Three Quick Response-Boosting Tips

When I cri­tique, edit or rewrite sales copy, I dis­cover that many clients com­mit com­mon errors. Granted, not all of them are writ­ers. But most of them fail to drive cus­tomer actions not because they lack writ­ing skills but because they fail to look at their copy from their read­ers’ perspective.

Although unin­ten­tional, they’re so involved with their busi­ness or prod­uct that they tend to for­get their prospects. They tend to explain things in ways that only they under­stand. They tend to for­get the num­ber one ele­ment in copy­writ­ing. And no, it’s not the copy. It’s not the offer, either. It’s…

… The mar­ket.

Copy­writ­ers, and even I, myself, often make the mis­take of ignor­ing the mar­ket. When I cri­tique copy too pre­ma­turely, with­out look­ing ade­quately at the mar­ket, I tend to ramp up the words, power up the pitch and spice up the copy with­out fully under­stand­ing the reader and the words that will entice them, and the result is a poorly respon­sive piece.

Are my words to blame? No. It’s what those words mean to the peo­ple tar­geted with the copy. There’s an impor­tant axiom to remember:

Dif­fer­ent words mean dif­fer­ent things to dif­fer­ent people.

Keep this in mind. And the more you research your mar­ket, and the more your copy focuses on them (not from the author’s per­spec­tive but from their per­spec­tive), the more sales your copy will generate.

To talk about spe­cific strate­gies for hon­ing in on your mar­ket more would prob­a­bly require a lot more depth than this arti­cle can offer. But for starters, let me share with you at least three sim­ple steps you can take now to increase the read­abil­ity of your copy, the excite­ment level of your offer and the respon­sive­ness of your readers.

1) Lace Your Copy With Headers

On the Inter­net, peo­ple don’t read. They scan. Unlike a book that’s pur­chased for the pur­pose of being read from cover to cover, peo­ple sel­dom read entire web pages from top to bottom.

How often do you read entire news­pa­pers, for exam­ple? More than likely, you scan them quickly and stop at any head­line that cap­tures your atten­tion, piques your curios­ity and pulls you into the arti­cle. On the Inter­net, that behav­ior is even more prevalent.

More­over, read­ing web or sales copy, espe­cially long copy saleslet­ters, is a weary­ing task and hard on the eyes. So, don’t write to be read. Instead, write to be scanned. Keep para­graphs brief, and incor­po­rate head­ers through­out your copy in order to direct your read­ers’ eyes.

Make your lines short, either within small tables of no more than 600 pix­els wide or 70 char­ac­ters in length. And refrain from writ­ing your para­graphs deeper than four to five lines, too. If you have to, cut them up into smaller ones. Above all, add a header at every two to five paragraphs.

Make your head­ers promi­nent by using dif­fer­ent sizes, col­ors or fonts. And avoid overused, stale and hack­neyed expres­sions, such as the com­mon “Wel­come to [What­ever].” Lace your copy with pow­er­ful yet brief head­ers that are invit­ing, invok­ing and informative.

When your read­ers scan your copy, your head­ers must be strong enough to stop them in their tracks and to make them feel that the fol­low­ing text can­not be ignored. In fact, write your head­ers with the assump­tion that the pre­ced­ing text was not read at all.

Here’s an exam­ple. Let’s say you pro­mote busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties or show peo­ple how to find them. Instead of, “Home-​​Based Busi­ness Suc­cess,” use, “Uncover Prof­itable Oppor­tu­ni­ties Hid­den In Your Home!” Rather than, “Afford­able Dia­mond Busi­ness Oppor­tu­ni­ties,” say “Mine Your Own Busi­ness … At Rock Bot­tom Prices, Too!”

And more impor­tantly, use words and phrases that will specif­i­cally “speak” to the audi­ence in a way they can instantly under­stand and appreciate.

2) Blend Your Copy With Bullets

Direct­ing the eye is an impor­tant ele­ment of copy­writ­ing. In order to direct your read­ers’ actions, you must first direct their atten­tion. While an effec­tive head­line will cap­ture it, cap­ti­vat­ing their atten­tion is a whole dif­fer­ent issue.

Main­tain your read­ers’ atten­tion with bul­lets. Bul­leted lists are effec­tive because they are cap­ti­vat­ing, intrigu­ing and pleas­ing to the eye. They can help to rein­force the offer, give read­ers a visual break and are clus­tered for greater impact. This is par­tic­u­larly true with long copy offers.

In fact, an effec­tive way to use bul­lets is when they fol­low the words “you get” and “rea­sons why,” such as “with this [prod­uct] you get” and “here are the rea­sons why [you must buy now].” They give the reader the abil­ity to know, instantly, what they get out of read­ing fur­ther or responding.

Here’s an exam­ple. Let’s say you sell an exer­cis­ing machine that helps to strengthen the abdom­i­nals. You can say, “With your new Abdomi­noflex Machine, here’s what you get,” and then you fol­low it with a bul­leted list of the var­i­ous ben­e­fits a cus­tomer receives from your machine, such as …

• A sys­tem that pro­vides an eas­ier yet intense work­out that will burn off unwanted calo­ries more rapidly and enjoy­ably;
   
• A sci­en­tif­i­cally designed exer­cise reg­i­men laser-​​targeting spe­cific areas for a faster, firmer and shape­lier fig­ure;
   
• A com­pact, light­weight and space-​​saving machine that can be stored right under your bed and pulled out only when needed;

… And so on. Also, you can use bul­lets to list the var­i­ous con­se­quences of going ahead (or not) with your offer. For instance, you can use them to rein­force scarcity-​​enhancing ele­ments (such as dead­lines) and empha­size the neg­a­tive con­se­quences of not enjoy­ing the ben­e­fits of your offer.

3) Paint Your Copy With Pictures

Another yet prob­a­bly the most impor­tant strat­egy is to use words and phrases that help to paint vivid pic­tures in the mind. When peo­ple can visu­al­ize the process of doing what you want them to do, includ­ing the enjoy­ment of the ben­e­fits of your offer, you drive their actions almost instinctually.

The brain, accord­ing to “Psycho-​​Cybernetics” by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, is a goal-​​seeking mech­a­nism. If I told you not to think of a white flower, you would still think of one because I directed your mind by giv­ing it a goal. But if I told you to think of a pink one, you would then not think of a white one.

In order to direct your read­ers’ actions, you must also direct their minds. Use men­tal imagery and pic­ture words that invite, entice and incite. Guide the mind and you guide the action.

We think in rel­a­tive terms. And we are pre­dom­i­nantly visual, too. Our brains have a ten­dency to trans­late mes­sages into their visual equiv­a­lents in order to appre­ci­ate what they are being told. In plain Eng­lish, the mind thinks in pic­tures, and not in words or numbers.

For exam­ple, if I told you to think of a garbage can, you’re not going to think of “G,” “A,” “R,” etc. You’ll visu­al­ize a garbage can. The more I describe it to you as well as the more senses I engage in my descrip­tion, the more real­is­tic it becomes in your mind, includ­ing its color, smell and texture.

Dur­ing a tele­vised news­cast, a reporter, fly­ing over the scene of a for­est fire in her station’s heli­copter, was asked, “How big is the fire?” In a voice par­tially drowned by the whizzing sounds of heli­copter blades, she said, “It’s over 140 acres of land, which is about 200 foot­ball fields back to back.”

Sim­i­larly, com­pel your read­ers not only with vivid pic­ture words and men­tal imagery but also with sto­ries, exam­ples, analo­gies and metaphors that they can inti­mately under­stand and appre­ci­ate. Help your read­ers to paint the kinds of pic­tures you want them to paint.

The more vivid the words paint, the eas­ier it will be for the mind to decode the mes­sage you are con­vey­ing into some­thing your read­ers can under­stand, appre­ci­ate, relate to and, above all, act upon.

In Con­clu­sion, Remem­ber This…

I agree that copy­writ­ing may not be an easy task for many. But one of the most impor­tant steps you can take is this: look at your web­site through your read­ers’ eyes. Imag­ine com­ing across your site for the first time. What would you read? Where would your eyes go? What would your mind think?

More impor­tantly, what would you do?

If you hes­i­tate at any point, real­ize that hes­i­ta­tion on your part is con­fu­sion on the part of your read­ers. And con­fu­sion often leads to pro­cras­ti­na­tion. If your read­ers are con­fused, they will do nothing.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

• How to Capture and Captivate Attention
• The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction
• Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness
• Changes, Relaunches, and Extreme Makeovers
• Superior Value Equals Superior Sales

Other Related Posts

• There's More to Tracking than Conversion
• How Long Should Headlines Be?
• Gary Halbert Call Part 4 of 4
• 2nd Gary Halbert Call Part 3 of 4
• What Copy Cosmetics Communicate