your mind is still a mess.

Lack of logic is a major flaw in copywriting, which will greatly reduce the persuasiveness of the copywriting. When writing each sentence, a cultured writer will consider the logical connection between it and the previous and next sentences, and make them mesh tightly together like gears.

Using the " pyramid principle " in writing can help writers create more logical texts: first throw out the core information (at the top of the pyramid ) in the text, then use several arguments to support the core idea, and (if necessary) use several arguments under each argument to explain it, so that the information forms a clear pyramid shape.

For example, in the pyramid diagram that explains the core idea of ​​"Mary should not marry Kevin", "Kevin is not mature enough" and "Kevin may not like girls" are two sub-points, while "Kevin just turned 21" and "Kevin spends 5 hours playing games every day", "Someone has seen Kevin in a gay bar" and "Kevin dresses fashionably" are the arguments supporting the two sub-points respectively.

4. Don’t be lazy or use cheap tricks

If you want to test the level of a copywriter, there is a very simple method: if there is nothing left after removing the Internet buzzwords and jokes in the article, if you have no idea where to start without using Internet buzzwords and "homophonics", then there must be 1,000 ordinary copywriters between this person and an excellent copywriter.

Frequent use of Internet buzzwords or jokes in copywriting is essentially a sign of laziness and lack of confidence, and will make your text sound fast-food and cheap.

If you don’t believe me, go and take a look. Even in the official accounts of Alipay and Haier’s official Weibo, which are recognized as being very good at using social media , Internet buzzwords rarely appear in their copywriting. Instead, they have carefully cultivated a "tone" of their own through their copywriting.

In addition to Internet buzzwords, the frequent use of "homophonics" in copywriting can also be regarded as a major flaw. Although the "homophony" seems to have some cleverness, no user will be impressed by copywriting such as "No spots on your skin tonight" or "My style, my speed". It is at most a cheap trick. This kind of "homophonic" copy can be forgiven in promotional copy, but it seems too perfunctory as a slogan or main title .

Of course, it is another matter to use some popular "memes" or use hot topics as entry points to plan topics that are highly relevant to brand content. The key point is that you need to add your own creativity to these "memes" instead of just using them lazily. In a recent article that went viral titled "That Night, the Boss Finally Lost His Suffering," GQ gave a new interpretation to a group of popular "personalities" such as the argumentative person, the credit-seeking person, and the blame-shifting person in the form of a four-frame comic, which not only made users feel involved but also made it feel fresh.

Conclusion

Many people subconsciously think that copywriting is a job with low barriers to entry and rarely discuss its professionalism and technical aspects. However, the existence of many flaws will make your work fail and instantly fall below the passing line. You need to consciously avoid taboos in writing and keep your writing free from low-level mistakes.

The author of this article @乌玛小曼 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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