62: Calling BS on these copywriting myths & misconceptions
Wondering what it really takes to write compelling sales copy? There’s a lot of false information floating around out there, and I’m here to tell you not to believe the lies!
In this episode of ill communication, I’m calling bullshit on a few myths and misconceptions business women have about writing copy.
Recently, I've been hosting a great group of savvy women in business inside an event called the Sales Email Sprint. Inside the sprint, I'm teaching some tips about email marketing, like how to write emails people want to read, how to boost open rates, and how to write a compelling sales email sequence. Through it all, I'm leveraging the Joy of Copy method, which combines constraint with copy recipes to help you write compelling sales copy fast.
What's amazing and so inspiring to me is how many women are having major aha moments and massive breakthroughs in this process!
It's because many of these women have believed a myth or a misconception about writing copy. So today I want to bust those myths in case you, too, might be believing the lie.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
The top myths about copywriting that women have got to stop believing
How long it really takes to write your copy
How formal should your writing really be?
The secret to becoming unstoppable when it comes to writing copy
What you need to know about copywriting formulas
So those are a few of the myths and misconceptions women have that get in the way of writing sales, copy, and marketing themselves. And it's what we tackle every week inside the Joy of Copy Club! Doors will be opening soon to welcome new members to the club. If you're curious about joining or want to grab one of the remaining spots before it goes public, please reach out to me and we can have a little backroom chat.
I hope your bullshit meter is primed and that you can call bullshit on any of the thoughts, myths, and misconceptions you might have about what a badass you really are!
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[00:00:03] Welcome to Ill Communication, Copywriting, Tips and sales strategies for small Business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hey. Hey, my sweet friend. Today I'm calling bullshit on a few myths and misconceptions business women have about writing copy. [00:01:00] You see, over this week, I'm hosting a great group of savvy business women inside an event called the Sales Email Sprint. Inside the sprint, I'm teaching some tips about email marketing, like how to write emails people want to read, how to boost open rates and how to write a compelling sales email sequence. Through it all, I'm leveraging the joy of copy method, which combines constraint with copy recipes to help you write compelling sales copy fast. What's amazing and so inspiring to me is how many women are having major aha moments and massive breakthroughs in this process. It's because many of these women have believed a myth or a misconception about writing copy.
[00:01:43] So today I want to bust those myths in case you, too, might be believing the lie. Myth number one Writing copy takes too long or it will take me forever to write. Bullshit. Every time I host a workshop [00:02:00] or an open house and I give people ten minutes to write an email or a Facebook ad or a new bio, they surprise themselves with how much they can write in such a short amount of time, something that we agonized about and procrastinated because we thought it would take so long. Actually gets written in a very short amount of time. This week, during the sales email, Sprint, women are writing a great sales email literally in minutes. They're sending me messages about how the copy and messaging are leaking out of them. They're texting me to say they can't believe how much they wrote in such a short amount of time. I promise you will surprise yourself with how much you can write when you finally sit down and write it. The trick is to focus on one piece of copy, one email, one social post, one ad, or one section of your home page. Grab a copywriting framework or a recipe or a writing prompt to help you narrow how and what to [00:03:00] write. Set a timer for ten minutes and write and you will impress yourself with how much you write.
[00:03:07] And maybe it'll need a few more edits and finessing. That's fine, but I promise you can write great copy in ten minutes. Myth number two. I have to sound professional and perfect to be taken seriously. Who are we? This is a doozy of a myth. So many women, and particularly Gen X women, believe it's because we are taught or we were taught to put two spaces after the period. We were taught to write business letters with the addressee up in the top left hand corner, followed by two specific paragraph breaks. Then the subject starting with capitals, re colon, then another hard enter, and then Dear Mr. or Mrs. last name. We were taught to write very formally, and it's very hard to break that habit. Plus, as women were socialized to be people pleasers, to be [00:04:00] the good girl, to be perfect. And if we don't write in a way that sounds polished and businessy, we worry we won't be taken seriously. To which I say, bullshit. Formal business writing has a time and place maybe in your legal contracts or legal documents, possibly in proposals, though I personally rarely use formal language in mine. But there is no place for buttoned formal business writing on your website or in your emails, and especially not in your Facebook ads. Because when you write in a formal business style, you sound like every other boring business out there.
[00:04:38] One of the easiest ways to develop rapport with your ideal customer and buyer and build know, like and trust is to allow your personality, your voice to come through in your writing, to make your writing sound like you're having a natural conversation and ditch a lot of the business and marketing jargon we think we're supposed to use. Now, here's a blurb [00:05:00] I found on a website in the wilds of the Internet. See if you can figure out what they actually do. With years of business experience and global contacts. We serve clients internationally. We work to promote our client services and assist in ongoing business development in order to fulfill and facilitate short and long term success and growth. Well, it sure sounds professional and business y, but honestly, based on that paragraph, I have no clue what this firm actually does or why they're the best in the market to work with. Instead, imagine if they wrote something like. We show startups how to build relationships and find capital investments so you can grow your business overseas. Our business development, coaching and mentoring will give you a fast path to scaling your business without compromising your profits. Of those two blurbs, which would you be more compelled to click the Learn More button? I'm gonna hazard a guess. It's the second version. That's the one that you'd want to click to [00:06:00] learn more or book a call.
[00:06:02] And look, it's so easy to slip into jargon in our copy, and it's kind of hard for us to spot it in our own writing. It helps to have a second set of eyes review the copy for you to catch when you're maybe sounding a little too formal or businessy and not enough like yourself. And if you don't have someone to review it for you, then try this. Imagine your your customer or prospect. Put yourself in their shoes. Read aloud what you wrote. Do you think it makes sense? Would they use these words to describe their problems, struggles, dreams and desires? If it doesn't sound like how a normal person would talk, then go back and pull out the jargon, write in incomplete sentences, don't use colons or semicolons. Write how you and your clients actually talk. Take a look at one of my favorite brands. The female founded Canva. They perfected [00:07:00] speaking in plain language, The hero section of their homepage reads Canva makes it easy to create professional designs and to share or print them. This simple jargon. Free language and marketing helped them grow from a start up to a $26 billion tech giant. So I think that busts the myth that you have to sound super profesh or businessy in your writing to be taken seriously. Myth number three is that writing sales copy is complicated and hard.
[00:07:33] Or I'm not a good writer. I call bullshit. You probably are a good writer. You wouldn't have a successful career or business without having solid writing skills. But as mentioned in the previous myth, you might just be writing a little too formally. And if writing sales copy feels difficult or complicated, you probably just haven't been shown how to craft a sales message the easy way using [00:08:00] formulas, writing prompts, and frameworks. When you discover how to use copy formulas and how to stack them together to create a cohesive sequence, you'll feel like you unlocked the secret to copywriting, but it's really not a secret. These copy formulas and frameworks are well known to professional copywriters like myself, but they aren't as widely taught to non copywriters. When you discover the variety of formulas and recipes available to you and you find out how to use them, you will be unstoppable in writing. Copy. Which leads me to the final myth and misconception that copywriting formulas and frameworks don't work, that they sound too templatized or they somehow create sleazy and salesy copy. Are you ready to say it with me? Bullshit. Copywriting, formulas and frameworks are more of a guideline than a fill in the blank. When you use a fill in the blank template, then yes, [00:09:00] your copy will sound very generic and like everyone else's. But copywriting formulas like Aida Paz Quest or Challenge solution result give you a flexible order and a boundary for your writing.
[00:09:15] It's slightly plug and play, but it's not Fill in the blank. You still write with your personality. You still weave in the words your customers use, and you talk about your life, your stories, your experiences and your offers in a way that will only sound like you. Inside the Joy of Copy Club and in the sales email Sprint This week, participants receive several different examples of each formula and how they're used, so they see how very different each email or add is, even though it follows the same general flow. And it doesn't matter if you're a spiritual healer with a poetic Yogi style of writing or a no BS, cut to the Chase business mentor [00:10:00] or somewhere in between. The copywriting formulas work because they give you the constraint to stop overthinking and agonizing over your writing and instill. They help you organize it in a flow that helps advance your reader from getting to know you to ready to buy. So those are a few of the myths and misconceptions women have that get in the way of writing sales, copy and marketing themselves. And it's what we tackle every week. Inside the Joy of Copy Club. Doors will be opening soon to welcome new members to the club. And if you're curious about joining or want to grab one of the remaining spots before it goes public, please reach out to me and we can have a little backroom chat.
[00:10:41] In the meantime, I want to send you off with a little bit of love into the rest of your week. I hope your bullshit meter is primed and that you can call bullshit on any of the thoughts, myths and misconceptions you might have about what a badass you really are. That's it for the Ill Communication podcast today. [00:11:00] I'll catch you next week. Hey, would you like to hang out with me and other women business owners doing rad things in the world just like you? Then you should join the Joy of Coffee Club. It's a group coffee coaching experience where you receive access to all my sales templates, writing prompts and copy recipes. So you're never wondering what or how to write once a week. You can pop into my open office hours where we'll live, review and edit any kind of copy you've written. Seriously, you can bring a social post, an email or even some edits to your home page and I'll help you optimize it before you send it out into the world. The Joy of Copy Club gives you the tools and the confidence to get your message out there so you can grow your impact and your revenue. Find out more at khimki.com/copy club. I'll see you next week.
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