Need Better Copy? Start with a Copy Audit

High bounce rates. Low conversion rates. Next-to-no engagement. When experiencing this kind of copy nightmare, most people jump instantly to a full rewrite, which can be time-consuming and costly. Before you set virtual fire to your copy and start afresh, there is a simple and more affordable solution: a copy audit.

A copy audit can help you quickly figure out what you’re doing wrong and what you need to do to fix it – helping you improve readability, nail your tone of voice, and increase conversions without a major rewrite.

Not sure you need one? Let’s find out…

Is your copy costing you clients?

Take a close look at your website analytics and key engagement metrics, and ask yourself: is my copy performing as well as I’d like?

If you’re staring at high bounce rates and low conversion rates despite having a decent amount of organic traffic, something’s going wrong with your copy.

You might be dealing with common issues like:

❌ Inconsistent tone of voice: when your tone varies across pages or platforms, it can confuse or alienate your audience

❌ Weak Calls to Action (CTAs): if you’re not effectively guiding your audience to the right course of action, or bombarding them with too many, they’re not going to take the next step

❌ Too much jargon: being too specific with industry jargon can confuse people who aren’t in the know

❌ Unclear copy: if your target audience can’t quickly figure out who you are, what you do, and how you do it, they’re not going to stick around

❌ No social proof: people want to see reviews, testimonials, and other types of social proof to prove that you’re trustworthy

❌ Features over benefits: telling people what you do is important, but you also need to make it clear how and why it helps them

❌ Typos & grammatical errors: sloppy writing can instantly label you as ‘lazy’ and ‘unprofessional’ to potential customers

And that’s not even all of the mistakes you could be making with your copy (not to make you panic or anything 😬).

Now, you could get someone to rewrite the whole thing for you, but it could be costly, especially if you’re actually working with a relatively solid base that’s just in need of some cleaning up.

Here’s where a copy audit comes into play.

What is a copy audit (and how does it work)?

A copy audit is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a comprehensive review of existing copy or content that pinpoints key weaknesses, potential opportunities, and easily actionable changes.

Depending on the audit in question, you can get the following reviewed:

• Full website copy or specific pages (home, about, services, landing pages etc.)
• Blog posts
• LinkedIn content
• Emails
• Sales-focused copy
• Internal copy (branding guidelines, tone of voice etc.)

The right copy audit will help you optimise your copy so that you’re doing more of what’s working well for you, and waving goodbye to the silly mistakes that are costing you business.

Even better, an audit tends to be faster and cheaper than a full rewrite, which is great if you’re mostly happy with what you’ve got so far.

How do I know if I need a copy audit?

It’s always easier for a third party to come in and tell you what’s wrong with your copy than it is for you to do it yourself.

Even when you’re looking at a list of common issues (like the ones mentioned earlier), it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees. So, how do you know if it’s really time to commit to an audit?

• You’re procrastinating over your copy and can’t find the motivation to finish it
• You’re tearing your hair out and hate every single word that you’ve written
• You can’t understand why the copy doesn’t sound like you
• You feel like your copy is good, but it could be better

If you’re not happy with your copy, an audit can give you the full clarity you need to find your voice and create copy that actually engages and converts your audience.

Why should I get a copy audit instead of a full rewrite?

Copy audits aren’t always the right solution for everyone. If you genuinely believe that you’ve completely f*cked up your tone of voice, messaging, CTAs, and everything but the kitchen sink, then yeah…a full rewrite is probably for the best (see this full website copy package if this sounds a bit too familiar 😉).

But, if you do opt for an audit, you get:

✔️ Quick wins: you get a full outline of clear, actionable improvements that need to be made, and know exactly what it is you’re getting right so you can keep doing it (woo!)

✔️ Top-to-bottom insights: from your tone of voice and messaging to your target audience and services, you get a full commentary from a professional wordsmith

✔️ Scalability: if you decide you need to redo your entire copy further down the line, you can use the audit as a roadmap to figure out what you need to do next

✔️ More for your money: full web copy can be expensive depending on your chosen copywriter, whereas an audit is cheaper and only focuses on what needs to change instead of the whole thing

What happens after a copy audit?

So, what’s next for you once you’ve got your audit in hand?

Well, unless you ended up with a particularly cruel copywriter who has all but called you a complete disappointment (in which case, feel free to sob to your heart’s content…and maybe leave them a bad review), you can hit the ground running and start making changes according to their advice.

Obviously, that’s easier said than done for some people. If you’re happy with the advice you’ve been given, but don’t know where to start, you can hire a freelance copywriter to make these specific revisions for you.

Get a copy audit and start converting

Small changes can give you big, measurable results, and that’s exactly what the Crying Over Copy copy audit does.

Whether you’re looking for audits on a retainer basis for regular blog posts, LinkedIn posts, and client work, or one-off copy audits for web copy and the like, this is the cost-effective copy fix.

You’ll get:

🔥 Everything from headlines and CTAs to overall flow and structure issues, all discussed in comprehensive feedback

🔥 Example changes to take your copy from meh to f*ckkkkk yeah (it’s not a full rewrite, but most of us need contextual examples to understand feedback, right?)

🔥 A nice overview of your current copy and what you’re doing well and key areas for improvement – it’s like the study abstract

🔥 A to-do list so you don’t have a menty-b due to overwhelm when it comes time to implement the changes

Still on the fence? Check out some happy copy audit reviews below:

Fill out the contact form to take the next steps or send over your details to grace.hall@cryingovercopy.com to get the ball rolling with your copy audit today!

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