See how you can supercharge your copywriting skills with these practical tips to improve your marketing copy for your content marketing.

1. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
How to write engaging copy
Practical tips to improve your written
marketing
Kara Stanford, KMS Marketing

2. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Initial assumptions
I’ve assumed that you:
• Know your audience
• Have determined the response you want
• Have chosen the key message
• Have chosen the right channel
These tool tips are for copy that is
written – apply them to make it
even better.

3. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
A tool you can master

4. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Master that tool!
Well written copy allows your audience to:
• easily understand your meaning
• quickly identify your key points
• remember them
• 7 practical tips for mastering written language

5. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
7 Tips for Mastering Written
Language
1. Be succinct
2. Be positive
3. Clear or fuzzy?
4. Swap we for you
5. Minimise sub-clauses
6. To be or not to be?
7. Spot sneaky repetitions

6. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 1: Be succinct
Your audience:
– is time poor
– skim-reading
– probably on a small
screen
Respect this. Get to the
point.
You want them to:
– understand your
message
– remember it
– follow a call to action.
Make it easy for them.

7. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 2: Be positive
Negative (weak) Positive (strong)
Don’t worry – we’ll take care of it We’ll take care of it
There is not a company in the UK that
has not been affected
All UK companies have been affected
Please don’t hesitate to contact me Do get in touch…
No problem Our pleasure

8. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 3: Clear or fuzzy?
Can you add, “…by me” in there?
Then it’s passive!
Passive (fuzzy) Active (clear)
The excellent marketing report was
written by a Marketing Consultant.
A Marketing Consultant wrote the
excellent report.
All the guest rooms have been styled
and decorated by us.
We styled and decorated all the
guest rooms.
It has been noted that [Person] noted that
The complaint was submitted on… [Person] submitted a complaint on…
It’s broken I broke it (said no child, ever)

9. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 4. Swap we for you
• Highlight “we” or “I”
• Change the sentence round
• Why are you doing that? How does it benefit them?
We You
We offer a bespoke service,
tailored to our customers’
needs.
You want your needs met, so we
offer a bespoke service.
We provide the best in the
market.
You need the best, so we
provide it.

10. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 5. Minimise sub-clauses
“My experience is that, whatever the reason, live
webinars are always fraught with issues, whether it is
technology failing or user error (in many cases it is the
former rather than the latter) or sometimes just bad
luck, so it’s always important to have a contingency
plan.”

11. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 5. Minimise sub-clauses
“My experience is that, whatever the reason, live webinars are
always fraught with issues, whether it is technology failing or
user error (in many cases it is the former rather than the latter)
or sometimes just bad luck, so it’s always important to have a
contingency plan.”
“Live webinars are fraught with issues. I have always
experienced issues of some kind. Typical problems include:
technology failing, user error or just bad luck. It’s important
to have a contingency plan.”
“I’ve seen live webinars go wrong. It’s best to have a
contingency”.

12. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Light relief…
Q. What does Santa call his little helpers?
A. Sub clauses.

13. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 6. To be or not to be?
Weak Strong
When you are submitting a
tender…
When you submit a tender…
We need to be focussing
promotional efforts…
We need to focus promotional
efforts…

14. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 7. Spot sneaky repetitions
Unintentional repetition is boring. Purposeful repetition is powerful.
Unintentional Change to:
Our services are provided with
great customer service and
giving customers what they
need.
We always provide our
customers with great service
while meeting their needs.
Our new innovative product Our new product

15. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Tool tip 7. Spot sneaky repetitions
Unintentional repetition is boring. Purposeful
repetition is powerful.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we
shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with
growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we
shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we
shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing
grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we
shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

16. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
7 Tips for Mastering Written
Language
1. Be succinct
2. Be positive
3. Clear or fuzzy?
4. Swap we for you
5. Minimise sub-clauses
6. To be or not to be?
7. Spot sneaky repetitions

17. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
To check what you’ve written
YoastSEO WordPress plugin

18. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
To write better:
The Plain English Campaign:
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

19. @KaraKMS
Kara Stanford
Your questions!
Thank you…
Over to you now.