How To Simplify Your Copy For More Accessibility & Sales
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I work with professional service providers: often coaches, therapists, financial pros, and attorneys. My clients are smart! They often have credentials and degrees to prove it, too.
They’re not bad writers! Smart people like my clients have been trained to write in a world that rewards complexity. They’ve written things like dissertations, journal articles, corporate memos, and books.
As a result of being experts in their fields, when they write their websites and emails, a lot of the copy is genuinely difficult to read.
But when they became entrepreneurs, they head to learn how to write marketing copy… and that’s a whole new ball game.
In this post and accompanying podcast episode, I’m going to tell you:
Facts about functional illiteracy, and why it’s relevant even if your clients are smart like mine
Why if your copy is hard to read, people won’t buy from you
How to simplify your copy so that people click on and buy from your marketing copy
One in five US adults (about 43 million people) reads below a fifth-grade level.
Functional illiteracy is the inability to use reading and writing skills to understand written words. It makes it difficult to manage daily living and employment tasks. As a result, it means that readers can't reliably use written text to navigate daily life including their prescriptions, bank statements, and more.
If you’re like me, you’d read this statistic and think, “Ok, but my audience is literate. They read books for fun and had to read dense text to make it through school.”
Even if your audience is literate, they read better and understand more when the text is simpler.
Even your most educated readers perform better with simpler writing.
Let me give you a personal example:
I'm reading the Outlander series right now, and it. is. dense. There is Gaelic and French sprinkled in throughout the novel, and it takes place in the 1700s. The text is tough to read when I’m used to speaking English like a millennial American. Reading unfamiliar language is slower and harder.
How this translates to your marketing copy:
When your future clients are checking out your website, sales pages, or emails, they’re on their phone, half-distracted, making a quick decision about whether to keep reading or bounce.
Simpler copy makes their buying decisions feel easier.
The National Center for Education Statistics puts the average adult US reading level at about seventh or eighth grade. The same study found that most marketing copy is written at a tenth-grade level.
When your marketing copy is ‘above’ where your people are comfortable, they’re reading slower. It feels harder to find a way to work with you.
Where Jargon in Copywriting Does the Most Damage
Sales Pages
Most of the time, people land on your sales page already curious. They clicked on something that piqued their interest, and went digging to learn more.
And then… they hit a wall of certifications, methodology names, and module breakdowns written for people who already understand your world.
What to do instead:
If you have a named framework or methodology, do not put it in your headlines without explaining what it does. "The THRIVE Protocol" means nothing to a new visitor. "A five-step process to get off the blood sugar rollercoaster" is going to feel way more accessible to your readers.
Replace jargon with the problem it solves. An example might be that, "nervous system regulation" is insider language for therapists. "What it feels like when your body isn't stuck in fight or flight" is what your client is telling their bestie they want to know.
Email Subject Lines
Subject lines don’t get your emails opened (obvs not good) when they assume too much. If your subject line references a framework, a concept, or a phrase only your warmest audience knows, you're writing for people who already trust you. That's fine for retention emails. It's a miss when you're trying to sell to new clients.
What to do instead:
A MailChimp study found that subject lines using clear, specific words under eight characters long consistently outperform clever ones. People open emails when they know what they're getting.
Calls to Action
Vague CTAs are a readability problem as much as a conversion problem.
"Take the next step" and "Start your journey" are vague and don’t tell the client what happens when they click on a button.
What to do instead:
Plain language in CTAs is competitive. Be descriptive about what happens when you click on a button.
This might include, “ Get on my calendar” or “Schedule your discovery call”.
5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Readability Today
1. Run your copy through a readability checker
Hemingway App (hemingwayapp.com) and Grammarly (grammarly.com) are both free. Paste your website copy, your last email, or a sales page.
It will tell you how ‘readable’ your sales copy is, and Hemingway specifically will tell you what grade reading level your copy is. Aim for sixth to eighth grade.
2. Find sentences over 14 words and cut them
Research from the American Press Institute found that comprehension drops significantly past 14 words per sentence.
That sentence had 16 words. Instead, I could have said:
People understand sentences under 14 words better than long sentences.
See the difference? Go through your copy and make sure that sentences are shorter, and break them up with bulleted lists when you can.
3. Read your copy out loud
If you stumble when reading your own copy, your reader stumbles. Talk through what you’ve written and make sure it sounds like you.
4. One idea per paragraph
Each paragraph of your copy should carry one idea, then you move on. Go through your copy and gut check that each paragraph (and each section of your sales page) is doing ONE job.
Short paragraphs also give the eye a break, and allow for white space in design.
5. Swap jargon for the outcome
Go through your copy and find every industry term, methodology name, or insider phrase. For each one, ask if your ideal client would already know that term and how it impacts them.
If you need to edit your copy, focus on the outcome, rather than telling them what the offer is.
Simpler Copy Is Accessible Copy
Complexity does not signal expertise to buyers. It signals effort, and effort creates friction.
The simpler your copy is, the easier it is to understand by more people. This is key for writing copy that is not only accessible, but that feels powerful.
And powerful copy sells.
Powerful copy tells stories that a reader can see themselves in.
Powerful copy is your expertise and the transformation you create, acted on.
Readable Copy Respects Your Reader's Time And Cognitive Bandwidth
If you want help making your copy simpler and sharper, reach out at nomadcopyagency.com/contact, or book an hour with me at canyouwritethisforme.com.
I can’t wait to hear how this post and podcast land for you. Be sure to reach out and tell me!
Helpful Resources:
Grab the Forgotten Launch Emails Checklist (code PODCAST for $1)
Connect with me:
Watch episodes with subtitles on my YouTube
See my services → sales pages, emails, websites, and more.
Get on my calendar → if you’d like me to write your sales copy for you!
Opt-In Copy Bot → Write high-converting opt-in pages in minutes
Nomad Copy Agency writes copy that CONVERTS for service-based businesses. Inquire about done-for-you services here.
