5 major causes of confusing Copy and how to avoid them

If you’ve read your copy for your business and felt like you just aren’t getting the right message across or if someone has ever said to you….

“This doesn’t read very well, it’s a bit confusing”

Don’t worry at all. Chances are you may have fallen into one or more of these 6 major causes for confusing copy.

Luckily, I’m here to talk you through them and how to avoid them so you can get straight to editing your copy to help make it more concise.

So let’s hit it off with reason #1

Lengthy Sentences

These become a problem for 2 reasons.

That first reason is that if a sentence is too long, we can forget what the point of the sentence even was. Sounds weird but it’s true. This is because as a sentence goes on, we are holding things in suspense for the conclusion of the sentence. If this goes on too long, well, we forget what that is and must reread it.

The 2nd reason is long sentences are just hard to read. Lots of mental work is going into reading it and you don’t want that when it comes to selling your products and services.

Solution

Sentences that are between 14-16 words are excellent and you should try to achieve this. But second-best is 21 – 25 words.

Cliches

Ahhh the good old cliché. If you are like me and a big football fan you hear them all the time. In fact, that goes for most sports. Whilst clichés in sport are fun, clichés in your sales copy can be bad. This is because a cliché can actually take away a better more original way to describe your product or service. It could also be a cliché that you know but some of your audience has never heard of it. And that leaves them? Yep, Confused.

Solution

Try to think of an original way of saying what you mean or just be specific and say it. Another hot tip is to use client testimonials with quotation marks instead. What better way to rave about a benefit of your product than straight from a client’s mouth?

You’re using to many Big words

A misconception here is that by using bigger words we make ourselves look smarter and more important. However, an argument can be made for writing in a clear easy understanding way. The words most people use in daily interactions. These words are familiar to people, so they understand them. I’m not going to say don’t use bigger words or more interesting ones because it all comes down to one thing. Your audience. If you are writing to an intellectual audience who will understand a certain reference or a joke you should do it but only if you have the confidence you know your audience really well.

Solution  

Don’t eliminate big words or a more intellectual vocabulary if you’re confident your audience can understand you. If you aren’t 100% however and are writing to a lot of different people then go for simple, clear, everyday language.

Technical jargon - Do you really need to?

While we have just spoken about the importance of knowing your audience when it comes to writing certain words. It feels natural to now follow on to technical jargon.

Another way you can confuse your reader is by adding too many industry-specific words or technical jargon. And why does this link to the last heading on big words? Because this rule again is reader-focused. Let’s use computers as an example. Most of us use computers every day and yet know very little about them in terms of technical specifics. For example, the average person when it comes to buying one probably won’t understand such acronyms as SSD hard drive and RAM. Whereas copy aimed at IT professionals in companies digest this type of jargon every day and it’s second nature to them.

Solution
This is our second point where reader focus is very important. Don’t add in jargon you understand if you don’t think your reader is going to understand it. It might make complete sense to you but will only leave your customer confused.

Not getting to the point

If you have nailed your headline – here’s a blog high five. But this is only part of it. Some mistakes I’ve seen are that the copy then just doesn’t get to the point of the biggest selling benefit or big idea. This only confuses the reader as they probably thought they were going to get straight into reading something for them only to be disappointed and will probably give up. If all your good stuff is down the bottom then there’s a good chance it will never be read.

Solution
Track that first paragraph straight off the headline and dive straight into your best selling proposition. Don’t add unnecessary words to explain things to someone who already knows about your topic.

This concludes my 5 major causes of confusing copy.

I hope you found it useful.

For a consultation on how I can help you with your business copy needs. Email me at info@zappycopy.com