COPY THAT — ALL ABOUT BRAND WRITING
How lack of copy hygiene can delete the delight
Hygiene in copywriting can be a deal-maker (or breaker). Here are 4 ways in which I maintain high standards of copy hygiene
Every time I see a great brand with a stunning piece of marketing collateral accompanied by a beautifully conceptualised copy, it moves me, makes me stop and appreciate it for a moment. (Delight)
But then when I see the copywriter messed up with things like ‘everyday’ and ‘every day’, or 4 Oct 2022 and OCTOBER 4, 2022, or the notorious ‘it’s’ and ‘its’, a part of that initial delight gets sucked out into an abyss and gets, well, deleted. (Delight deleted)
I cannot stress enough on how language hygiene or the lack of it, can be a deal-breaker even when you have nailed the concept, and the copy has the reader delighted at first.
So what can you do to maintain high standards of content hygiene?
Here are the top 4 ways in which I like to do it.
1. Use only one kind of English (UK or US)
High-quality is synonymous with consistency. So, first of all, decide whether your brand content must follow the US English or the UK English. You can also use both depending on whether you’re writing for a particular geography. When in doubt, about a word, a spelling, its usage, etc. refer only to trusted sources like: Lexico (good for English UK), Merriam-Webster (good for English US).
2. Stick to any ONE style guide
There are many style guides out there — Associated Press Stylebook, Chicago Manual, The New York Times Style Guide, The Economist Style Guide — pick the one that addresses and covers the points that are most relevant to your business content. When you’re not sure about something, the slightest comma, the end quotes, the smallest article (you get the drift), your stylebook IS your guiding light by default. Sticking to it will make your copy / content cohesive across several years and writers.
3. Make a basic checklist
When given a piece of copy / content, don’t just glance over everything over and over again. Streamline your own editing process by making a checklist that best suits your style of working. Among other things like checking grammar, clauses, articles, date, time, designation formats, etc. this checklist must involve going through every insanely minute detail of the copy (first in the Word format) and then at its final production stage where it may be used / published, for example, on a website, inside an email, on a printed brochure, etc.
My usual checklist goes like this:
> Read the entire copy / content at one go. Experience it in its entirety first before falling for the impulse to tweak words or entire structures right from the onset. There is something charming about the natural flow of the first draft. Make sure you feel it so when you edit, you don’t end up getting rid of the essence of the copy.
> Once the first reading is done, I slowly go through each and every sentence from the beginning, using the control and next arrow key, with my eyes wide open, I minutely proofread every insane detail, including things which may not be part of the ‘write-up’ and may be part of the graphic design, the date / time stamps, or say, the bread crumbs on a webpage, or the elements of an android phone screen if it’s an app I am writing for.
> My editing process is simple: keep the sentences short and pacy. Make no extra concessions on adjectives, especially remove the ones that add no progression to the story. A few clauses are okay but break long sentences into shorter and simpler ones. Make sure all the articles are correctly placed (This was a real struggle when I had just started as a writer).
> Check all the grammar and the spellings adhere to the type of English your brand communication guidelines prescribe.
> If something in the copy can be said differently to add stickiness recall or to add the beauty of poetry, a delightful alliteration, or it can be said with a funny analogy, say it differently. Nobody actually reads advertisements but a catchy pun or a punchy headline can actually get eyeballs and the absolute delight from its readers.
> Lastly: it’s all in the headline. Headlines have the power to make or break a deal. Most people don’t read beyond a headline or a subject line (in case of an emailer), or the cover page (if it’s a magazine / brochure). So make sure your headline does its job well. Like one of the greatest advertising writers, Howard Luck Gossage said, “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them; and sometimes it’s an ad.”
4. Test everything
Once you’re done with proofreading and editing the copy till its very end, make sure you test every link, every graphic, every little detail of the collateral (be it a web page, an emailer, a printed brochure — basically, the artefact where your copy is going to be used). If it’s in print, make sure it’s clearly readable on the actual print. If it’s going on the website, make sure the copy’s UI is glitch-free. If it’s going as a digital ad with a link, make sure the link is working fine. Basically, your job doesn’t end at writing and editing. It includes ensuring that the delivery of your copy (digital or print) and its user experience is seamless and bug-free. This means, you will have to liaise with the graphic designer or the web developer to ensure the end result of the entire execution is error-free.
A note from yours truly
I have started creating content on LinkedIn where I talk about content strategy, copywriting, branding, design and UX writing. I want to leverage Medium as my long-form blog and LinkedIn as my professional network where I can share bite-sized insights on copywriting and connect them to this blog if they wish to deep dive. To package it as a recurring content asset that gets published every weekend on my profile, I decided to call it ‘Copy That’ — all about brand writing. Here’s the first look of my post (see below).
Like it? Don’t like it much? Whatever it is, I would be happy to read your thoughts, feedback or simply share the love for writing in the comments section!
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