The copywriting hacks you might be missing out on | Ep. 43 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith

On today's episode, I'm sharing three keys to write clear copy in your content.

1. Flow! This means you pay attention to the order of the information you're communicating.

2. Brand tone. If you're a personal brand, you have to write the way you speak.

3. Repetition. I see this a LOT in web copy especially. Saying the same thing different ways doesn't help with clarity.

These rules apply to all types of content. Email marketing, blog posts, social media and even video. Tune in to master your content!

Lindsay [00:00:00]:
Copywriters are like composers for music, except with words.

Lindsay [00:00:05]:
If you have an online business, you're creating content. And the way you create content is more important than ever.

Lindsay [00:00:13]:
It's really noisy out there, and learning.

Lindsay [00:00:15]:
To stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsay and I'm the host of the content Magic podcast, all about being an entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business. I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting, marketing and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence in the online space. I've been doing this content thing for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity, and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So tune in every week for tangible content tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions. Probably mine.

Lindsay [00:00:58]:
Ready to dive in?

Lindsay [00:01:00]:
Let's go.

Lindsay [00:01:01]:
Hi, friends. Welcome back to the podcast. So today I want to talk to you about copywriting, which I realize is a very broad topic. However, this is something I've been doing for a very long time. If you didn't know, I actually started my career out in journalism. I worked as a radio reporter for my canadian friends. I was a CBC radio reporter, and then I freelanced as a print journalist and contributed to some online publications as well. So.

Lindsay [00:01:41]:
And then I worked in advertising as a copywriter for 13 years. And then, because I sort of. I took a sort of an untraditional route into copywriting, I often have a tough time explaining what it is a copywriter does. And so, you know, the simplest definition is that I use persuasive language to sell things. However, I think there is more to it. While, yes, I am an expert at language and words, and I have this innate knowledge of what makes up good copywriting and what makes up bad copywriting. And so I think what most of us are really good at is using language and words that make people feel something and then move them to a certain action. So it's not necessarily selling, it's sometimes evoking emotion to move people to the next step of something or to some sort of action.

Lindsay [00:02:55]:
And so my friend Christina once said that she's a web designer, and she once said that copywriters are like composers for music, except with words. And I thought that was a really good description because essentially, that is what I do. I'm just really good at words. I'm really good at language in the written form. So that is what I do. And here is why. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that everybody can be a copywriter. It does take a lot of work.

Lindsay [00:03:28]:
However, I can teach you some of a couple of core copywriting principles that you can implement immediately in whatever it is that you're writing. So if it's an email, it's a blog post, if it's a your about page on your website, or even some of the. The values I'm going to talk about today can also be applied to if you're like doing some sort of talking head video, sometimes it's the same. Okay, so the first thing I want to talk about is flow. So again, this is something that is, is I like, I feel like I have, like, you know, in jurassic park where they have those glasses on that they can see in the dark. I feel like I have those glasses. But for flow of information. So flow is essentially making sure the information, the written information, follows a certain type of order that makes it easy for your reader or your audience, your subscriber, to follow along and digest the material.

Lindsay [00:04:35]:
So, a couple of things to consider, and this is especially true for writing emails. I think the thing that is missed the most is breathing space. So if you subscribe to my email list, and if you don't, um, I encourage you to do that. You can go to lindseysmithcreative CA and scroll to the bottom and sign up for my email list. And you'll notice that, um, I have one thought per paragraph. So sometimes I see people, it's like six sentences in a paragraph, and then they move to another paragraph. The thing is, you have to think about how people are absorbing this information. I'm going to say that most people are reading emails on their phone.

Lindsay [00:05:22]:
So actually, there is a statistic that says that most people read emails on their phone. So you have to think about, and people are scanning it for information. So if it's too long, nobody's going to read it and they're going to delete it immediately. So make sure that it's one thought per line, even if it's one or two sentences. The other thing is, and this is especially true for if I'm editing somebody's website, for example, and especially like an about page, what I find happens a lot, is sort of jumping around from different time in space. Like it's not in chronological order. And of course, there's an exception to this rule. Not everything has to be chronological, however, especially for about pages or any type of storytelling.

Lindsay [00:06:13]:
And I talk a lot about storytelling in a lot of my trainings, especially in my email program called the email lab. We talk a lot about storytelling in there. So storytelling absolutely has to be chronological. And so then a journalism thing that I talk a lot about is this inverted pyramid, which is essentially like a pyramid, and it's flipped over. So the long side is at the top. So again, especially for emails, there's a subject line which often acts as a type of hook. And anytime you're starting an email, I would encourage you to put another hook immediately. So essentially, like in journalism, if you're writing something for print, for example, you're always starting out with the, the bulk of the story first, right? Like so and so, you know, is running runs for mayor or whatever.

Lindsay [00:07:13]:
Like, that's the meat. And then as you get to the point of the pyramid, it's, you know, you kind of have, like, your midsection of information. And then when you come to your point, it's usually in journalism, it's kind of like, okay, and then I, and then in the future of blah blah, blah blah. So when it comes to your content, especially in email, you usually want to end with some sort of call to action. Again, we're always asking people to take some sort of next step. And the other thing I see, and again, this might be like a grammar thing, but the other thing I see is jumping around with different tenses. Like, sometimes you're in the present, sometimes you're talking, sometimes it's future, sometimes it's past. So just go through whatever it is that you're writing, even if it's a social caption, and make sure that it is all one tense.

Lindsay [00:08:12]:
Unless. Right. Like, unless, again, there's an exception to this rule. But for the most part, whatever kind of text that you're writing needs to be all in one tense. Okay? So the next thing I want to talk about is brand voice. And this is something that comes up a lot. People ask me about this a lot. And so I usually work with people who have a personal brand.

Lindsay [00:08:38]:
So your brand tone is usually just the way you speak. And sometimes, like, you're representing yourself. Right. And if you ask my podcast editor, he'll tell me that I say right a million times. So this is also a thing that I write. I write this in my social media stuff, and I also use that in my emails as well. So. And this is what I want to say.

Lindsay [00:09:05]:
And again, after, you know, I've edited hundreds of websites, and what I see happen is that people like to put on a smart voice, and I call this a reporter voice. And I did this as a reporter as well. I, like, I changed the tone of my voice, and I think this comes from a lack of trust. So I know this is going to be scary. Next time you have like a chitchat with a friend or you have a Zoom call with like a biz bestie, I want you to record it and I want you to listen to it back. I know it's cringy, and I want you to just notice the way you speak. What are your expressions? What are your isms? What do you say often? What comes up? Right? Like, I have a friend who says at the end of the day, all the time. She uses that in everything.

Lindsay [00:10:06]:
So it's true to her to use that expression all the time. And I realize this is tough because especially for websites, if you're diying your website copy, obviously you want to sound smart, but I think a lot of people take it like two steps further and they put on the reporter voice, or they put on their smart voice and it is not a true representation of how they speak. So the best, and the other thing to do is to ask people close to you, like, what are my isms? What are the things I say all the time? Like, how would you describe my brand tone? How would you describe my brand voice? Like what? What are the things that I say all the time? Like, you guys know if you listen to the podcast, I always end with toodle oo, right? I don't know why it just comes out of my mouth. It's something that my grandmother used to say to me every time I hung up the phone with her or had a visit with me, she'd say, toodle oo. So this is something that just comes out of my mouth at the end of my podcast. So I think brand voice is often a tricky one to figure out. And I remember in the early days of blogging, like 20 years ago, I always wanted to sound like this famous essayist, like he was a David Sedaris, so he was super funny the way he wrote. I always wanted to emulate him.

Lindsay [00:11:33]:
So I think sometimes it takes a minute to, especially if you're new, it takes a minute to figure out what your brand voice is. And so I spent several years trying to sound like someone else, which eventually morphed into my own voice. And so now, like, and it's interesting because, you know, I am on the email list of other copywriters, and it's so interesting to see how differently people write and how differently people tell stories. And so what you want is you want people to know that every type of every content they get from you is going to sound the same and they know it's from you. Okay, so we're going to touch on one last thing. And this is kind of like, this is just because I see this so often. So repetition and excess. So usually if I am editing somebody's website or reviewing somebody's email, more often than not there is either they are repeating the same information over and over again in different ways, or they simply have too much information.

Lindsay [00:12:51]:
So always use the simplest language to get your point across. You are probably adding words that you don't even need. So, and this is the thing. And then sometimes it takes like a bird's eye view of a copywriter to sort of go through it with a fine tuned tooth comb and to figure out what can be removed. And again, this again comes back to. And just to be clear, this is like super normal, because as the business owner or the entrepreneur, you know so much about your own expertise and what you do, it's very tricky to be like, okay, like, sometimes you just want to share everything. You just want to put everything out there. And sometimes it just takes a third party or someone outside your business to be like, okay, you said the same thing three times here.

Lindsay [00:13:54]:
The thing I see the most is the same words used in, like three times in a paragraph. So the way that you can sort of avoid this is get everything out. Get everything out that you need to say and then go through it and notice where you are repeating things or where you've added more information than is necessary. And usually those two things go hand in hand. And if you need a third party or you need somebody to be like, okay, somebody has to look over this, then just reach out to me, because this is something I excel at. I'm very, very good at noticing something and being able to redirect your words to something that is simple. But make, because here's the thing. Simple makes the best impact, the biggest impact.

Lindsay [00:14:54]:
So let me be your simplifier of copywriting. So obviously, there's a lot more. There's a lot more to copywriting. But I wanted to share sort of these three main things because this is the stuff I see the most often. Okay, so that's it for me today, and we'll see you next time, folks. Toodaloo.

Lindsay [00:15:19]:
Thank you so much for listening.

Lindsay [00:15:20]:
If you loved what you heard, don't.

Lindsay [00:15:22]:
Forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on instagram.

Lindsay [00:15:28]:
Lindsaysmithcreative and if you do all three. I'll be your best friend forever and.

Lindsay [00:15:33]:
Invite you to all my birthday parties. That's it for today, and I'll see you next time.