90% of copywriters often make these three mistakes. Have you made any of them?

We always study how successful copywriting is written, but rarely think about the reasons why copywriting is poorly written. Mr. Monster recently sorted out and summarized some common mistakes that many people make when writing copy. I selected three mistakes that I found many people make most often (Cucumber also often makes them). I will talk about them in detail in this article.

The three most common mistakes in many advertising copywriting are:

1. Don't speak human language
2. Too many selling points
3. Lack of trust

These copywriting errors will have a direct impact on our marketing results (such as advertising investment not being proportional to the results, etc.).

Okay, no more nonsense! The following is a detailed analysis of the causes of these three errors and common solutions.

1. Don’t speak human language

The most common copywriting error I see is copywriting that doesn’t speak human language. The so-called "not speaking human language" means that users don't know what you are talking about or cannot understand the copy.

For example, when I was browsing Taobao , I saw this kind of air conditioner product copy:

"Stunning at first sight, still the same when we meet again"

(Photo source: Taobao)

I searched for "air conditioner" on Taobao and the page looked like this:

Suppose, if you see such an advertisement copy among many products on Taobao, can you immediately understand what the copy means? I believe that not many consumers can understand it.

Nowadays, there is too much information and users' attention is extremely limited. Except for things that are relevant to themselves or extremely interesting, most users will not stay for more than 1 minute to understand some difficult-to-understand information. With such copywriting, it is difficult to achieve the desired marketing effect and may even result in a loss of advertising costs.

Since this way of writing copy doesn’t have much effect, why do so many people still write like this?

The main reason is that most of us often make a cognitive trap - thinking that users know the product as well as we do. In fact, users do not have as deep an understanding of products as marketers do.

• When you are writing copy for a smart electric toothbrush product, you suddenly think of a very beautiful scene, and then the copy says "Enjoy life and create miracles" - however, the user does not know what you are talking about after reading it.
• After a year of hard work, your company finally developed a USB flash drive that can be expanded to 80T, and then the copy said "The miracle has happened, 80T gives you everything" - the user has not participated in the one-year research and development process, and does not understand the concept of 80T very well, so it is difficult for them to understand what you are talking about.
• Your company held a celebration party for three years of its founding , and then you posted on the official account saying "Boss Lin's passionate speech moved many people" - many users only know who Boss Jack Ma is, but don't know Boss Lin, so they naturally won't understand what you expressed (perhaps only "Boss Lin" can understand it the best).

So how do we make the copywriting speak in human language?

I recommend a method that many good copywriters use - connecting with information that is familiar to the target audience.

Compared with unfamiliar and difficult to understand information, the human brain is more receptive and understandable to familiar information, which makes it more likely for users to make transactions.

For example, if you say "this house is like a dream", not many people will understand what you are saying; but if you say "this house is like the emperor's palace", perhaps many people will understand what kind of house you are talking about, which will make it easier to attract the target group to buy.

Because "the Emperor's Palace" is something we are familiar with, but "dreamlike" is not a word that most people can understand.

For example, if you introduce an AI massage chair product to the elderly, your copywriting might say:

"Smart massage chair gives you an extraordinary experience"

Assuming you are the target user (elderly), can you easily understand the meaning of this sentence?

——It is difficult for most elderly people to understand.

If you say:

I believe this sentence will be easier for the target users (the elderly) to understand than the previous one - because many elderly people have more or less had the experience of having their daughters give them massages.

The previous examples of texts that do not speak human language can all be made to speak human language by using the method of “connecting with familiar information”. As shown in the following table:

Therefore, in order to avoid the problem of your copy not speaking human language, you can connect your product copy with information that is familiar to the target audience, so that the target users can understand what you are saying in a short time.

2. Too many selling points

In addition to the fact that many advertising copies do not speak human language, there is also the problem of too much selling information. In a copy, people always try to write out all the selling points of a product, but the end result is that not a single selling point is remembered by users.

For example, you are in an elevator and see this car loan ad:

When you walk out of the elevator and answer a phone call, do you still remember what selling points the advertisement in the elevator just mentioned?

Most of us have a limited amount of information that our brains can take in in a short period of time. Especially in today's era of information overload, it is very difficult to remember two or more different pieces of information in a short period of time (such as 30 seconds in an elevator) - even if you remember them temporarily, you will soon be distracted by other information and forget them.

Therefore, in scenarios where users stay for a relatively short time, the advertising copy should not present too many product selling points. It is best to focus on one selling point that is most impressive. Once you use one selling point to attract users, you can slowly introduce other selling points later. This focus strategy of copywriting has a great effect in accelerating the occupation of users' minds (becoming familiar to users).

For example, the Vivo mobile phone advertisements that we often see only focus on one selling point - "clear even in backlight". But this does not mean that the phone is only good at taking pictures. It just advertises the selling point that can impress users the most.

This is similar to the phenomenon where we introduce ourselves to others for one minute. Suppose there are two people, one of them says he is good at more than ten skills such as copywriting, stocks, accounting, design, etc.;

The other person only said that he was best at copywriting, and used the remaining 40 seconds to describe his copywriting skills in detail.

In the one-minute introduction of these two people, I believe that the latter (who is only said to be good at copywriting) will leave a deeper impression than the former (who has more than ten skills).

When you want to say everything in a limited time, it's the same as saying nothing.

Therefore, in scenarios where user stay time is limited, the product selling points in the advertising copy should be fewer rather than more, and it is best to focus on the most effective selling point.

3. Lack of trust

We often see this phenomenon: the product copy is written very well, and users are impressed, but they just refuse to buy. Why?

There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is that the product lacks trust and reliability, which is also a point that many advertising copywriters often forget, especially for products where users are more sensitive to trust.

For example, you often see ads like this:

When reading the above credit product copy, most users would think: "Is this another scam like those previous bankrupt companies?" The advertising copy does not address users' trust concerns.

The same is true in many other categories. Trust is an important factor influencing most users to purchase a product, especially for products with a higher risk of loss.

For example, when we buy a two-dollar pencil, we may not consider the trust issue too much. However, when we buy a product with a high risk of loss, such as an air conditioner costing thousands of dollars, we will pay more attention to the trust of the product.

It’s just like online shopping in China ten years ago. Even though online shopping offered huge discounts compared to offline stores, many consumers were still hesitant and did not dare to make an order - because online shopping at that time was not trustworthy. Later, through various means and the popularization of e-commerce , more and more people believe in online shopping today.

So, how can we enhance the credibility of product copywriting?

Here are two commonly used methods:

1. Authoritative endorsement

Mr. Monster also mentioned in a previous article that you can use the method of authoritative endorsement to build trust in product copywriting. For example, information about authoritative organizations, celebrities, national certifications, etc., most consumers trust this authoritative information.

Two different opinions on one shampoo

A． "My dad said this shampoo is effective after using it"
B. "Jackie Chan used this shampoo and said it was very effective"

Most people will trust copy B more than copy A. Because Jackie Chan is an international celebrity, it is more convincing.

For example, if a person with poor academic performance tells you that a certain review book is very good, you will find it hard to believe it. But if a top student tells you that a certain review book is very useful, you might believe what he says.

2. Recognized facts

If your product does not have any authoritative information to display, you can also use facts that are known and recognized by users as a trust endorsement.

For example, the famous advertisement of Nongfu Spring:

“Nongfu Spring is a little sweet

We are just nature’s porters.”

Although the ad copy did not use authoritative information to prove its credibility, most consumers still believed the information contained in the ad. Because most of us believe that "water transported from the mountains contains many minerals and should be a bit sweet." This is a fact that we all recognize.

Therefore, when your product copy fails to impress users to buy, check whether your copy provides enough trust.

Summarize

The reason why many advertising copies are poor is often because some copywriting errors are made. In this article, I have selected three common mistakes made by many copywriters:

1. Not speaking human language: It is difficult for users to understand what your copy is saying;
2. Too many selling points: If you display too many product selling points in the copy, it will be difficult for users to remember the information in your copy in a limited time.
3. Insufficient trust: The copy impresses the users, but it does not provide enough credibility for the product copy, making it impossible for users to believe what you say.

Have you ever made any of the three copywriting mistakes above?

PS: Of course, in addition to the three mistakes mentioned in this article, there are many other reasons for poor copywriting, such as the copywriting not coordinating with product positioning.

The author of this article is @怪兽先森 and it is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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