One of my former students made me realize something important.

In fact, his point was so well made because he drove it home using the very idea he was illustrating. While his comment was general in nature, I realized how beautifully it applied to copy … Particularly web copy.

But before I explain it to you, let me put the story in context so you can understand. In my Personal Selling class, we were discussing the natural human inclination to illogically and unconsciously assume that there is a parallel between a part and its whole — even when the two are totally unrelated or irrelevant to each other.

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I do believe what Dan Kennedy says, when he says clunky copy outsells clean copy. But not all the time. And recently, a university study proves this point.

People have a tendency to forge not only a lasting opinion based on first impressions but also a blanket opinion that pervades all other areas as well. The adage, “a first impression is a lasting one,” is not only temporal (i.e., the initial opinion remains consistent and nearly impermeable for a long time) but also spatial. That is, a first impression is also a universal one.

Illogical? Yes. But it’s human nature.

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