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How To Write Compelling Copy
October 26, 2007

Good news!  You are writing a newsletter and sending it out to your clients and prospects.  Sure it was a struggle.  It took up some of your valuable time.  However, the newsletter increased your customer’s awareness and your business.

Now, the big question, can you do it better, make it more compelling?  When I do an email broadcast, I can see, instantly, how many people opened the email.  Usually, the percentage of “reads” is close to 40%.  That means that 60% deleted the email before reading it.  My goal is to do a better job.

I received a notice from Google that Jason Sherrill of Turn Left posted an article entitled How To Write Content That Sucks Readers In.  He used this example of good writing:



I determined that the paragraph sucked me in by answering the questions When, Who, Where Why and How.  That’s not very enlightening!  But that's just part of the story.

Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Expert Copywriter, wrote an article entitled How to Write Compelling Copy that Begs to Be Read.  In it she advises the writer to be conversational.  Use bridge phrases that a journalism school would consider “throw-away language.”  Be snappy.  I assume that means short sentences. Sentences that move the reader along.  “Each sentence pulls the reader into the next.”

Joseph Sugarman (the marketing genius who introduced the Blu Blocker sunglasses among many other successful marketing campaigns). Joe also said, "The sole purpose of the first sentence in an advertisement is to get you to read the second sentence." No wonder he was so successful!

I’ve used just a few of the words and phrases Morgan-Ferrero suggested in this story:

• As if that's not enough
• Best of all
• But wait there's more
• By now
• By the way
• Even better
• Good news!
• Here's why
• Meanwhile
• Nevertheless
• No wonder
• On the other hand
• What's more
• You see
• Think about it
• But that's just part of the story
• These are just a few
• It's true
• No wonder
• Think about it

I like to start out with a story or bury the story at the bottom. I used this story in another blog as a jump-off point to a wider point I was tryijng to make:

I was driving my big yellow bus west on Glisan, preparing to turn left onto 56th. The third grader sitting behind me and to the right, saw my left turn signal flashing and asked, "How does the bus know you are going to turn in that direction?"

It goes without saying that punctuation and spelling are critical when you write copy.  Try to avoid clichés.  Here’s why.  You want to be the expert and you just destroyed your image.   

Thoughts about writing compelling copy, email them to landfair3554@comcast.net

Posted by Mike Landfair on October 26, 2007 | Comments (0)