Kan Dail
The goal of marketing writing is to inform and educate the public, whether they’re already your customers or potential ones. That’s why it’s vital that marketing writing should be able to convey the idea and message of the product or service you are promoting.
Indeed, content marketing is one of the most popular methods that digital marketers are using these days. Quality content can help reach a wide audience and convince them to make a buying decision quickly.
But at times, marketing content writers tend to make some common mistakes that undervalue or reduce the impact of their content.
Let us take a look at some things which affect your marketing writing!
1. Incorrect Tenses
When it comes to marketing writing, it is important to make a positive impression on the reader. Incorrect usage of tenses will immediately bring down the quality of your writing.
For example, if you use past tense in one sentence and present tense in the next, your writing will look inconsistent.
Keep the following guidelines in mind while using tenses.
- If you want to show a change in the time frame, change the tense.
- Don’t change the tense if everything happens in the same time frame.
- Be mindful when you shift tenses.
Avoid mixing tenses and maintain consistency.
This can leave your readers confused and reduce the impact your writing has on them.
2. Spelling Errors
Nothing screams more unprofessional than spelling errors in your writing.
Even one typo can affect the way your readers view your work. It can hurt your credibility and make people think you’re not the expert you claim to be.
People tend to doubt a service or website less if they see spelling errors throughout its content.
When in doubt, look up the spelling of a word instead of guessing it.
Proofread everything you write twice before you publish it. If you don’t want to deal with the task of proofreading or making edits, get a professional proofreader to do it for you.
3. Repetition
You need to be wise with repetition. Sometimes while writing a marketing copy or a social media promotion, repetition can help you drive the message through to your readers.
But when you’re writing lengthy social media posts, blogs or emails, repetitive sentences or phrases can make the content sound boring and uninteresting.
It will also give them the impression that you don’t know much about the product or service you are marketing.
This can drive people away and they are less likely to trust you.
You should also avoid paraphrasing the same line or text multiple times.
4. Perform Thorough Research
Thorough research is essential to help you understand what to write and how to reach your target audience.
Don’t draft a poor article that is not backed up with sufficient research and facts to prove its claims.
Many people tend to skip the research part because it can be a time-consuming process. But you must understand that investing a good amount of time in research will make you better equipped to write your content.
Readers will know the difference between an article that is put together at the last minute and one which is well-researched and thought out.
If you want a professional to do research and create content for you, consider hiring a professional essay writing service.
5. Using Long Sentences
Long sentences look messy and give the impression that you aren’t sure of what you want to say.
It can affect readability and even make the reader lose interest in your writing.
The majority of your sentences should be 11-21 words long. If the sentences cross 25 words, they tend to get complicated and difficult to read. In fact, several studies show that people tend to respond better to short sentences.
It is fine to have a few sentences which are longer than usual. But you should try and limit them as much as you can.
Always break up the information into shorter parts to make it more digestible and easy to understand.
6. Irrelevant Pictures
Have you ever been distracted by an image that has nothing to do with the content?
Many people rush through the picture selection process. They end up attaching a pixelated photo or one which has nothing to do with the content.
Good pictures and other visuals will make a more positive impact on your readers.
They are more likely to take interest in content with informative or interesting pictures. Some other visual elements you can use include infographics, charts, animations, videos and screenshots.
For instance, if you are writing something about email marketing, attach pictures that show the various steps or marketing insights. Don’t attach pictures that have nothing to do with email marketing.
It is better not to attach any pictures at all rather than to attach irrelevant ones.
7. Poor Content Organization
Your content needs to have a clear and easily comprehensible structure.
Poor content organization can make your writing look chaotic, messy and unprofessional. A lack of headings and subheadings will fail to create logical divisions in your content.
Proper divisions can help your readers navigate through your writing easily and find sections in which they are interested.
You can also provide your readers with links to each section so they can skip to the particular section they want.
Keep in mind the patience of your readers.
Not everyone will have the time to go through your entire article so be clever with linking important sections which hold important marketing content.
8. Punctuation
In a hurry to publish their content, many writers forget to check for the right placement of punctuation marks.
Like spelling and grammatical mistakes, improper punctuation is also a sign of lazy and unprofessional writing. You must pay attention to this when you’re proofreading your final draft.
Don’t miss out on using punctuation marks like commas. They will help introduce pauses in your sentences.
Conclusion
If you feel like writing and proofreading are big tasks, consider outsourcing one of these tasks to a professional.
They will make sure your content is free from errors and ready to publish for the public.