In no small part, I owe much of my career to the English teachers I had growing up. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were paving my path towards a life of words.
They spent years teaching me all the rules of English... how to diagram a sentence... how to modify nouns... how to write properly.
There were lots and lots of rules. And I spent a lot of time learning them.
Which is why I’m sorry to report that I break just about every rule they taught me on a daily basis.
But I can’t help it. You see, I’m a copywriter. It’s my job.
I’m not writing magical prose. Or crafting fine pieces of literature. Or aiming for high art. I don't aspire to be featured in Oprah’s Book Club or the New York Times Bestseller list.
The More You Tell, the More You Sell
The goal of sales copy is to sell something. And to hopefully sell a lot of it. It’s to get the reader of your copy to effortlessly consume the important information you are sharing.
And then to act just as you want them to, whether it’s whipping out their credit card, signing up for your list, or putting your product on their holiday must-have wish list.
You don’t want your readers to be thinking about how nice your sales copy sounds, or how the words flow together and sound pretty when read aloud. In fact, your copy is like a special effect in a movie—if your reader is noticing it, you didn’t do your job.
Instead, you want them to be shocked by the facts you present to them. So much so that they will do exactly what you tell them to do. You want to (ethically and honestly) whip them up into a buying frenzy. And to do this, you just have to break the some of the rules they taught you in school.
So when you write your own advertising and marketing copy, turn down those old English teacher voices in your head. It’s time to unlearn everything they taught you.
Here are 5 ways you can start breaking the rules right now.
1. Start sentences with “but,” “and,” “because,” and "which."
But why should you do this? Because it’s much more conversational. And it can help break apart long sentences and ideas. Which makes the entire passage much easier to read.
2. Write short paragraphs.
The goal is to keep your readers' eyes moving along the page. Long paragraphs can seem overwhelming for people with limited time on their hands. Keeping your paragraphs short—even just 1 or 2 sentences—makes your content much more digestible.
3. Exploit the ellipsis.
Nothing creates drama and drives the point home quite like the ellipsis (“. . .”). Used effectively, an ellipsis breaks apart long sentences... allows you to convey multiple ideas at once... without having to worry about segues. It draws the eyes onto the pages... moves them along like an usher... and acts as a dramatic pause before a critical point is made.
4. Use plenty of bridge phrases.
Bridge phrases help effortless glide the reader from one thought to the next. They may be the empty calories of literature, but they play a huge roll in sales copy. Some of the more frequently used ones include “On the other hand,” “What’s more,” “You see,” “By the way,” and “Meanwhile.” And don’t forget the classic, “But wait, there’s more!”
5. End sentences with prepositions.
If you need to brush up, a preposition is a word that expresses a relation to another word or phrase (ie: about, above, from, over, beyond, etc). We were taught to never finish a written sentence with a preposition. But we always finish sentences with them when we talk, so go ahead and break that rule when you’re writing copy. Maybe you know what I’m talking about. If not, read that last sentence over. You’ll see where I’m coming from.
Does your inner rebel need more rules to break? Stay tuned, because there are five more coming your way in the next post!
(c) 2006 R. Cory Fossum. All Rights Reserved.
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