Mistakes people make when writing sales copy

[LOS Design UK]

KM, there's nothing aggressive in my post, it's factual. 100% factual. You never back up your ill informed replies to my posts yet you expect me to provide sources for defending your ill informed response?

How do you add a reference point to opinion and what makes my opinion ill informed?

You are the one quoting copy from text books and CW's performance???

What am I trying to prove? Ridiculous comment. I am replying to your post with opinion...

[MarkD]

I think the key is that sentences should be constructed in a way that are easily understood by the reader, but also understood by the search engines. Getting the balance right could be easy for some sites, less so for others.

For instance "Pain Free Marketing Solutions" is ok as a marketing headline but you wouldn't really want to use "Pain Free" in the main content (perhaps once, otherwise the SE's could get the wrong end of the stick).... Would that be fair or am I totally missing the point?

Anyway as posted above, shorter sentences / paragraphs probably suit both best!

p.s. unless it's your company name of course!

[openmind]

Can we keep the thread professional at all times please and try and avoid bringing personal feelings into the matter or the thread will be closed.

[PainFreeMarketing]

I think the key is that sentences should be constructed in a way that are easily understood by the reader, but also understood by the search engines. Getting the balance right could be easy for some sites, less so for others.

For instance "Pain Free Marketing Solutions" is ok as a marketing headline but you wouldn't really want to use "Pain Free" in the main content (perhaps once, otherwise the SE's could get the wrong end of the stick).... Would that be fair or am I totally missing the point?

Anyway as posted above, shorter sentences / paragraphs probably suit both best!

p.s. unless it's your company name of course!

I don't use pain free in my content except to refer to the business name. As you note, it would be pointless to do so.

I am very widely read on the Internet, a few hundred thousand readers to various articles over the last couple of years and the content is popular and has comments to that effect. The main appeal is the simple language.

Much of the world has English as a second language and while we could argue that their English is still better than that of some our own English speakers, this is one reason why for the Internet it is recommended that writing is kept 'simple'.

I write for readers across the world, so keeping it simple and clear is essential.

Sales copy (for English audience) should be simple & clear for the fact that verbose copy can detract from the benefits of the product and lose the client.

But it depends what you're selling and who too.

No one is suggesting appalling grammar is good, just a rigid adherence isn't necessary.

Examples are perhaps required.

[Entro]

The strategy of "if it works, use it" can be very effective, and ignoring the rules of grammar can be useful. The danger of this approach lies in potential misinterpretation, which is why rules, grammar being a set of rules, are used.

I'm sure that the great writers of copy, alluded to above, know the rules before they break them, and are good enough writers to write exactly what they want conveyed.

However Joe Businessman might not have these skills, and might be better off trying to stay within an accepted framework, grammar, to get a sales message across.

A good guide to usage, rather than grammar, aimed at helping convey meaning, is the Economist's. This is more useful than either trying for a conversational tone and failing, or sticking to a fusty grammar guide and also failing.

[PainFreeMarketing]

The strategy of "if it works, use it" can be very effective, and ignoring the rules of grammar can be useful. The danger of this approach lies in potential misinterpretation, which is why rules, grammar being a set of rules, are used.

I'm sure that the great writers of copy, alluded to above, know the rules before they break them, and are good enough writers to write exactly what they want conveyed.

However Joe Businessman might not have these skills, and might be better off trying to stay within an accepted framework, grammar, to get a sales message across.

A good guide to usage, rather than grammar, aimed at helping convey meaning, is the Economist's. This is more useful than either trying for a conversational tone and failing, or sticking to a fusty grammar guide and also failing.

You are undoubtedly correct The copy must be well written regardless and the laxity minor and undetectable by the average Joe.

I was taught that using words like 'and' and 'but' to begin sentences was grammatically incorrect. BUT I still do it.

I do though despite it being the accepted 'norm' dislike starting sentences with 'and'. It's a personal dislike of mine and one I feel many clients would share. But as I said earlier, many cw's do this, so who am I to argue?

An useful link, I'll check that out. Thanks

[MarkD]

Hope I haven't unintentionally offended you, I wasn't taking a dig or trying to suggest that you did use "pain free" etc etc or that your services were anything but of the highest order... so my sincere apologies if I have....

I should have made up an example or used one of my own... so here's one of my own....

When the new version of my site went live a little over 18 months ago some how google decided that my site was about "home business" and not "commercial finance"... it took me many months to change googles mind on that.

Guess the point I was trying to get over was to emphasize how important shorter sentences are, but also the dangers of how easily some innocent marketing phrase or "verbose copy" can be totally taken out of context by search engines

[Entro]

[PainFreeMarketing]

Hope I haven't unintentionally offended you, I wasn't taking a dig or trying to suggest that you did use "pain free" etc etc or that your services were anything but of the highest order... so my sincere apologies if I have....

I should have made up an example or used one of my own... so here's one of my own....

When the new version of my site went live a little over 18 months ago some how google decided that my site was about "home business" and not "commercial finance"... it took me many months to change googles mind on that.

Guess the point I was trying to get over was to emphasize how important shorter sentences are, but also the dangers of how easily some innocent marketing phrase or "verbose copy" can be totally taken out of context by search engines

I wasn't offended.

I am only offended by poor debating tactics that include personal insults.

Your point is a good one.

My opening post made no reference to SEO content, that's a whole other ball game.

I find writing SEO content a tad boring. Meanwhile my best traffic pulling content was not written with SEO in mind.

It was though some of the most basic writing I've done though which possibly demonstrates your point in terms of search engines knowing exactly what the content is about.

[PainFreeMarketing]

lol, yes you do, if you're doing it right!