Writing copy can be weirdly difficult. Not because people can’t write. Most people can write perfectly well. They write emails, reports, proposals, strategy documents, mildly passive-aggressive Teams messages and birthday cards with alarming regularity.
The problem is that writing copy is different. Whether it’s for a website, brochure, annual report, prospectus, campaign page or anything else with a job to do, copy has to work hard. It has to explain things clearly, hold someone’s attention, guide them somewhere useful and, ideally, not sound like it was assembled in a panic five minutes before a deadline. Which, of course, it sometimes was. We’re not here to judge.
So, if writing copy has landed on your to-do list – possibly next to 47 other things – here are five things worth keeping in mind:
1. Write for your audience, not your organisation chart.
This sounds obvious, but it’s where a lot of copy goes wrong. It’s very easy to write from the inside out. To talk about your teams, your departments, your processes, your history, your acronyms, your favourite internal phrase that everyone in the building understands and absolutely nobody outside it does.
Your audience probably doesn’t care about your internal structure – not at first, anyway. They care about what they need, what they’re trying to understand, what problem they’re trying to solve, and whether you can help them. Good copy starts there.
Before you write, ask yourself: who is this for, what do they already know, what do they need to know, and what might be stopping them from taking the next step? Then write for that person. Not the board. Not the project team. Not the person who insists the word “solutions” must appear seven times on every page. The reader.
2. Know the point before you start writing.
Every piece of should have a job to do. In an ideal world, a page, article, chapter, advert, email or brochure spread would speak about one clear thing. It can support that point in lots of ways, but there should be a centre of gravity – and without a centre of gravity to hold it in place, copy tends to wander off.
How many times have you experienced this? You start with a nice clear sentence about something. You’re then told you need to add a paragraph about synergy and your boss wants you to talk about their pet project. Then you’re told it is a hundred words short so you bolt something in at the end to bulk up the article. We’ve all been there.
Before you start, decide what the copy needs to do. Is it there to explain? Reassure? Persuade? Inform? Sell? Help someone compare options? Get them to enquire? Once you know the job, the writing becomes easier. You have something to pin everything to, and a much better sense of what to leave out. And leaving things out is often where the magic happens.
3. Make it easy to scan.
People don’t always read in the way we wish they did. We may lovingly craft every sentence, polish every comma and quietly admire a particularly elegant subheading, but the reader is probably skimming while making a cup of tea, checking their phone, half-listening to someone ask where the stapler has gone. Especially online.
So make the copy easy to scan. Use headings. Keep paragraphs short. Break up long sections. Put important information where people can actually find it. Use plain, useful calls to action. This is not about making things simplistic. It’s about being kind to the reader.
A big wall of text says, “Good luck, you’re on your own.”
Well-structured copy says, “Don’t worry, we’ve thought about this.”
4. Ask: what should they do next?
Copy should help people move. That doesn’t always mean pushing them towards a big shiny “BUY NOW” button while a countdown timer screams at them from the corner of the screen. Sometimes the next step is gentler than that. It might be:
- read another page
- download a guide
- get in touch
- book a call
- request a quote
- understand your services
- feel reassured enough to keep going
The important thing is that the copy shouldn’t just stop and leave the reader standing there awkwardly, like they’ve arrived at the end of a corridor with no doors.
Every piece of content should guide people somewhere useful. Even if that “somewhere” is simply a better understanding of what you do and why it matters.
5. Use plain language – because plain isn’t boring.
Most organisations have their own language. Some of it is technical. Some of it is useful. Some of it has been passed down through the generations like a cursed heirloom. The danger is that internal language often feels clear to the people inside the organisation and completely baffling to everyone else. Plain language cuts through that.
It doesn’t mean dumbing things down or stripping out all personality – it just means saying what you mean in a way people can understand. A good test is: would someone outside your organisation know what this means without asking for a translation?
Or, more importantly, would your Gran understand it? If not, it may need another pass.
A final thought
Good copy is not about sounding clever. This is annoying, because sounding clever is very tempting. Especially when you know a lot about what you do and would quite like everyone else to know that you know it.
But the best copy is usually clear, useful and focused. It respects the reader’s time. It explains what matters. It gives people confidence. It helps them take the next step. That’s the real trick.
Not more words. Not fancier words. Not twelve rounds of committee-approved adjectives. Just the right words, in the right order, doing the right job.
Need help with communicating your business? Just give us a shout.
