|
|
|
5 Reasons Why Headlines Are The Single Most Important Part Of All
Are you maximizing your marketing results by using headlines at every opportunity?
Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn’t capture attention and pull...
Is it worth hiring a professional copywriter?
"Article writers wanted: I will pay $3.50 per article. Must be quality writing - no hobbyists!"
No, this isn't a joke. It's an actual job advert, posted on a website earlier this year. What's more, there's nothing particularly unusual about this...
My Favorite Errors to Correct (Don’t make these mistakes, and your writing will rise above most other writing.) Part 2
Negotiables: These are rules that the experts largely agree can be broken to good effect. In formal writing (such as a doctoral dissertation), the strict rules would still apply. But in informal writing, such as writing an autobiography, looser...
What's So Different About Writing Web Copy?
To write persuasive web copy, it really is an advantage to know how to successfully write for off-line publications. Because Copywriting techniques that work off-line, also work equally well on-line! We have to make some changes of course to...
WRITING POWERFUL EFFECTIVE SOLO ADS
Everybody wants to make more money... In fact, most people would like to hit upon something that makes them fabulously rich! And seemingly, one of the easiest roads to the fulfillment of these dreams of wealth is writing effective solo ads and...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Use Grammar as a Marketing Weapon
If you're like me, you're not writing that ad, Web page, or
radio script to make your English teacher proud. You're writing
to sell.
If you get an "A" while you're at it, great. But don't count on
it. To get prospects to click, call, or buy, you'll need to take
some liberties with the English language.
As direct-response legend Herschell Gordon Lewis so aptly said,
"Grammar is our weapon, not our god."
Although copywriting requires a different approach than Strunk
and White would advocate, don't burn your grammar books just
yet. It's important to know the rules before you break them.
Following are some rules to keep and some rules to bend or
break. But first an important principle.
Clarity
Next time you face a grammar grappler, ask yourself this
question: Which word construction will be clearer to the
prospect or customer?
Clarity comes first because it's the prescription for fast
comprehension. Copywriting that blurs meaning (which sometimes
includes grammatically perfect writing) slows reading and
jeopardizes interest -- and sales.
WARNING: This isn't license to play havoc with the English
language. Literacy must prevail. Following are some rules to
keep.
Rules to Keep
Subject and verb agreement. Whether you're writing an
infomercial or War and Peace, singular subjects take
singular verbs and plural subjects take plural verbs. Always. A
simple rule, execution is sometimes problematic. The key is to
clearly identify the subject of the sentence.
The active voice. If you want your copywriting to have
maximum punch, use the active voice at every opportunity. Active
voice: I wrote the sentence. Passive voice: The sentence was
written by me.
Use of Modifiers. Modifiers can cause a variety of
problems. There are the questions of which and how many
modifiers to use. Again, let clarity be your guide. Also, poor
placement of modifiers results in confusion, your enemy. To make
comprehension easy, put modifiers near the words they're
modifying.
Rules to Bend or Break
The Adventures of Huckleberry
How To Get Your Goat
It's widely eaten in the rest of world, and now goat's popularity is growing in America's increasingly diverse marketplace. Bring goat into your kitchen with these recipes for curry, mole rojo, meatballs and more — or churn up a sweet goat-milk caramel ice cream.
New In Paperback Feb. 6-12
This week brings four novels about love: childhood love in immigrant Brooklyn; married love in dot-com San Francisco; intergenerational love and tension in Philadelphia; and an academic father's sometimes obtuse love for his three daughters. In nonfiction, football star Michael Oher describes his experiences in foster care.
Finn by Mark Twain ushered
in a new era in American literature. One of the main reasons was
Twain's use of vernacular. He wrote the way people talked, a
departure from the stiff, formal English common during the
Victorian period.
For copywriters, writing the way people talk is absolutely
essential.
Why? Because copy that is friendly, informal and conversational
stands a better chance of getting prospects to click, call or
buy. Which is exactly why sacrificing the following conventions
can be in the copywriter's best interest.
Ending sentences with a preposition. To some a no-no,
ending a sentence with a preposition can warm up your
copywriting. Which sounds friendlier to you: "Here is the
information you requested" or "Here is the information you asked
for"?
Beginning sentences with a conjunction. Beginning
sentences with conjunctions (and, or, but, nor) is more common,
even in journalism. Not only is it the way people talk, it can
shorten sentence length, a plus in delivering sales messages.
Other informal devices. Use contractions to warm up your
message. Also, use sentence fragments. Not only do they shorten
average sentence length, they add rhythm. And drama.
Punctuation. Use punctuation to your selling advantage.
I'm inclined to use more dashes and an occasional exclamation
point and ellipsis to add drama and excitement to the sales
message. Commas can be pretty subjective, so I have a tendency
to use the minimum amount to keep readers moving through the
copy as quickly as possible.
Parting Reminder
Keep that grammar book, stylebook, dictionary and other writer's
references nearby. You're still going to need them.
But don't let grammar be your god, or your next marketing
communication could be a giant sales flop.
(c) 2005 Neil Sagebiel
About the author:
Neil Sagebiel is a veteran copywriter who has served clients
such as Microsoft, The Seattle Times, Lucent Technologies, March
of Dimes, Airborne Express and Unisys. To sign up for his FREE
expert tips to help you write better and sell more, visit
http://www.neilsagebiel.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|