- The Biggest Mistake Committed By Copywriters With Fluent English - July 16, 2020
Machiavelli’s ideas revolve around being effective rather than being good. However, many copywriters try sounding like Shakespeare, and that does more harm than good. As copywriters, we are hired to help our clients and organizations communicate better with the masses. Being good at English is a must, but what if we overdo it? Using too heavy, obscure words in the copy to me is as good as a crime.
Basically, copywriting, technical writing, and SEO writing are commercialized art forms. Ruling out the sellability from them is, by far, the greatest risk for any organization. Why so? Let us have an example to understand how our choice of words impacts the market.
Shakespearean Approach To Copywriting
Have a look at the following copy to understand how sophisticated wordings instantly backfire on the ground zero:
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Are you suffering the crapulence due to your old headphones? Are you living in alexithymia due to them but fear shivviness? The misslieness of euneirophrenic sound quality is here. Leave behind the compathy of callosity in music with our wireless headphones- The Airpods. Live the Presque-Vu and before nikhedonia becomes uncontrollable, grab them!
The Glossary For The Obscure Words Used Here:
- Crapulence: Another word for hangover, for an intense version of the feeling.
- Alexithymia: Failure to identify own feelings.
- Misslieness: The feeling arising out of the solitude of missing something/someone loved.
- Presque-Vu: It is a feeling of being confident about remembering a particular thing but being unable to do so when required.
- Euneirophrenia: The feeling experienced after awakening from a good dream.
- Compathy: Sharing any type of feeling with somebody.
- Callosity: Inability to feel emotions.
Breaking The Content Marketer’s Dilemma: Fancy Words Never Impress Balance Sheets
This example was an extreme one, but I want you to understand that our goal is to make the prospect agree with our point. We have to ensure that the ease of agreement comes as naturally as possible. If they need to invest efforts, it’s more of a lapse on our part. The problem with being fluent and having an uber-cool vocabulary is that not everyone has it. We cannot expect a clerk and a CFO to have the same command over the language. Yet, trying to strike a balance is a must as both the clerk and the CFO play their respective roles in the purchase.
Thus, the copy should be relatable enough for the clerk to pitch your product and be actionable enough for the CFO to make the decision. It needs to bridge the gap between the purpose of seeking the solution and how your solution provides convenience or helps earn more money. Clients have limited time, a lot of options, and a business to take care of. Our job is to convince them as quickly as possible in a manner that is both reliable and doesn’t sound too alien to be trusted upon. Thus, businesses will always prefer paying for unique ideas that are relevant to the unapproachable ones.
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The biggest reason behind its success is that it has only upto ten moving parts under the hood. This is half of its contemporary automatic assault rifles and the major contributor to its rugged, trustworthy image. Thus, keeping things simple is a time tested and universally applicable strategy. When targeting a general audience, de-sophistication is the greatest game-changer. Apple’s Macintosh demonstrated this strategy successfully as we can see in this video:
Summing Up: A Great Copy Is Always A Great Sales Pitch
All great pieces of copy that go viral like the Dollar Shave Club commercial have one thing in common: Everyone agrees to them effortlessly, instantly, and humorously. They are excellent sales pitches that neither sound too pushy, nor do they require any effort to convince. As a copywriter, I always find sales-heavy and word-heavy tones as parallel universes. You can use these four tips for delivering great sales pitches wrapped in captivating words:
- Always search for relevance.
- Think original, think rational.
- Treat content as a commercial art form.
- Bring value, experience, and conversion under one umbrella.
Using overly sophisticated and dictionary-worthy language is the biggest mistake committable by any copywriter but the ones confident with their command over the language are more gullible to it. I hope that you find this article on word-heavy copywriting interesting. If you have a similar experience to share, feel free to share your views on mistakes committed by copywriters in the comments section.
I thoroughly agree with your views.
Thank You Mam!
Wonderful way of presentation! I agree. Not everything good would be effective. One shoe doesnt fit all. And so we must use words which are well understood by majority!
Thank you for your kind appreciation!
Very rightly put.
Thank You Mam!
Very true. Lokmanya Tilak was the pioneer of using people’s language in mass media. He was the editor of Kesari, a popular Marathi newspaper in British India. After he was released from a long sentence in prison, his deputy wrote,”Lokmanya Tilak Bandhmukt”, showcasing his elite language skills. Tilak immediately replaced it with, “Tilak Sutale”, meaning Tilak is free. No wonder, his newspaper was a best-seller. Please keep writing.