Copywriting hints and tips

Since we’ve been running our ‘Copywriting – The Art of Persuasion’ workshops, so many delegates have commented “I wish I’d only known that, before I wrote my brochure/sales letter/flyer”

So here’s a few hints and tips when you’re writing sales letter, adverts or any marketing communication you want to have impact and really get to your audience.

Think like your audience. Write as you would speak to them - in their own language. You would talk to a managing director in a totally different way to a teenager, so why not do the same when you’re writing. Your potential customers need to know you understand their world, so get into their heads before you even put pen to paper or sit in front of your PC.

Pay attention to small details. If you’re writing to a specific audience, use examples that are relevant. For instance if you’re writing to a female audience, make sure you use women’s names. It shows empathy and will endear them much more to you.

Remember features tell and benefits sell, so paint pictures with words and explain how your product or service will change their lives. Ask yourself ‘WIIFM’ (what’s in it for me’) and put things into a lifestyle context so your readers can imagine what it’s really like. Instead of ‘Two weeks timeshare in Tenerife for only £10,000’ what about “Imagine yourself sitting beside your own pool, watching the glorious sunset with a glass of Chablis in your hand….”

Keep your message clear and to the point. If you try to make it ‘War and Peace’ your readers will lose the will to live. Hit them early by making the point right at the start. If the message is buried in the middle of a sales letter, the audience may have switched off before they even get there.

Don’t go overboard with Capital Letters, bold, italics or underlining. Using techniques to highlight major points is very effective if used sparingly, but too much will confuse the eye and detract from your message.

Get someone else to check your copy. If they don’t understand it straight away, then do yourself a favour and either redraft it or even bin it and start again. As you wrote it, you tend to go into autopilot when you’re proof reading.

Bad English distracts. While people ignore good English and spelling, you only need one typo or wrong word and they immediately start an error hunt and you’ve lost them. If you can’t get the copy right, can they trust your products or service? Try reading out loud as it’s then easier to spot typos and spelling errors.

Look at layout. Lots of dense copy with no white space is hard to read and very off putting. Use short sentences (no more than 16 words). Break it into short paragraphs with no more than 3 sentences. It looks more appealing, and more likely that your audience will read on.

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