5 common writing mistakes that are costing you money (and how to fix them).

Poor writing costs you. If you’ve ever struggled with how to craft a blog post, write a compelling Instagram caption, or incentivize readers to take action on your latest email, you’re not alone. Copywriting is the most underrated skill in marketing. And if you’re an entrepreneur who's in the process of building their personal brand, you know just how important it is to communicate effectively through your writing. 

Learning how to write well is one of the best things you can do for your personal brand. It’s the #1 skill you need to grow your business and get paid for who you are and not just what you do. Whether you’re trying to sell your latest program, convince someone to make a decision, or simply win your way out of an argument, your writing skills will determine how well you accomplish these things and to what degree you succeed.

There are many people whose eyes gloss over when they hear me talk about writing every day for your personal brand.

“But Anna, do I really have to start a blog?” To which I respond with a resounding, “YES.”

For starters, it does wondrous things for your SEO, but even more importantly, it helps you become more disciplined and well-spoken. The consistent act of writing every day can be compared to developing a meditation or yoga practice. There is no, “arrival”, you will always be working to improve your writing. Although, if you practice each day, you will reap the benefits of a marvelous new habit that will improve your business and bank account.

The next time you sit down to write your next blog post, email, or Instagram caption, consider these common writing mistakes that could be preventing you from reaching and resonating with your ideal clients and customers. I’ll show you how to spot these errors and what you can do to fix them:

Mistake #1: The headline is weak.

There’s a study that shows that 60 percent of people who read ads (in this case, think of the ad like your Instagram caption) typically read the headline and nothing else. This means that a majority of people who see your post on social media will only read the first sentence. Yikes! Your headline is the most important piece of copy within your entire post. And yet, it’s often the element that gets the least amount of thought and attention.

Remember that every time you sit down to write something, you are making a non-refundable investment of time and energy. A poor headline can diminish the return on your investment and prevent your target audience from purchasing your product or service. So take the time to write a good headline!

Here’s how:

Identify the thing that is most important to your audience and place it in the place where they are most likely to see it: the headline or the first sentence of your post.

DON’T WRITE: 

“Join my exclusive 30-day fitness challenge and achieve your summer goals!”

DO WRITE:

“Are you ready to lose fat, build muscle, and gain confidence this summer? Join my exclusive 30-day fitness challenge and make sustainable lifestyle changes that last.”

Do you see the difference? Before you can write a good headline, you need to understand the ultimate desire of your target audience. Your audience does not want to join another 30-day fitness challenge, they likely want to see a positive body transformation and gain confidence that radiates!

I also recommend using this headline analyzer to test your headlines for the best conversion rating. Sometimes I’ll spend upwards of 45 minutes going back and forth until I reach a score that is above 70. This software takes into consideration the number of emotional, powerful, common, and uncommon words in your headline. Headlines that convey strong positive or negative emotions tend to perform better. With that in mind, make it your goal is to elicit an emotional response in your readers; emotion is what will lead them to read the entirety of your post.

Headlines should also include as many searchable keywords and phrases as possible so that readers can find your content easily. Load your copy with rich, descriptive words to create a mental movie in your audience’s mind.

Mistake #2: You haven’t acknowledged who you’re speaking to.

Imagine walking into an auditorium full of hundreds of people. It’s your turn to speak. You walk up to the stage and pull out your speech. Except, wait a minute, there’s a problem. You don’t know who the audience is. You realize that you have no idea who is sitting in front of you. Are they college students? Corporate executives? Entrepreneurs? You look around and realize that you have absolutely zero context for this engagement. Suddenly, the speech you’ve written (the one you were immensely proud of just a few hours ago) doesn’t seem relevant when it’s unclear who it’s been written for.

This is exactly what happens when you write something without first acknowledging who you are speaking to. It’s a common mistake that can happen to the best of us. We sit down to write something, but instead of writing with precision and purpose, we cast our knowledge and beliefs out into the online abyss; hoping it resonates with someone somewhere.

This is not the way.

Instead, become extremely adamant about writing directly to your Ideal Brand Adopter. This is the person who will benefit the most from your content, products, and services. This is the person who engages with your posts on social media, the person, and sends you frequent direct messages on Instagram. This is your person. And every time you sit down to write a piece of content for your personal brand, you must be speaking to them.

This piece of advice may seem simple or elementary, but you’d be surprised how often we fail to consider this when we develop content for our personal brand. By making this subtle shift in your writing process, you will greatly improve the quality of your work and the likelihood of reaching and resonating with your Ideal Brand Adopter.

Before you write your next blog post or Instagram caption, ask yourself, “Who is this for?”

Mistake #3: You’re not speaking in your target audience’s language.

Many times people write the copy for their website, landing page, or recent blog post in their language and not in the language of their Ideal Brand Adopter. 

What does this mean, exactly?

Well, many times entrepreneurs and business leaders who are well-versed in a certain area of expertise use specialized language to describe certain terms, sentiments, and circumstances. Every industry has its language, right? Your job as a copywriter is to translate this language into something that your Ideal Brand Adopter can understand and resonate with.

Use discernment while writing the copy for your next project. Ask yourself, “Is this something my target audience will understand? Is this the language that my target audience would use to describe their pain points?”

Sometimes, it helps to share your copy with ideal clients who share the pain points you are writing about. I often share my copy with previous clients who can tell me for certain if my writing resonates with them. Don’t be afraid to do a little research so you can gauge how well you’ve hit the mark. Your copy can be the most powerful tool in your belt, and it can also be the thing preventing you from making sales and working with ideal clients.

Mistake #4: Your copy lacks personality.

Now, this does not mean that you forego speaking in your natural voice. Ditch the overly-formal writing and keep it real and concise—the idea is to engage with people in their natural language. And please, by all means, write how you speak! This will help you stand out from your competitors and cut through the noise.

Be sure to write your copy in the same way that you would engage with people in real life. This will make you appear more authentic, natural, and relatable. It will also draw people in immediately and lead them to continue reading the rest of your copy. The goal of the first line of copy should be to incentivize readers to read the second line.

Sometimes, if you’re having a difficult time getting the words out, you can try speaking (out loud) about the topic you are writing about, first. The more you talk about it, the easier it is to write about it. This simple trick will help you write in your natural voice, and it will also cure any form of writer's block you may be struggling with. 

Mistake #5: You haven’t asked your audience what you would like them to do.

This is one of the biggest mistakes I catch people making almost every day, and it’s likely the biggest reason you aren’t getting a higher conversion rate. This is it: you haven’t asked your audience what you would like them to do once they’ve finished reading your post. It’s so simple! And yet so many people fail to include a call to action at the end of their writing. It doesn’t matter what the post is, there is no exception to this rule.

Now it may be that you don’t want them to do much of anything once they finish reading your post. Perhaps it’s an educational post that isn’t “selling” something. Nevertheless, don’t skip this step. Ask your audience to share it with their networks, ask them to leave a question in the comments section, or ask them to send you a direct message as a follow-up. Watch your engagement sky-rocket!

It’s also possible that your call to action isn’t clear enough. Many times people fear being to, “pushy” or “salesly” in their writing. And I get it, you want to appear natural and cool on social media, without pushing people away. But this approach might actually be hurting you, not helping you. The bottom line is this: people need to be told exactly what to do. They aren’t going to spend any time guessing about it, so you need to be as clear and concise as possible. 

There you have it, these are the top 5 writing mistakes that you should avoid like the plague. Keep these in mind when you sit down to write your next piece of copy. And if you feel like you need some help along the way, you should put your name on the waitlist for Personal Brand Accelerator. I teach my students how to write copy that converts their audience into ideal clients and customers.