1. Hype. I strongly advise online businesses to make the strongest claims about their products and services that they can honestly deliver. But remember, big claims demand big proof.
The excessive use of exclamation points, generic adjectives (e.g. “awesome” or “epic”) and hard-to-believe promises (like anything in the “get rich quick” category) can scare away more prospects then they attract.
2. Clichés. While it’s important to talk to your customers in language that resonates with them, clichés can hurt the effectiveness of your copy. They may be evidence of laziness and a lack of creativity on the part of the writer.
Visitors to your website are looking for a new solution to their problem. It’s essential that your offering is clearly differentiated from the competition. Clichés often blend in rather than stand out.
3. Obviously ripped-off copy. This is a major turn-off. Your potential customers do a lot of research; they shop around. If they see the same sales copy on 2 or 3 or 6 different websites, their chances of buying are low.
4. Unfocused writing. Find out what your customers want. Then show/tell them why you’re uniquely qualified to help them get it. Drive that point home.
Going off on unrelated tangents is usually a bad idea.
5. Being boring. I can’t say it any more clearly than one of the forefathers of modern advertising, Claude Hopkins:
“Always bear these facts in mind. People are hurried. The average person worth cultivating has too much to read. They skip three-fourths of the reading matter, which they pay to get. They are not going to read your business talk unless you make it worth their while and let the headline show it.
“People will not be bored in print. They may listen politely at a dinner table to boasts and personalities, life history etc. But in print they choose their own companions, their own subjects. They want to be amused or benefited. They want economy, beauty, labor savings, good things to eat and wear.”
6. Selling too many things. Studies have proven time after time that too many choices lead to paralysis. Visitors can’t click your Buy Now button with a paralyzed finger. Sell one thing at a time.
If you have several products or services, make it as simple as possible for visitors to immediately find what they’re looking for.
7. Too many mistakes. Run-on sentences, spelling and grammar errors, and overall lack of attention to detail can ruin a sale. They show a lack of professionalism (that’s a nice way of saying mistakes can make you look really dumb).
It always helps to have a second pair of eyes to proofread. There’s also software that will read the text out loud, Sometimes you can hear the mistakes you missed visually.
8. Talking over your reader’s head. Using technical jargon, big or obscure words or complicated sentence structures will alienate readers. Why should the reader have to work hard to understand what youre saying? If your competitor enables his customers to read and buy without having to think too hard, who do you think will get more sales?
This is by no means a comprehensive list. But anyone who follows this advice will save themselves from a lot of problems with the copy on their websites.