What Are The Most Common Mistakes In Your Contracting Businesses Messaging?
Gtetign stuck in and knocking out pages of text may seem liek the right thing to do when it comes to pennign pieces for your contracting business, but this can lead to some of the common mistakes I see. The same applies to your slogan, marketing materials and anywhere else your business shows up online, including third party sites and directories.
See, most tradespeople haven't been trained in writing copy or content; even if you say that you enjoy it, often it's not your bag. Now, this doesn't mean to say that all messaging is off, sounds weird or doesn't really make sense, but more often than not when I come across the messaging in place for contracting businesses I see a lot of commonalities.
The result of which is this article.
Whilst I will cover the main errors or places I see room for improvements, this isn't an exhaustive list that covers each and every facet of crafting compelling copy but does serve as an appropriate starting point for those wishing to brush up in these areas, for those who have no desire to do so and would rather hand over to a professional feel free to drop me a message tose if I can help.
Anyways lets get into it!
Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation in Your Written Copy
Considering we live in a world with smartphones, laptops and all the gadgets to assist with better writing the amount of excuses for putting out error ridden words should be minimised.
I understand there are plenty of people with dyslexia or who struggle with writing, so using apps or speech to text translation can work particularly well.
Also getting other people to proofread before you send it out to the world can help here too, remember people will pick up on things like this and make a judgement.
If you don't care about brand image or how you come across then ignore this point.
Overuse Of I Throughout Your Message
For me, this is the second easiest error to spot when reviewing web copy and marketing materials, the overuse of the letter I along with me, us and we.
Why is this a problem you may be thinking?
Great question!
Because it emphasizes you and not the client or potential client.
At the end of the day, people are always interested to find out what's in it for them, so they don't necessarily want to read words centred around you!
Your Copy Is Too Feature Heavy
Yes it can be informative to list out the features, but I wouldn't focus too much on them as some of our fellow contractors might do.
Spending a few minutes to think about how things may change and what benefits your clients may derive from your trade or service will go a long way in helping you to steer clear of feature-laden words.
The Words Used Don't Speak To Your Ideal Clients
To learn the lingo, we must first know who we're attempting to connect with.
It's fair to say that tech-savvy millennials will resonate differently with words that may have been crafted for a more mature baby boomer-aged prospect, which is why it's important to dial in the details here.
I mean, you could throw it out and there and see what sticks, but you'll be wasting time, money, energy and resources along with potentially alienating your ideal customers in the process.
What would be more helpful is to understand the needs, wants and desires of your ideal clients, then weave this terminology into your written copy.
Now that you have a more thorough understanding of just how impactful your written words can be, it should assist in you producing your own copy for your contracting business.
It may not happen overnight but like anything worth pursuing if you dedicate some time and effort to it then you'll see improvements in how the words read and are interpreted.
Should you still find that you have no desire to learn about his area, don't have the time or would rather just offload this then ping us an email over to me the wizard of words, ideas@alansalter.co.uk