Before you're face-to-face with a potential customer, they've probably already Googled you. 

Copywriting is the digital handshake to your business; it helps your customers better understand you and the products or services you provide. It's everywhere we look, but effective copywriting is a little harder to find.

In digital marketing, conversion copywriting seeks to persuade a reader to take a particular action, such as visiting your website, engaging with a social media post, or making a purchase, i.e. making a conversion.

Effective copywriting = a higher conversion rate.

If you're failing to generate high-quality leads, increase web traffic or reach new customers, there's a good chance your copy is underperforming.

Simultaneously improve your copywriting and conversion rate by avoiding these five common mistakes:

1. Your copy is littered with jargon.

Don't write to impress your audience with big words; write as if you're having a conversation with them.

Jargon makes your copy unnecessarily complicated (and exceptionally dull). Writing copy that uses everyday language will give your readers the greatest chance of understanding - especially when explaining something complex or technical - and retain their interest long enough to make a conversion.

In Google, this influences your bounce rate. A high bounce rate indicates that people only spend a short amount of time on your website; this tells Google your site isn't valuable to users' search queries, and as a result, your ranking will suffer. 

A few suggestions to avoid jargon:

• Speaking aloud what it is you wish to communicate. We naturally talk in everyday language and tend to overcomplicate things when writing.

• In general, conversion copy uses shorter words, sentences and paragraphs.

• Where technical terms are essential, it might be helpful to include a definition. 

• Ask someone non-technical to read it over and see if they understand.

2. You're using passive voice.

Passive voice sucks the life out of your copy.

We want our target audience to imagine themselves using our product or service in marketing. Using an active voice encourages and empowers the subject (audience) to take action rather than be acted upon.

For example:

Passive: Orders over $50 will receive free shipping.

Active: Receive free shipping on orders over $50.

You can see how the latter is more impactful. 

Using an active voice creates powerful and compelling copy, improving readability. 

Passive voice is usually wordy and more complicated, and it's often used to cushion responsibility or ownership for an action - a more appropriate approach in other professions, perhaps. 

In response to backlash for vacationing during the NSW bushfire crisis, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated: "There has been a lot of blame being thrown around."

Referring to the Iran-Contra scandal, Ronald Reagan famously said: "Mistakes were made."

Using passive voice in your copywriting will fail to fulfil two critical elements in securing a conversion: it isn't engaging and doesn't direct your audience to act. 

A few suggestions to avoid passive voice:

• Rearrange your sentences, so the subject comes before the verb (action) rather than after.

• Speak TO your audience, i.e. use "you" and "we" pronouns, as you are more likely to use active voice naturally.

• Pay attention to your use of "by" as it commonly constructs passive voice sentences.

3. You emphasise features over benefits.

Features tell; benefits sell.

Listing features is a stale way to sell your product or service.

Humans are emotional beings and are at the whim of marketing, which appeals to our sensibilities more often than we'd like to think.

For that reason, a skilled copywriter will focus on features rather than benefits. An element is a description or measurement of a product or service's functionality, whereas a benefit is an outcome of using a product or service.

Here are some examples of how to translate your features into benefits:

• 500GB of storage > Stores up to 250,000 photos

• Water-resistance > Splash-proof

• Cordless > Use it anywhere

• 6.5kg > Portable 

Using the benefit of your product in copywriting helps the reader imagine what life could be like by using a product or service. There's a reason IKEA showcase their products in display kitchens, living and bedrooms.

Use benefits to create an emotional desire for your product or service and supplement with features; that winning combination will prompt customers to choose your business and up your conversion rate.

A few suggestions to emphasise benefits:

• Identify the underlying benefit which each feature of your product/service provides to the customer.

• Think of how they tackle your customers' pain points.

• Supplement the rationalisation process with features and complex data.

4. You're overlooking typos.

They happen to the best of us.

It takes about six seconds to capture a user's attention, so your first impression counts. 

You want your business to build trust and confidence from the get-go. In contrast, a common mistake, like typos in your marketing copy, is a sign of carelessness. Your attention to detail says a lot about who you are and how you run your business.

Typos and grammatical errors are disruptive for readers; they will immediately snap their attention away from your message.

They can also be a pain for SEO (search engine optimisation), particularly if you're misspelling keywords. Since search engines prioritise authority and quality, conversion and SEO copywriting experts pay close attention to spelling and grammar to maximise their ranking.

Mistakes happen when writing conversion copy; however, you should put enough measures in place to minimise the risk of them occurring in your published writing. 

A few suggestions to avoid typos:

• Proofread copy more times than you can keep track of.

• Read it aloud.

• Leave and come back to it with fresh eyes.

• Have a colleague read over it.

5. You're rigidly adhering to a word count.

You've got too much fluff.

The goal of conversion copy is to captivate and direct your audience. A long-winded ramble widens the gap between capturing your customers' attention and their call to action, lessening your chance of generating a conversion. When an article or post no longer fulfils a reader's needs or expectations, they will leave.

In 2020, Google's John Mueller stated that word count isn't a ranking factor in search results.

As mentioned earlier, Google's bounce rate will penalise you when a visitor only visits your website briefly. The sophisticated algorithms are fine-tuned to promote the most relevant and high-quality content. Irrelevant content can cause your ranking in search results to drop and subsequently harm your business's visibility to potential customers. 

Excellent copy is concise, so stick to what's relevant.

A few suggestions on content-length: 

• When reading an article or searching the topic you're writing about, understand what readers want. What do they hope to gain based on the topic you've selected?

• Go into as much depth as necessary to cover the topic organically. Write until you're done and no more.

Creating engaging, relevant content marketing material which immerses customers and maximises the enormous utility of search engines is a highly time-consuming and demanding process. And it's constantly evolving.

Conversion copywriting can be your most powerful content marketing tool when adeptly managed.

This is where we can help.

West Coast Content is a hard-working, hands-on digital marketing agency with experience across various industries.

Whether it's website copy, social media or blog post content, ad copy, or any other copywriting needs, you can count on us.

We capture the heart of your business, add a sprinkle of our creativity and expertise, and turn it into highly engaging and results-driven content for your target audience.

Be a cut above your competitors and choose West Coast Content as your conversion copywriter and content marketing professionals. Contact us today!