Writing short form copy is hard: 5 things we’ve learnt when approaching it

Short form copy can take a long time to get right.

Here at Copestone, our website is undergoing a long-overdue process of redesign. And what does that mean for us copywriters? That’s right, reviewing a lot of our website copy.

As part of our review, we’ve been having meetings as a team to come up with the short form copy for our new website. Whether that’s a tagline on the homepage or titles for the landing pages, these meetings have been vital to settle on the final version. And it’s made us realise something: writing short form copy is hard!

Here we explore some of the things we’ve learnt along the way.

Short form versus long form copy 

Short form copy typically refers to content that is less than 1,000 words. Anything over this amount becomes long form copy. While long form copy is a chance to provide readers with detailed information, short form copy is about engaging an audience and delivering a message quickly. Usually, content written in this form will sacrifice in-depth information in favour of creating something that is quick and easy to read. Short form copy can also be created to boost your search engine ranking or flag your company’s key words.

Short form copy can include short blog posts, social media content, emails, advertisements, webpage copy, and infographics. Content such as whitepapers, instruction guides, or in-depth blogs are not short form content.

So why use short form copy?

A lot of the marketing content we consume daily is short form copy, whether that’s an advertisement on the bus or social media posts. A lot of the time, we don’t even notice we’re reading it. Or better still, it pulls us in for more. This is the sign of a well-written piece of short form content.

Copy of this kind should be quick to read, easy to consume, and engaging. It should leave audiences clear of its purpose.

These days, so much of the content we consume is from our phone. People are increasingly time-poor, and so content needs to be easily accessible on the go.

Social media content is a great example of short form copy, and you don’t need us to tell you how vital this form of marketing is to businesses in the current digital landscape.

Writing short form copy can be challenging 

You may have heard the famous quote: ‘I’d have written a shorter letter if I’d only had the time.’

Granted, we’re not writing many letters anymore, but the point remains.

Short form copy requires you to be economical with words, while still getting across the point you want to communicate. In a long form blog post or a whitepaper, you might have three or four pages to capture an idea. In a social media post, you may only have a sentence to do this.

With fewer words to communicate your point, the words you use become extremely valuable. This can mean fiercely re-writing one sentence or reordering just a few words to get it right.

For some writers, producing short form copy is a challenge they thrive upon. For others, it can be deeply frustrating. After spending a lot of time recently trying to squeeze big ideas into a small piece of copy, we’ve learnt some of these tips.

Writing short form copy? Here are 5 things we’ve learnt 

1. Take your time. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that coming up with a couple of sentences will take you no time at all. Fewer words doesn’t mean less writing time. Set aside space for rewrites. Your short form copy won’t be perfect the first time you write it. In fact, likelihood is it won’t even be perfect the tenth time you write it. Short form copy benefits from many redrafts and your biggest mistake will be not leaving room for this.

2. Have a clear goal. Short form copy is meant to be quick to read, easy to understand, and engaging to your audience. Sounds obvious? You’d be surprised how often writers miss the mark. For your content to achieve in these areas, you’ve got to be focussed on the goal. What do you want your audience to do once they’ve read your content? Visit a landing page? Sign up to a newsletter? Pick up the phone? If you’re having trouble, write a call to action (CTA) first. This will help you focus the rest of your copy.

3. Find people to bounce off. If you spend too long staring at the same words, eventually they’ll lose all meaning. To avoid this, try and write as a team. If you can’t do that, then ask people to check what you’ve written. Note their response. Discuss their opinions on it. Compare it with their own ideas. With short form copy it’s important to have as many people read it as possible before you settle on a final version.

4. Prioritise. You’ll never be able to get everything you want to say into your copy. If you’re writing an email promoting your latest product or coming up with a brand statement for your website’s homepage, the urge will be to get as much information in as you can. Being brutal with short form copy can be hard – trust us, we know. However, the trick is to create copy that leads the audience on to find out more.

5. Use design. A limit on words can provide good opportunity for design. Research shows that visual representation of information and data can increase engagement enormously. To find out more, check out last week’s blog on using infographics to engage your audience.  

If you need someone to write content for your brand or you’re interested in developing a content marketing strategy, contact us today. We are always happy to meet face to face or virtually.

If you need support to write engaging, audience-driven content for your B2B brand or agency, contact Copestone today.