How to copy edit: 10 essential copy editing tips

Updated July 2021

There’s a gap in the marketing industry today, and that gap lies in attention to detail in writing — including knowing how to copy edit. It’s easy to get caught up in flashy website design and fleeting social media trends, but the importance of excellent writing to help your marketing efforts make an impact often gets overlooked. Learning copy editing tips can help fix this problem.

In this editing checklist, we’ll help you get started by outlining the key copy editing tips all content creators need to know:

• Create and follow an editorial style guide

• Edit for clear, active, audience-centric language

• Edit for brevity

• Edit for technicalities

• Watch out for mistakes and get a second set of eyes on your copy

• Fact check your content and read it one last time

Copy editing tips for content creators

Your B2B company needs clean, consistent marketing copy to build credibility and deliver your message in the most effective way possible. Poor formatting in your content, inconsistencies in your writing style, and grammar and spelling errors all distract and detract from your marketing goals. Here’s how to avoid those issues:

1. Create and follow an editorial style guide 

You need to know how to copy edit and what to edit for before you can start the process. If your company doesn’t already have an editorial style guide, you can create a simple, two-page version to help ensure all of your content gets edited in a consistent way. 

Your editorial style guide can be as basic or as robust as you want, but if your organization doesn’t have a culture that’s focused on writing style and copy editing, we recommend keeping it simple so that people on your team actually use the document. Here are a few things to include:

• A refresher on your brand’s voice and tone 

• Rules for capitalization in job titles, blog post headers and sub-headers, etc. 

• Rules for numbers, i.e. do you spell them out or use numerals? 

• Rules for punctuation, e.g. the Oxford comma 

• Format for writing image credits 

2. Edit for audience-centric language  

Make your content about your audience, not about your B2B company. This is one of the most important copy editing tips to remember. When you're editing, scan each piece of content for references like “us” and “we”, then turn the story around to focus on “you” — your prospect or customer.

Audience-centric content also includes language that educates your readers or helps them solve a problem. As you edit your content, ask yourself if readers would find it useful.

3. Edit for clarity 

You may be so close to your products and services that you unintentionally use jargon to talk about them, or you forget to explain concepts that seem simple to you. These are especially common issues when it comes to B2B content.  

Your readers need to be able to understand your content for it to make an impact. Part of knowing how to copy edit involves ensuring every sentence reads clearly. It’s helpful to read your content out loud so you can see how much it differs from the way you’d actually talk about a topic. A conversational tone is always best.

4. Edit for active language 

Help with copy editing is something that Scribe National can provide you with.  

Scribe National can help you with copy editing. 

Which sentence is more powerful? You’re right on the money if you guessed the second one. Active language gets to the point immediately, pulling your reader into the story and keeping them engaged. These days, we’re all overloaded with marketing messages. Make yours stand out in the crowd by using compelling, active language.

5. Edit for brevity 

Your prospects and customers are busy. They don’t have all day to read your content. When you’re editing, ask yourself if there’s a shorter, simpler way to get your point across. Do this for every sentence. Be ruthless. This is a critical part of learning how to copy edit.

Editing for brevity also helps you call attention to the most important parts of your content by trimming away superfluous language.

6. Edit for technicalities  

A copy editing checklist wouldn’t be complete without mentioning grammar and spelling in the list of copy editing tips. These technicalities are easy to miss, and they can throw a wrench in even the most interesting, rich story.

It’s helpful to use a cheat sheet to check your content for grammar and spelling errors. Grammarly offers a Grammar Tips guide that you can turn to for information. If your B2B company is Canadian, the Canadian Press offers a useful Caps and Spelling book that highlights commonly misspelled words. In the U.S., check out the Associated Press to see what resources they offer.

7. Watch out for common mistakes 

When you’re copy editing, pay extra attention to things like apostrophe usage and spelling of their/there/they’re or your/you’re.

If you’re editing someone else’s work and they’re a seasoned writer, you shouldn’t run into these issues often (if at all), but it’s still a good idea to double check.

8. Fact check your content 

If you work for a large enterprise, fact checking may fall outside of your copy editing responsibilities. But more than likely, no one else will oversee this task.  

Every organization handles fact checking differently. Writers should always ensure they’re using accurate research to inform their content, but it doesn’t hurt to take a second look at any statistics presented or claims made during the copy editing process. You might catch a stat that’s out-of-date and find an opportunity to use a more recent source to illustrate your point.

9. Get a second set of eyes on your content 

If you’re copy editing content that you’ve written, it’s crucial to get another person to look it over. They may spot an error that you missed, or have an idea for how to improve a sentence or paragraph. 

If you’re copy editing someone else’s writing, your team has the right approach. Congrats! 

10. Read it one last time  

Even if you’ve gotten another person to look over your content, and especially if you haven’t, always read the piece one final time before you click “publish.” 

Making these 10 copy editing tips a regular part of your content creation process will improve your B2B content drastically, and help you cut through the noise to earn your market’s attention.

Stick with us! This post is part of a series on developing a 10-step content creation workflow for exceptional results. Read the next post.

Get help with copy editing

You now know how to copy edit your B2B marketing content, but what if you’re too swamped to find the time to get it done? At Scribe National, we'll be your (eager) second set of eyes for voice, tone, flow, format, style, grammar and spelling. Contact us today to learn more about our copy editing services.