Whether you’re a course creator, blogger, or Instagrammer, being a member of the creator economy means writing comes with the territory. From copy to support visual content to crafting the perfect emails to entice your mailing list, there’s virtually no way to escape copywriting. As intimidating as it may seem, they are many tools that can take the edge of writing the perfect messages right at your fingertips. Not to mention, some are entirely free or have free options so you can get your feet wet before committing. 

To help you on your journey to improve your copywriting skills, we’ve created a list of tools that can help you grow your writing chops without too much pressure. Keep reading to learn more.

Tricks and tool to try

Penzu

If you ask a professional writer how they improved their writing abilities, they’re likely to reply they simply got into the habit of writing often. Creating a journal is one way to make writing feel a bit more instinctual versus a daunting task. Of course, in 2022, there are apps for digital journaling if a pen and pad aren’t quite your thing. Penzu is an excellent app for beginners, as the basic features you need for daily journaling are 100% free. 

The great thing about journaling when it comes to improving those copywriting skills is that there aren’t any complex rules. However, you may find it helpful to score the internet for journal writing prompts to get you started. Try committing 10-15 minutes first thing in the morning to make writing a habit. Soon enough, you’ll notice that when it’s time to start writing for the blog or your newsletter, etc., you’ll feel less anxious.

Hemingway Editor

Did you know that people aged 15-45 spend less than 10 minutes per day reading outside of work and school in the US? What that means for you as a creator is that whatever you’re writing has to be captivating.

Hemingway Editor is a great tool that shows you readability (grade level and reading time) to help you write digestible messages. As you write, the editor highlights sentences that may be too complex or you can improve. FYI, if you save your writing in places such as Google Docs or your blog’s CMS, you can also copy and paste it into the editor to get suggestions that way. 

Grammarly

Like the Hemingway Editor, Grammarly’s main objective is to bring clarity to your writing. As you go, the Grammarly plugin corrects simple mistakes such as spelling and grammar. But, it also goes a step further, diving into areas such as tone and even checking for plagiarism. One of the most attractive features of Grammarly is the plugin’s ability to communicate with other platforms such as WordPress, Google Docs, and even your smartphone. No matter where you are writing, Grammarly will be guiding you. 

Pro-tip: The free version of Grammarly will give you basic suggestions for how to improve your copywriting. However, if becoming a wordsmith is a goal for 2022, you may want to look into the premium version (monthly subscription: $30/month, quarterly wubscription: $60 /three months, and annual subscription: $144/one year) that offers more stylistic suggestions to make your writing riveting to readers.

YOAST SEO Plugin

SEO is the key to getting potential students or readers to organically find your course’s landing page or blog on Google. However, ranking on Google doesn’t magically happen. You have to write so that Google can dissect your website and match it with what people are searching for. This means things like having targeted keywords throughout your post, correct headings, properly labeled imagery, and many other things. Instead of keeping a mental checklist, you can use a plugin like YOAST SEO to do the work while writing.

While the free version of the plugin does a great job of walking you through the SEO in your content, the premium version (which is $99) may be worth considering. It allows you to target more than one keyword, gives keyword suggestions, and full access to the Yoast SEO academy for you to learn the ins and outs from the pros.

Pro-tip: YOAST SEO Plugin is specifically designed for WordPress. If you run your site on another platform, it’s worth looking into some tools that may be comparable. 

Thesaurus.com

Writing frequently means that you’ll sometimes find yourself repeating some of the same language. For your readers, this may make them lose interest rather quickly. A great, free way to combat those times when you literally can’t find the words is to use Thesaurus.com to find synonyms for your most overused words. Try to make things feel fresh by getting into the habit of diversifying your vocabulary. 

No matter which of the above tools you opt to use, understanding how to improve your copywriting skills is an important task to check off of your creator to-do list.