7 Tech Copywriting Errors That Hurt Sales & Make Baby Penguins Cry

ERROR 1: COPYING COMPETITORS

What to do instead:

Stop doing it. Trust yourself and, more importantly, trust what your customers are telling you. This is where great copywriting research comes in.

Also, I recommend recording all the homepage messaging used by your competitors in a single sheet so you can see it all side-by-side. This helps you identify which messages have become overused in your space. You’ll be surprised by what you find!

ERROR 2: LACKING EMPATHY

Few marketers take the time to answer these questions, which is why so many websites use vague statements like: ‘Get more leads’ or ‘save time and money’. That stuff is far too general (we’ll get to this shortly). Instead, you want copy that makes your prospects think: ‘Hey, these guys get me!.”

What to do instead:

Your copy will tank without empathy. Show your audience you get how they’re struggling and then prove — with beautiful specificity — that you have the best solution for their problem.

Start by doing research to uncover the buyer situations that motivate your best-fit customers to act (academics call these Category Entry Points). For example, Savvycal does a great job positioning itself from Calendly by showing how it understands the way their audience feels about the market leader:

ERROR 3: RELYING ON OVERUSED TEMPLATES

The <adjective> way to <get result>

For some reason, this overused headline template is almost always paired with one of the most overused words in tech and startup copywriting: easy. (or easiest, in the examples below).

Quite the pattern, huh?

Now, copywriting templates aren’t a bad thing in general. But many of them have become so overused (and in a lazy way) that brands are saying the exact same things over and over again. And that reduces your copy — and your messaging — to a useless pile of marketing noise.

What to do instead:

Sure, get inspiration from the classic headline formulas that are out there. And if you find one that best conveys the value proposition for your business, go ahead and make it your own. But PLEASE first analyze your direct and indirect competitors’ messaging to make sure you’re not saying the same stuff as everyone else.

You can also try using some templates that haven’t been done to death. Here are a few I like:

The problem solver:

{what the user wants to do} shouldn’t be {barrier to doing it}

Example: Business planning shouldn’t be complicated.

The big ass benefit:

{verb} + {desired outcome for the user}
(use this one sparingly, see #4 below)

Example: Build Better Products

The segmenter:

The {product category} for {target audience}

Example: Task manager for small teams

ERROR 4: LEADING WITH VAGUE STATEMENTS

Big benefits with zero proof: I blame all the amateur-made copywriting courses for this one.

Some poor misguided folks often talk about how you should ALWAYS focus on benefits over features. They’ll go on to say dumb stuff like:

“What’s the biggest, broadest, most life-changing thing we can say about your product? Lead with that! That’s your main homepage message!”

Yeah, it’s not that simple. So brands end up with broad, say-nothing messages like the ones in the graphic above. They’re trying to communicate too much to everyone at once.

It’s good to include levels of benefits in your copy, mixing features and advantages. And in some cases leading with a high-level benefit might make sense — like if you’re the clear leader in your product category and/or you have quantifiable proof to back up your lofty claim. But for the majority of tech companies, it comes across as meaningless fluff.

All mission, zero substance: your homepage is not an investor pitch deck. And it’s not a tagline either.

Be specific about how you solve a problem, rather than using general statements on where you’d like your company to be in 10 years. Your audience doesn’t care about your plans for global domination — they just want a faster printer.

What to do instead:

Craft copy that makes your audience say: “Hey, they know exactly what I’m going through right now!” This comes to down to what I covered in Error #2 as well — understand what your ideal customer’s problem really looks like and convey the unique way your solution solves it.

For example, if you know your ideal customer is struggling with keeping track of all their user requests and product feedback, this might be the ideal copy to use:

No, it’s not life-changing. And it isn’t something that would impress investors. But for a person who’s struggling with a very specific problem, it just might be the message that will motivate them to give your solution a shot.

ERROR 5: UNBELIEVABLE TESTIMONIALS

Social proof — like testimonials — can backfire. Easily, in fact.

For example, a lot of folks now realize that using a testimonial like this will often do more harm than good:

What to do instead:

If you have an endorsement from someone your audience is likely to be familiar with — like a celebrity or authority figure — that testimonial will be 10X more believable because it’s less likely to be fraudulent. But not every tech company has those available, especially startups.

Fortunately, you can amp up the believability of your testimonials by using verified reviews or embedded social media posts. These use the credibility of a third party to decrease the potential suspicious nature of that glowing endorsement.

ERROR 6: LACKING PERSONALITY (OR HUMANITY)

Enterprise software is the worst for this. Check out this example:

So terrible question headline aside, this homepage hero copy feels dull and lifeless for three main reasons:

1. the subhead is one painfully long sentence
2. it uses cliched phrases like ‘data-driven decisions’ and ‘any place, any time’
3. It sounds robotic (I’m guessing it was written by ‘committee’)

What to do instead:

Okay, I’m not suggesting you go all crazy with your brand voice (although, it may not be a bad idea). Your insurance software probably shouldn’t talk like an edgy, over-caffeinated pop-culture fiend.

“We’ve got more features than Charlie Sheen has DUIs!”

But your brand should at the very least sound human. Use simple sentences. Tone down the jargon. Don’t be afraid of starting sentences with conjunctions like ‘and’ or ‘but’. And most of all, read your copy out loud: if you wouldn’t say it to someone in person, it’s not human enough.

Here’s a great example from Walnut.io that balances professionalism with a humorous personality:

Now, maybe your brand isn’t funny — that’s totally fine. Be wholesome, high-energy or super-humble in your copy if it works for you. Just sound like a freakin’ human being.

ERROR 7: NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES

Why do so many tech companies copy their competitors?

Or use worn-out copy templates?

Or write dull copy that’ll put even the most motivated prospect to sleep?

Fear.

Fear of taking any chances whatsoever with their copy and messaging, so they end up going with what feels safe: dull, risk-free text that doesn’t say anything unique.

This type of boring, formulaic copy is why 71% of ads studied by the LinkedIn-backed B2B Institute were likely to generate no sales.

Now, I’m certainly not advocating that you do crazy stuff all willy nilly — every marketing decision you make should be supported by research and data. But don’t let fear hold you back.

Take calculated risks. Test different approaches. And then learn and iterate from there.

For example, I included a reference to sobbing baby penguins in the headline for this article. It’s completely irrelevant to what I’m writing about, but I did it anyway for two reasons:

1. It’s on-brand for CopyGuide
2. It’s different from all the usual ‘mistakes’ articles out there.