Wednesday, January 12, 2005
5 Ways to Avoid Hype With Copy
I just went to visit my sister and 14 year old niece in St. Louis, Missouri. Well, the airlines lost my luggage for 3 days so I was forced to go shopping. My niece took me to this store for the hip crowd (of which I'm not one). Where I promptly fell in love with the hottest looking pair of high-gloss, metallic red stiletto boots with very pointy toes. They became mine. Now people are literally stopping me everywhere and asking about them. These boots are not for wallflowers who don't want to be noticed.
Case in point - I wore them on the flight back to Los Angeles. (If you fly anywhere, you know that air travel has become a strip search nightmare). So I had to remove my boots and put them on the conveyor belt. The security guards (no doubt bored to tears by sensible brown and black shoes) gathered round like excited children. A 400 pound male guard held them over his head and announced, "I LIKE these!"
"Those are too much," said another guard. "How do you get your toes down to the little point?" Well some things are sure to get attention when you're used to seeing the same old dull thing.
Copy is the same way. I'm asked all the time, how can you have strong, attention-getting copy without hype. Well copywriters do walk on a fine line. If you don't have copy that stands out from the rest, your sales suffer a dismal death. And if you're over the top, your copy breeds distain and mistrust. Here are 5 ways to avoid hype in your copy while still getting noticed.
1. Connect with your target market. This requires due diligence on your part. You must understand the personality of your target market through proper research. See what they will tolerate and what they won't.
2. Avoid adjectives. The truth is good copywriters use more verbs than adjectives to get our point across.
3. Don't say anything you cannot back up. While using specifics and statistics generally raises the trust level and believability of copy, throwing in unsubstantiated numbers does just the opposite. Don't do it.
4. Make it "benefit-oriented". I know you know this, but please let the prospect know what's in it for him or her in the first couple of paragraphs of the copy. Really. The only reason they are reading your copy is to find out how you can make their lives better. Don't make 'em wait too long - they may never read that far.
5. Swipe it. Become more aware of what sorts of words and phrases get YOUR attention. Whether that's in direct mail, magazines, online or even email. Save that copy in a "swipe file". Whenever you need inspiration, go through that file and see how others have done it before you.
Want to learn more about copywriting? Then you've GOTTA check out my Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp.
Case in point - I wore them on the flight back to Los Angeles. (If you fly anywhere, you know that air travel has become a strip search nightmare). So I had to remove my boots and put them on the conveyor belt. The security guards (no doubt bored to tears by sensible brown and black shoes) gathered round like excited children. A 400 pound male guard held them over his head and announced, "I LIKE these!"
"Those are too much," said another guard. "How do you get your toes down to the little point?" Well some things are sure to get attention when you're used to seeing the same old dull thing.
Copy is the same way. I'm asked all the time, how can you have strong, attention-getting copy without hype. Well copywriters do walk on a fine line. If you don't have copy that stands out from the rest, your sales suffer a dismal death. And if you're over the top, your copy breeds distain and mistrust. Here are 5 ways to avoid hype in your copy while still getting noticed.
1. Connect with your target market. This requires due diligence on your part. You must understand the personality of your target market through proper research. See what they will tolerate and what they won't.
2. Avoid adjectives. The truth is good copywriters use more verbs than adjectives to get our point across.
3. Don't say anything you cannot back up. While using specifics and statistics generally raises the trust level and believability of copy, throwing in unsubstantiated numbers does just the opposite. Don't do it.
4. Make it "benefit-oriented". I know you know this, but please let the prospect know what's in it for him or her in the first couple of paragraphs of the copy. Really. The only reason they are reading your copy is to find out how you can make their lives better. Don't make 'em wait too long - they may never read that far.
5. Swipe it. Become more aware of what sorts of words and phrases get YOUR attention. Whether that's in direct mail, magazines, online or even email. Save that copy in a "swipe file". Whenever you need inspiration, go through that file and see how others have done it before you.
Want to learn more about copywriting? Then you've GOTTA check out my Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp.
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