Coronavirus invasion has brought significant changes to our life and work. However, it’s also a great opportunity to review your business processes and consider hiring freelancers.
Copywriters hold a great share of the freelancing market, and hypothetically there shouldn’t be any problem in finding one, but there’s a catch here. Good copywriters often work on multiple projects and booked months ahead. Guess why? It’s tough to find a good one.
Yet, if you’re not planning to craft a copy yourself you must embrace the situation and do what it takes to hire the most skillful writer of all the available freelancers.
Check-in with these 5 features of ridiculously bad copywriting and don’t waste your time on working with amateurs.
What is bad copywriting?
How can one tell that the text is bad? Well, depending on the purpose. If your copy aims to make your reader fall asleep, you’re doing a great job. If not, we have a problem.
That said, we can define examples of bad writing as those that don’t encourage the reader to take the desired action.
Next, let’s take a closer look at the list of features common for poor wording.
Feature 1: It’s Inappropriate
Let’s imagine you meet the Queen of England. Dressed in a noble grey coat, wearing her signature cocktail hat, she comes to you with remarkable dignity and a slight tint of a smile at the corner of her royal mouth.
What would you say to her? “Good day” or “What’s up”?
That’s it. The answer is clear as day. If you greet Queen Elizabeth the Second like Joey Tribianni from the epic Friends series, you won’t be taken seriously.
How to spot: In a test task, provide a detailed customer portrait to see whether a copywriter will use the right tone of voice.
Feature 2: Bad copywriting provides zero value
How many times have you read about the importance of knowing the target audience?
If a copywriter doesn’t understand what bothers his reader all of his writing efforts are just a waste of time.
He must do the research, define what matters to the audience and only then start crafting a copy.
How to spot: Before getting started with the copy or in a separate task, ask a copywriter to list the main pain-points of the reader and come up with 3-5 content topics.
Feature 3: It’s wordy
Wordy copywriting makes you feel like you’ve been dragged to the swamp. Remember, too many adjectives and detailed description of a product or service won’t make it more desired. The only desire it causes is to stop reading.
Here, it’s important to stick to the “less is more” rule as the best sales copywriting examples don’t contain long synonymic rows.
How to spot: In a test task, ask a copywriter to describe a movie or a book plot. Limit it to 3-5 sentences.
Feature 4: It has ho rhythm
You’ve probably noticed that some texts are very hard to process, while others can be read in one single breath. What’s the catch? It’s all about the rhythm – a combination of short and long sentences. The most valuable, relevant, and sharp texts lose their power if written monotonously.
Best copywriters won’t let the reader yawn. They will start with a mid-length sentence. Then go on with another one. Then suddenly stop. See? The power of the rhythm is absolutely undeniable!
How to spot: Read it out loud. If you’re running out of breath and losing the main point, the text has no rhythm. And it’s bad copywriting.
Feature 5: It’s unappealing and complicated
Good wordsmithing examples are surprisingly rare. You can be an expert on the matter, but your text doesn’t seem to touch your reader’s soul. One of the reasons why it is happening is your specialized vocabulary which makes it “hard and heavy” for an amateur.
So what can you do about it? Find a copywriter that will write down your story in simple yet elegant words to engage your audience.
How to spot: Read the text to a non-prepared audience. For example, if your article explains how to start using Google Analytics, then read it to someone who has no idea how to do that.
While COVID-19 makes the world go round, businesses need and learn how to hire and manage teams remotely. No doubt, this valuable experience will certainly come in handy when the quarantine is over.
In this article, we’ve provided you with a piece of valuable information on how to spot bad copywriting while hiring a remote employee. This includes:
- The wrong tone of voice
- Irrelevancy
- Bad rhythm
- Wordy sentences
- Too complicated wording
Have any questions? Drop us a line!