Day: June 7, 2021

If there is a process, an automation, or an easier way of doing something, then people will do it. Why? Because people naturally do not want to do more work than is required. 

Makes sense. 

Copywriting isn’t an easy task – even for us professionals. 

It requires creativity, effort, strategy, and time. 

That’s why many companies either hire a copywriting team like FocusCopy or avoid writing any copy at all. If it’s the latter, then they are usually so consumed in their business because they need to speak every word of copy. That also usually indicates that they are not able to grow their business beyond a certain point. 

Thankfully, there are a couple of tools that speed up the process (even by a couple of minutes). Before we get into the copywriting tools we use, what’s the copywriting process without any aids? 

What The Copywriting Process Is Like Without Tools

Without copywriting aids, this is what a general copywriting process looks like:

• At least 1-2 hours of meetings per deliverable to capture knowledge and brand voice
• High potential for writer’s block because staring at a blank page is the worst thing you can do for copywriting
• At least 30 minutes of research for copy deliverable
• Multiple rounds of revisions from the approver (whether that’s you or someone else)

Depending on what you’re writing and how quick you are at reviewing, the review alone can take 1-2 hours (if you stay focused).

However, once you implement a process that works and use the tools that you know can help, you’re on the right path to great copy.

It may sound more complicated than it really is.

And you may be asking, “where do I even find those tools?”

The good news is that we’ve (pretty much) tried them all over the years, and we have our favorites right here.

Tools You Need In Your Copy Toolkit To Write Effective Copy

As professional copywriters, we want to share what we have in our copy toolkit to write effective copy. 

Hemingway App

This is not your basic Microsoft Word spell check. The Hemingway App does so much more and makes it easy for you to follow along while writing and editing your work.

If you’ve ever struggled to read through and fix items in your own writing, know that you aren’t alone. In fact, we have our own internal process to ensure we’re viewing each piece with fresh eyes before hitting “Send.”

The Hemingway App helps by going through your writing and highlighting issues such as:

• Grammar
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Complex sentence structure
• Passive voice and more

You can get the Hemingway Online Editor for free OR buy the Hemingway App for a one-time purchase of $19.99.

Yoast SEO

Writing tools are great. But there’s more to creating good content than spell check apps. Yoast SEO is a search engine optimization plugin that works with WordPress. With an estimated 64 million websites using WordPress, chances are Yoast SEO could benefit you, too. 

Using Yoast SEO helps your website show up to the audience base you really want. And it can get more viewers from Bing and Google than you would have otherwise. Also, it can help increase engagement with your audience and get more visitors from social media platforms.

There are a ton of free courses available for you to learn SEO and so much more. Yoast SEO offers a free and paid version of its services for businesses and websites of all sizes.

WordHippo

Have you ever had a hard time coming up with a word or phrase for something you know is at the tip of your tongue? Maybe you didn’t have your morning cup of joe like you usually do. You might have even skipped out on your routine yoga session and now your whole day is thrown off. 

These scenarios make WordHippo the perfect pal to have when your brain is feeling a little on the foggy side. The best part about it? You can work off fragments of a thought, plug it in, and see what comes up. Usually, it knows where your thought process is heading and can fill in the gaps when you’re not so sure.

WordHippo is one of the best online applications to help you find the right word or phrase you’re searching for. But it’s also good for creative writing and has other useful tools, including:

• A thesaurus
• Translations
• Rhymes
• Definitions
• Antonyms
• Synonyms 
• And more!

Discover more and greater words here. 

Google Docs

A tried and true classic, Google Docs comes with its own toolkit for spelling and grammar checks. It highlights and catches basic mistakes you might make as you write. This can help you clean up your writing, make it more clear, and easier to follow.

In addition, gone are the days of emailing warped or incorrect docs back and forth. You can also bid adieu to crashed servers and lost files. Google docs is a fantastic way to draft and share your docs as needed without all of the confusion. And since it lives in the cloud, it auto saves your work as you go. Features like link sharing, viewing edit history, and comments ensure your team is working in sync every step of the way.

Brand Voice Guide

When you know you need to get going on your website copy but don’t know where to start, we have just the thing.

Consider creating a Brand Voice Guide that defines the exact voice, tone, and messaging your business needs. Here’s the truth… If you have no idea how your business should sound or who it needs to speak to, you’ll never have quality copy that gets customers to your front door.

A Brand Voice Guide (which you can create yourself) is the key to producing future copy that gets others excited about what you do and why you do it. 

And hey! If you don’t have the time or don’t feel comfortable writing your own Brand Voice Guide, we get it! As a business owner or manager, you have a million other things going on and you simply don’t have anything else to give to your company’s writing. Call in the experts with the creative know-how, and we’ll get one started for you.

Other Tools

We know we didn’t list all of the tools out there to help sharpen up your copywriting skills. These are the ones we find most helpful, but we’re aware that everyone has their own style and flair for writing. Feel free to comment below ones that we should consider or others who are writing should consider.

Have a writing to-do list you need taken care of? Contact us for more information about writing for your business.