One marketing truism guaranteed to send your copywriter into paroxyms of rage
This is the most technically demanding piece of writing I've done in years and it's not even got that superb a payoff.
There’s a little piece of marketing advice that I don’t just hate, but absolutely despise, and it’s this.
“Eliminate unneccessary words.”
Now don’t get me wrong - it’s sometimes good advice - unfortunately taken to illogical extremes.
By the kind of people who learned writing from books.
Not even a good book, mind.
They follow advice by rote.
Suddenly, everything is similar.
Identical stuttering sentences.
‘Punchy’ shotgun blasts.
No fat. All trim.
Exhausting.
But understandable. It’s confidence.
A confidence thing.
They aren’t confident.
They don’t consider pace.
They don’t think of tone or flow.
Good content, they muse, is all about following a blueprint.
No blueprint currently exists - let’s for a minute pretend one’s needed - make it this:
“Just write naturally.”
Write naturally, conversationally, authentically, and suddenly the confidence flows with the reader following along - no word count required.
Something mint - this terrifying reminder of your mortality
Some people don’t waste their time matching sentence lengths to make a point about pace.
Instead, they use seven words and two numbers to instil absolute terror into the reader and demand they go out and book a holiday right now.
Nothing about the product at all. No benefits. Just 100% urgency.
I’m all for making it easy for the reader to take the action I want them to, but this copy’s so good I’m willing to act just to find out what that action it is.
I wouldn’t recommend it for every piece, but when the line’s this good, trust it.