Your marketing copywriting should always be simple.
“My audience is highly educated.”
“Everyone in our industry speaks like this. It’s expected.”
“I want to sound intelligent and complex phrases achieve that.”
“Of course, my customers know what our acronyms mean.”
Those are just a few of the objections I hear from clients when I explain that all their writing must be clear and simple to understand.
Marketing copywriting is a balancing act
If you still think that’s BS, take a look at this diagram.
The more jargon you use in your content, the less your readers will understand. It is that simple. Does complex language make you smart? No. Because no one understands what you have to say.
It’s much smarter to make your message as simple as possible while maintaining accuracy. That means, as a copywriter, I will ask you lots of dumb questions to get down to the information that a novice would understand.
There are other ways to make your content simple.
How to keep your copywriting simple
Tell stories
Using case studies to engage your audience is a great way to keep things simple. They are real-life, engaging stories that show the reader how your product or service has helped other clients.
Of course, you must avoid the use of any jargon.
Be specific
Your reader wants to know why you do what you do. When they know that, they’ll understand how it will make their life easier. The best way to do that is to keep your explanation as simple as possible.
Cut through the jargon
I’m not just talking acronyms here. You also have to eliminate complicated language and distil it into something anyone can understand. For example, instead of using a phrase like customer acquisition and retention, write what you really mean – gaining and keeping loyal customers.
Keep it simple
Your marketing is not there to make you sound intelligent. It’s there to convince your reader that a) you are offering exactly what they need, and b) you are the company they want to deal with.
You’re not going to achieve either of those if your reader can’t understand what you’re talking about.
Sally Ormond, freelance copywriter