Want to know
secret to creating MEMORABLE promotional copy? Sales copy that actually stays with your customers long after they've finished reading it?Then master art of using words to create pictures in your customers' heads.
If you can describe your products or services in such a way that it forms images in your customers' heads, well, then you've just created something that will last long after marketing is over.
Why else do novels stay with us for so long? Those "pictures" we see draw us into world of novel, and those pictures stay with us long after we've closed book. If you can create that kind of staying power with your marketing materials, think about how much ahead of your competition you'll be.
So, how do you get started? Below are three tips. (Note how all three tips have word "specific" in common. Be specific whenever you can. We don't think in generalities, we think in details. The more specific you are, stronger pictures.)
1. Use specific nouns. Quick -- what springs to mind when I say word "bird"? Now erase that image. What pops into your head when I say "cardinal"?
When I said bird, you could have pictured any number of bird species or maybe even some sort of generic bird (something brown with wings and feathers). When I said cardinal, I bet you saw a bright red bird with that distinctive triangle head.
See difference? Cardinal is specific and it brings a specific picture to mind. Bird is generic, and it brings a generic picture to mind.
Whenever possible, use most specific noun you can. (However, if most specific noun is something most people wouldn't know, say some rare exotic insect only found in Amazon jungle, then make sure you describe it as well.)
2. Use specific verbs. Verbs breathe life into your copy. They're difference between words lying flat and comatose on page or jumping up and dancing a jig.
Verbs bring movement to your copy. They tell your readers if someone is walking, jogging, sauntering, skipping or crawling. Or maybe that someone is exhausted and has decided to lie down for a bit.
Now, when I say verbs, what I'm NOT talking about are "to be" verbs -- am, is, are, was, were, etc. Those verbs don't paint a picture. Not like hug, skate, sail, run, fall, spin, flip, etc. See difference?
