The Psychology of Copy Confidence: Overcoming Your Team's Writing Fears

There’s something about writing that makes all of us feel very vulnerable. Maybe it’s the permanence of it, or perhaps we’re worried that it’ll highlight our mistakes - the number of people I talk to who are petrified of hitting publish is exceptionally high. 

It’s a fear that we can’t ignore, particularly for those leading marketing teams. Instead, we need to look at how we can support our team in feeling more confident about their writing abilities, so hitting publish doesn’t feel quite so scary.

Challenge: Not a natural writer

There’s a misconception in marketing that everyone can write. Often marketing teams are underresourced for the size of organisation they sit in which means you need to adopt a everyone pitch in attitude. I’m a big believer in that mentality, when I used to manage an events team I would be the first one moving boxes and setting up banners, but we need to realise that just because someone technically can do, they might not be the best person to do it. 

An English degree, or a career in marketing doesn’t make you qualified to be a writer. Some of the best writers I know have been tucked away in various departments that aren’t marketing. Similarly some of the worst have come from, yep you guessed it, marketing. 

That doesn’t mean they don’t have some skill, it usually means they’ve never had any training and are entirely self taught. 

For those individuals signing up to a full blown copywriting course might give them the structure and support to polish their skills. For others they might benefit from mentoring. There is support out there for those that aren’t the best but have the right intentions and the tenacity to keep trying.

Challenge: A mismatch of styles

Sometimes the fear of hitting publish comes from a lack of confidence in their writing style. They read other people’s copy and wonder how they can emulate it. This imposter syndrome festers leaving them to worry about every piece of copy they write.

In part it’s an us problem as much as it is a ‘them’ problem. Us because if everyone’s style is so distinct then some work needs to be done on tone of voice implementation. There are always going to be some variances on tone and style but overall it should feel cohesive. If every piece of copy sounds different then it’s confusing to your audience and likely causing a disjointed experience. I worked with an organisation recently where when quizzed on their own brand guidelines most of them got the answers wrong. 

It’s a ‘them’ problem because they might never have come across tone of voice so they don’t understand the intricacies of applying it correctly.

Both can be addressed through some specific tone of voice training. 

Challenge: Typos and glitches

Early in my career I was tasked with writing and sending out the staff newsletter every Friday. My biggest fear was seeing a typo after I hit send. That fear alone can stop even the most confident writer in their tracks. 

We’re all worried about how we’re perceived and we worry that a typo will make people doubt our professional competency. Now, we’re all human and we’re going to make mistakes. There are some words which no matter how hard we try we simply can’t spell. Then there are other words which are just easy to mistype. 

There are two ways to support your team. The first is by setting up a buddy system to check each other's work. This needs to be done in a supportive, non-judgemental way, it’s not about showing each other up, rather it’s about helping each other. 

The second is by investing in software to help. Hemingway or Grammarly are great at highlighting typos and grammatical errors. They aren’t foolproof but can help your team feel more supported before they publish their work. 

Challenge: The dreamer

Sometimes the challenge comes long before hitting publish, it’s getting started that’s the issue. The trouble is when faced with a lack of confidence and a blank page, your mind goes blank. There are no words, no narrative threads, no clear points, there’s just…..nothing. 

For the dreamers it’s not necessarily the end product they need help with, but support with the right strategies and techniques to get started in the first place. Some might see this as pure and simple procrastination, and don’t get me wrong - there’s often a clear dose of that too, but the indecision and the weight of the finished product can stop people in the first place. 

To help your team overcome this it’s time to ground them in the theory of copywriting, it’s not about the subject or about expertise in the topic, it’s about a solid plan they can roll out time and time again. 

It’s something so many people struggle with which is why I include it in my copywriting refresher course. Tools to use, techniques to deploy and ways to break the white screen so it doesn’t seem quite so daunting.

Copy confidence doesn’t always come overnight, for some it might never come at all. But there are things that we can do to support our teams to feel more assured in their abilities. The best way to do that? Training. We don’t often focus on copywriting training when it comes to professional development. Usually we fall into the newer, snazzier areas - AI, automation and similar. But without training on the basics we’re failing to support our teams. 

Find out more about the team training sessions I run and their impact, or get in touch to book a chat to discuss your needs.