Copywriting sounds easy, but it is actually one of the hardest things to do in business communication. Most people are surprisingly terrible at describing physical objects in writing, it’s so easy to get so caught up in trying to sound professional that you can just end up listing a bunch of boring specs. Whether you’re writing a property listing or a technical manual, you have to remember that your reader can’t physically see or touch the thing you are talking about. If you’re thinking about doing this for a job (or need to do some copywriting for your business) here’s what you need to know.
No lazy lists
Bulleted lists are easy to skim, but they can completely destroy any chance you have to actually sell the physical reality of a product to a customer who can’t touch it in person. When you just drop a random list of features on a page you are forcing the reader to do all the mental work to figure out why they should care about any of it. Let’s say you’re writing a copy to sell a commercial property. If you just state that the building features a new roof and upgraded garage doors then you’re completely wasting an opportunity because you’re basically just telling them a standard building exists, and expecting them to somehow get excited about the bare minimum. Every single warehouse has a roof and a place to park delivery trucks. You don’t give the buyer any real value by pointing that out. You need to explain the thick steel construction of that specific Paratec door or the smooth operation of the track system to make it real for the person reading your brochure. Vague writing is totally useless, you have to spell it out.
Write for the right audience
If your end user is going to read a load of technical jargon and completely tune out because they just want to know how the product is going to solve their specific daily problem, then you need to know how to get that info across in another way. You have to bridge the gap between the engineers who built the thing and the normal people who actually have to use it every day. On the other hand, if you’re writing for a highly specialized audience, that means your descriptive copy has to be flawless. Technical writers deal with this all the time when they draft installation guides or architectural blueprints. They don’t need flowery adjectives here because they need exact clearances and literal step by step instructions that make total sense on the very first read. It takes a lot of practice to switch gears between writing sales copy and drafting harsh technical specifications.
Proofread well
The absolute best way to see if your copy actually works is to read the whole thing out loud to yourself before you share it. Proofread the next day with fresh eyes to catch all of those clunky sentences and robotic phrases that make your readers want to close the tab and walk away. If you find yourself tripping over your own words or running out of breath you need to immediately scrap that section and start over. Real people are the ones buying these physical items at the end of the day so it needs to be written in a way that’s easy to understand.