Most of my career has involved writing. For many years I had to draft various types of letters, briefings and reports for senior managers. I also had to consider drafts submitted by my staff. I have worked with people who have a superb command of the English language and their positive influence helped me to hone my written skills and deliver a succinct and cogent end product.
In recent times I have been applying these skills to web copy writing and I read some excellent advice in a blog from Seth Godin the Permission Marketing guru. He made a great point that thinking about copy gets in the way. “You start writing and then you patch and layer and write and dissemble and defend and write and the next thing you know, you’ve killed it.”
He suggested an interesting approach to try instead:
Imagine you are writing a classified ad. What’s the offer? What do you want me to do? Remember you’re paying by the word!
“Lose weight now. Join our gym.”
Six words. Promise and offer.
From this minimum you can then add flesh to the bones as needed but before adding any words or a sentence ask: Is it better? More effective? Gently and carefully add words until it’s as effective as possible, but as short as possible.
You might want to make your promise more vivid, or more clear. Perhaps you need a testimonial or two to back up your promise. Does your call to action need to be more urgent? You can play with all of that, keeping in mind the original imaginary classified and that you’re still paying by the word (because attention is expensive).
This principle applies to newspaper articles, blogs, how-to books and direct marketing letters. It also applies to the emails you send and website copy. We at Phil Yarrow Consulting are here to help you with your copy writing needs and all aspects of Internet marketing. So call us now on 0800 082 7010 or email us at info@philyarrow.co.uk
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