Copywriting plays a key role in influencing how people perceive a brand. Great copywriting can entice you to lean in and learn more about a good or service. It enlightens you, leaving you wanting more. Meanwhile, bad copywriting—copy that bores or, worse, misleads you—can send you packing in a hurry.
But copywriting is beholden to another, often undiscussed wrinkle that’s true of all writing: it’s subjective. Copywriting that compels one person may seem boring or stodgy to another. Every copy element, from the high-level ideas being communicated—the “content”—to the most granular mechanical minutia—like whether or not a brand separates em and en dashes with spaces—is unique to each organization’s voice, tone, and style. And since these value systems are distinct, not everyone will agree on whether a given writer’s copy is, well, good.
This poses a dilemma for businesses looking to hire full-time, agency, or freelance copywriters: what copywriting red flags do you look for in their portfolio to understand whether they’re the right person or team to represent your brand? Moreover, how do you assess other brands’ copy to understand how your brand’s copy fits in comparison?
The answer is, well, it depends on your goals. But every industry has best practices for a reason: understanding them can help you identify recurring trends that industry practitioners adhere to to get positive results—and the same is true for copywriters. Read on for four copywriting red flags to look out for that can help you gauge whether a piece of copywriting is good, bad, or just plain ugly.
1. Basic copy errors
As of this writing, automatic spell checkers have—for decades, literally—come standard with virtually every word processing software on the market. Yet often, I still encounter blatant spelling and grammatical mistakes across web copy, blog posts, user interface text, you name it. And not just from mom-and-pop shops building their own sites with tools like Squarespace; global juggernauts that will remain nameless too suffer from these sorts of mistakes, ones that you would expect would have this sort of thing down pat by now.
While editors or marketing folks on the brand side could potentially filter out these types of spelling and grammar errors, they shouldn’t have to; a great first draft shouldn’t contain these minor yet critical mistakes. That said, many businesses lack the personnel or time to spend going word to word identifying and addressing these issues. As such, it’s often the case that such errors make their way into final copy; things like:
- Spelling mistakes
- Inconsistent usage of the Oxford comma or spaces around dashes
- Improper or missing hyphenation of words
- A lowercase ‘l’ (“ell”) in place of an uppercase ‘I’ (“eye”), both of which can look completely identical or subtly distinct, depending on the font used
When a writer turns in copy to the brand containing even one such mistake, it speaks volumes of how capable and willing they are to best represent that organization.
2. Branding misalignment
When a copywriter agrees to produce copy for an organization, typically the company’s branding or marketing team will communicate brand guidelines the copy must adhere to. These can range from whether or not to use the Oxford comma to the brand’s overall voice and tone—the feeling the brand wants you to have when you think of them.
These guidelines are important because together, they represent what the organization is—just as much as the products and services they offer do. For example, hospital websites are often crafted in such a way to give the audience a sense that when you patronize that hospital, you’ll be welcome and cared for. Conversely, an ad for a store like Hot Topic will want to give off an “edgier” voice and tone, one that younger people can connect with and that people in their 30s and beyond with a rebellious streak can find something in.
So when a copywriter is misaligned with their client’s branding standards, they may unintentionally communicate a different image, and in doing so actually tell audiences a story distinct from what the writer thought they were saying. By adhering to those standards, they better embody the brand, as if the brand is speaking through them.
3. Stodgy writing
Just because a copywriter properly crossed every ‘i’ and dotted every ‘t’ doesn’t mean their writing flows well; it doesn’t take much to meet the grammatical standards of a given language.
Below are two versions of a very short story for children and very young adults written by yours truly. Both are essentially the same story written using differing words, sentence structures, and levels of detail:
Example 1
The calf went into the barn. It mooed. Then, the dog went into the barn. It barked. The farm boy heard the moo and bark and went to the barn to check it out. Then, the farm boy yelled.
Example 2
“Moo!” the calf cried. Desperate for its mother, it crashed into the barn, but to no avail. But when all seemed lost, a rottweiler appeared! Hooray! “A new friend!” thought the calf! It too was looking for its own mother, and heard the calf’s moo, thinking maybe the calf had seen or heard something. The dog barked back, greeting the cow. Then, Harry, the farmhouse’s son, heard the commotion and went to check what was going on. He yelled, “I don’t know this cow or this dog!” But after a conversation, the three realized they had plenty in common. Together, they lived happily ever after as great friends.
The differences in length and amount of detail between the two are obvious. But just because one passage is longer doesn’t make it a better story. What makes the second version a better story, in my opinion, is that it has a takeaway (the three became lifelong friends) while the other does not. The first reads more like a series of isolated events, like a grocery list generated by AI, whereas the second contains details that bring the characters to life; they have (albeit loosely drawn) motivations and personalities that inspire their actions, and develop a relationship over the course of the story. The “dog” becomes a rottweiler, the “farm boy” a person with a name.
Copy stories demand the same approach. They should employ myriad writing techniques—the tools of every copywriter’s trade—to bring ideas to life and attempt to draw a connection with the reader. They should know when to elaborate and when to pull back. They should demonstrate a firm command of flow, such that the reader feels like they’re being taken on a journey, complete with twists and turns. And by the end, they should feel something new, something they want to act on and can—the “call to action” we talk so much about in this field.
4. Unclear messaging
Ultimately, the point of all writing, copy or otherwise, is to say something. Copy in particular needs to be direct, engaging the reader’s sensibilities and tackling their pain points to inspire action.
But if the copy’s takeaway is unclear, the reader is left unsure about what they should know about the product or service being advertised, and why they should care. What’s worse, they’ll lack knowledge of next steps to take, and may feel that their time has been wasted, damaging their sentiment toward the brand—not just then and there, but in the long term. Crucially, copy should never take more than one readthrough to understand.
So next time you finish reading some copy for the first time, ask yourself, “What was the point of that? Can I confidently articulate that point to someone who hasn’t read it? And if the takeaway has them interested, could I tell them what next steps the copy directed me to take?” If you answer “no” to any of these queries, chances are it’s not just you; that copy might be a miss.
Start telling better stories devoid of copywriting red flags
With these four copywriting red flags top of mind, you’ll have better language to help articulate when a piece of copywriting works, and when it doesn’t.
As I said, copywriting is completely subjective; these copywriting red flags don’t tell the full story, so to speak. Even copy that completely dodges these issues could miss the mark in some way. To that end, you need a detail-obsessed copywriting partner that can work with you to understand your unique brand story, one with decades of copywriting expertise and vast cross-industry knowledge.
Get in touch today to learn how MarketSmiths can tell more captivating, brand-aligned stories devoid of copywriting red flags to help thrill the prospects your organization craves!
