Copywriting 101: Active Voice vs Passive Voice

When writing copy that converts, voice is a key element. You need to be intentional about the voice you use when writing to your audience. Depending on the voice you use, you can shift your readers’ attention to a person or thing.

Discover the differences between active voice and passive voice, when to use each voice and tips on how to use them.

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Active Voice vs Passive Voice

A sentence is constructed with 3 elements

• Subject: the person or thing carrying out an action
• Verb: a word describing an action
• Object: the person or thing that receives the action

Here are 2 sentences. One written in active voice and one written in passive voice.

• Active Voice: The girl fed the puppy.
• Passive Voice: The puppy is fed by the girl.

The focus is the subject, girl, for the sentence written in active voice. On the other hand, the focus is the object, puppy, for the sentence written in passive voice.

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Active Voice

As seen from the above example, active voice is clear and straightforward.

For sales and marketing, using active voice will help people picture themselves taking action.

Here’s an example: “Without touching a line of code, Nicole built a stunning website with Elegant Themes Divi.”

See why active voice is great for sales and marketing? You can already imagine yourself as the next Nicole to build a beautiful website. Active voice is direct, to the point and encourages readers to take action.

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Passive Voice

From the girl/puppy example, you might have noticed how the active voice uses 5 words only while the passive voice uses 7 words.

Passive voice is usually longer than active voice as it uses more words to convey the same point across. You could say it’s a roundabout way to say something. Passive voice is also more detached and a little awkward.

Here’s the passive version based on the example above: “A stunning website was built by Nicole using Elegant Themes Divi without touching a line of code.”

The focus has shifted from Nicole to the stunning website. In this case, you’re probably thinking about the fact that a stunning website was built. See how Nicole is gone from your attention?

But again, passive voice has its use cases. You might choose to use this voice when you want to emphasize the person or thing acted on or when the person carrying out the action isn’t important. In the abovementioned example, you might want to highlight how a stunning website was built, rather than who it was built by.

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When To Use Active & Passive Voice

Who Do You Want To Focus On? Subject Or Object

I think the biggest factor when deciding whether to use active or passive voice depends on who you want to focus on. Do you want the subject or object to be the focus of your readers’ attention?

Using the above example, we can also shift the focus to another object: Elegant Themes Divi is used by Nicole to build a stunning website without touching a line of code.

This is also passive voice but notice how I shift your attention to the software instead?

Although you’re likely to want to focus readers’ attention on the subject most of the time, there are times you may want to focus on the object instead. As shown in the example above, this passive voice is great for highlighting the product or service.

Think About Your Goal

Before writing your copy, you need to determine your goal.

Is the purpose of your copy to highlight a testimonial? Are you letting your readers see the product or service through the eyes of a customer? Are you showing them the perspective of a long-time consumer? Or do you want to highlight the benefits of your product or service?

Depending on what your goal is, you’ll have a better idea of who to focus on and which voice to use.

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Active & Passive Voice Tips

Start With The Focus First

Based on the above examples, you probably noticed that the focus is placed at the beginning of the sentence.

If your focus is the object, you will most likely start the sentence with the object.

Just remember these formulas when constructing your sentence

• Active Voice: Subject-Verb-Object
• Passive Voice: Object-Verb-Subject

Keep Practicing

As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.” Keep practicing and you’ll become better at it.

Consider doing active and passive voice exercises or reading examples. You can also look at marketing copy, identify if it’s active or passive voice then try changing to the other voice.

After building up your experience, this switching of voice will come easily to you.

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Now It’s Your Turn

Have you tried active or passive voice when copywriting? How were the results?

Consider using proofreading tools like ProWritingAid to check and correct your grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes.