A copywriter's checklist
Checklists prevent mistakes, use this one for all your copy needs
Copywriting is an art. Just because you speak a language fluently doesn’t mean you can write good copy. And yet, sometimes you’re in a position where you (or someone else in your team) is tasked with writing copy for something really important.
I myself just finished a project involving product copy and can confidently confirm even within copy, there’s different specialties. Product copy is one of the hardest.
To help the poor souls out there who are slapping their hands against the keyboard and hoping for the best, I’ve put together a list of prompts and questions you can use to edit and sharpen your copy.
Step one
Word vomit everything onto a page. A blank page can be really offputting, so overcome that hurdle by just telling yourself to write every idea, every concept, and every phrase that you have in your head.
At this stage, it doesn’t have to be in chronological order, it just has to be outside of your head. Make two copies of this document.
Step two
Computers are a blessing because they allow you to rearrange the words you’ve already typed and push them around. Do this.
Order your thoughts, form a cohesive structure, and then start deleting.
Repeat until you think you’re done. It helps to refer to the copy of the original doc to see if you deleted something you might end up wanting to bring back.
Step three
Ask yourself the following questions:
Am I writing at a 9/10th grade level or below? (Yes is the correct answer here)
Am I thinking of the target audience while I write, or am I thinking of myself?
Is this appropriately written and structured for the format?
Does every sentence serve a purpose?
Have I spent too long on this? Do I need to move on?
If I don’t like something, can I name why?
I also reached out to the broader copywriting community to see what copy specialists ask themselves when reading over their final drafts.
“Once I feel like I’m done editing a piece I will use the “read aloud” feature within MS Word. Definitely helps to have it read out loud by “someone” else — even if that’s a robot.” — Kelley Ann
“Am I giving the reader a clear and compelling CTA? Is there any doubt at all what they should do next?” — Lyn Marler
Click these
The kawaiization of product design I think about this a lot - so many brands all look very similar, and they borrow from each other. Borrowing isn’t a bad thing, but when you have an opportunity to stand out from your competitors, why would you want to look the same?
If you’ve followed the Theranos scandal, you’ll love this update. Elizabeth Holmes is claiming to have a “mental disease or defect” as her defense against nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiring to commit wire fraud.
I myself haven’t read Bad Blood, but it’s on my list and chronicles the downfall of Theranos.
A novelty Twitter account I’m enjoying lately is Struggle Tweets. Sample below:
Ask Mehdeeka
“I’m a one-man marketing department, so I’m interested in ways I can stay efficient - particularly if it means I don’t have to pay a third party”
To be really blunt, if you are working at 100% efficency, you’re only able to do it because you are outsourcing something. It’s just not possible to do everything and do it well.
But! That’s the whole point of this newsletter. We can’t do everything, so where should we spend our time and where should we spend our money?
I find it helpful to track every task I do over the course of the week (yep, every social media caption, every Salesforce report, every sales asset) and look at exactly where I’m spending my time. Once I’ve done that, I identify what brought value, and what didn’t.
From that point on, I know what to say no to, and more importantly, the next time someone asks why I’m saying no, I have a solid example to point to as to why I’m refusing to do it.
Being a one-person team can be difficult from a social perspective, and we might find ourselves constantly accepting requests because it helps us feel like part of a larger team. But at the same time, we do need to be efficient, and unfortunately this means making tough decisions like telling a sales person that the very specific infographic they’ve asked for is a dumb idea and no one is actually going to use it, let alone make a decision to buy based on it.
Got a question about how to be a one-person team? Send it through!
Next week
Get ready for an interview with Stacy Goh from Outwrite about their recent rebrand.
Funny story, I used to sit next to the Outwrite founders back when they were still GradeProof back at Fishburners! The Aussie startup scene is a small world.