A Professional Copywriter’s Tricks for Editing Your Copy
One of the greatest assets you have for writing your brand’s copy (words for your Instagram, your website copy, your sales funnels, etc) is your brain.
On the flip side, one of the greatest roadblocks you have for writing your brand’s copy is – you guessed it – your brain.
And that’s not to discourage you – it’s got a lot less to do with your capabilities as a writer and a ton more to do with how your brain is designed.
In my recent free email series, AI is Garbage: What You Can Do About It (which you can actually still get for free right here), I talked at length about the differences in the creative brain part of writing versus the editing part of writing.
LIL KEY TAKEAWAYS: THIS BLOG AT A GLANCE
Your brain is pulling double duty when you write – creating and judging – which is exactly why you get stuck. Separate the two.
Writing first and editing later is how you actually give yourself better options to work with.
Editing isn’t one thing – it’s layers. Start with message and meaning, then move to voice, then to grammar, then to polish.
Strong copy is about sounding like you and making sense to them.
If your audience can’t repeat back what you meant, your copy isn’t clear yet (no matter how “good” it sounds).
When in doubt: read it out loud. Your ears will catch what your eyes (and brain) gloss over every time.
Brain Things & Copywriting Things: Why You Should Write First and Edit Later
Here’s the reality of being a human being: sometimes we get SO caught up on a phrase or a word or an idea that we simply cannot let it go.
Even if it’s not a very good word, phrase, or idea. But because we can’t let it go, we don’t give our brains the space needed to think up more (better!) words or phrases or ideas that could help connect with our people. Our brains are truly incredible, but sometimes it’s like we have limited RAM (space) in our heads. And because we’re so afraid to let that old idea go (because what if it actually IS the one?!), we can’t actually come up with any other words.
When we’re writing, our brains are trying to do 2 things simultaneously:
Generate Ideas
Judge Ideas
We’re supposed to create and edit all at once, but we don’t always do a great job of that. Let’s say you create a tagline for a new offer. You can tell it’s not THE tagline, but it could be edited to work better.
Here’s how the problem starts:
You want to try other ideas
But you don’t want to forget that idea
Your brain holds onto it and brainstorms
But you end up spiraling because you can’t hold onto it and brainstorm
So, then you get stuck.
Then that OG idea loops and repeats forever in your head until maybe you completely give up on it, or maybe you resort to using ChatGPT or Claude to write things for you.
(P.S., if you’re trying to lean less on AI when you’re writing words for your brand, I’ve got a blog that shares a simple, fast framework for getting back to being the author of your brand’s words).
All of that makes the writing process a lot more complicated.
The best way to tackle writing for your brain? Write (create!) first, edit after.
A Professional Copywriter’s Tips for Editing: My Five Fave Editing Modes for Refining Your Words
The problem with splitting the “writing process” into two separate phases – creating and then editing – is that most of us don’t really know what it means to edit.
I typically break my editing process into a few different modes, starting with messaging-type edits and then moving to the technical side of things (grammar, spelling, etc.).
Here’s the biggest takeaway I want you to glean from this editing blog: nothing is perfect, but you can get your work closer than it would have been if you just tacked a little extra strategic editing into your writing process.
If you want to make sure you’re as proud as possible of your final product copy (AKA, the words you’re putting out there in the ether), try these editing modes before you hit publish or send.
The “Does this Sound Like My Brand?” Edit
Take a peek at the words you wrote. Does it sound like you? Is it your sticky brand voice?
Or does it sound like someone else in your industry? Someone you want to emulate, but sounds a bit off from your normal tone?
We tend to lean into how other people talk about the same stuff we’re talking about (especially if they’re successful!). And while you can learn from these people, it’s important to remember that your voice is the neon welcome sign that lights up for your ideal people.
If you read something and it sounds like someone else wrote it … that’s how your people are going to feel, too. They may not recognize and connect with it (or you).
My advice? Consult your brand voice guide and your brand voice dictionary to refresh what your brand sounds like and what it says. Are you including your go-to language in what you’re writing? Are you referring to everything as you refer to it?
→ A few quick resources to help you with your sticky brand voice
3 Things to Know About Sticky Brand Voice: Quick blog (with videos embedded!) teaching you three must-knows about curating a sticky brand voice
Brand Voice Bootcamp: a free week-long email challenge that takes your voice from blaaah to bold (but also walks you through the boring then sticky brand voice part!)
Brand Voice Roundup teaches you how to build your custom brand voice guide AND use it time and again to show up in your sticky lil brand voice.
The “Does This Make Sense to My Audience?” Edit
In other words, are the things you’re writing going to click with the particular audience on the other end of your words (IG caption, sales page, website, etc.) – not just to you.
This means it should be free of jargon, sales lingo, and industry words that might go over your ideal audience's head. If you think you’re being too vague or too “expert” about something, you probably are.
It’s important to remember that you are an expert in your field – but the people who are receiving your services aren’t. That’s why you exist! They may be seeking solutions you can give them, but it’s unlikely they talk about their problems and their desires in the same way someone at your level does.
You need to check yourself every step of the way and make sure you’re communicating in a way that hits with them, for wherever they’re at.
I usually call this the Penthouse Problems and Groundfloor Feels issue – you’re way up high on the rooftop of something, but your people are at the ground floor. If you don’t get down to their level, no amount of shouting is going to reach them. You’ve got to get in the elevator, hit the L button, and shoot down to where they’re at to really connect with them.
I also can’t move away from this editing mode without mentioning the features vs. feelings phenomenon. When we talk to our people, we need to appeal to their feelings – we don’t necessarily need to prattle on about how many modules our course is or how many payment plans we can do (features).
People do care about the features of an offer, but not nearly as much as they care about the potential transformation your offer can give them – speak to the feeling of things first and foremost.
→ Here are a few quick resources to help you with this editing mode:
Penthouse Problems vs Groundfloor Feelings:An easy way to question if you’re talking to your people about stuff they care about or speaking at an expert-only level.
Feelings vs Features: A blog with all the feeling details! Remember, your people care about their transformation, not the tech-y details. Are you talking about feelings?
The “Send to My Most Honest Friend” Edit
Sometimes you’ve just been looking at something for too dang long and can’t spot the issues. You also might just be too dang close to something to realize that you’re speaking at a higher level or talking about things your audience doesn’t really care about.
My best advice for direct feedback on something you wrote (especially when you can’t seem to get your own set of fresh eyes) is to:
Send something you wrote to a bluntly honest friend and then
Ask them to tell you what it’s all about.
If they can’t parrot back to you what you really want to express, your words might need some work for clarity’s sake.
Bonus advice: Send your words to someone outside of your specific industry. Truly ask your friend for their feedback – not in the “would you buy this” way, but in the “did you get this, way?
The “Read it Out Loud…No, seriously.” Edit
Sometimes things sound good when we type them out, but then read so weird when we speak them out loud. Our brains play tricks on us when we’re writing – especially when we’re trying really hard. The easiest way to skip past the “this is so weird” word issue is to literally read everything you wrote out loud.
If something trips you up, change it. If something is nonsense, change it. If the rhythm of something just sounds weird, change it.
If you’re skipping this step (which, full disclosure, I never ever skip this one), you could be sending out words that are confusing and muddy. Reading out loud helps you figure out the rhythm of what you’re saying, spot issues with your messaging (is it confusing?), and, as a bonus, shows you grammar and typo issues.
The “Tried & True Grammar and Spelling and Proofreading” Edit
Now that you’ve gone through the messaging and brand voice edits, you can tackle the more traditional edit modes – your grammar, your spelling, your syntax, your “what the heck was I trying to say here” sort of stuff. My best advice for tackling this falls into two camps:
For the love of everything, read your words out loud. You can even read things out of order so you don’t get lost in the rhythm of your paragraphs – just try to take every sentence at face value so that you can focus on the technical stuff, not the feeling stuff.
Don’t sleep on spell check or Grammarly. If you’re like me, you don’t know everything. I’m a professional copywriter, and I’m extremely spelling and grammar-savvy, but I’m not perfect. I lean heavily on Grammarly to catch my slip-ups and errors.
Consult the *loud gasp* AI model of your choice: I’m not big on using AI for writing, but I don’t hate it for proofreading-style things. Go ahead, ask ChattyGPT or Claude what spelling or grammar is wrong and let it correct you.
Need Help Refining Your Words? Professional Copy Audits at Your Service
It’s my firm belief that, with those tips, anyone can refine and refresh their words so they’re operating at their best (and packing the most punch). But if you ever want help with refining your words, I highly recommend booking a copy audit to get a professional copywriter’s eyes on your stuff.
A copy audit worth its salt won’t just proofread your word, it’ll go through your work with a fine-tooth comb and work through all those editing modes for you. Want to chat about a copy audit?
