Stop Scrolling!
Did that headline have the desired effect in making you stop and read this? A major challenge in the current era of attention deficit is the plethora of content coming our way and the constant scrolling. How can a brand owner compete with all that and catch the prize they seek - a potential customer’s interest? With effective copywriting that’s how. Whether it is website copy, social media, newsletter, marketing materials, or emails, the quality of writing plays a major role in attention grabbing, enlightening, and persuading a potential customer to buy your product.
With a website you have three seconds to make an impression before a surfer moves on. Engaging text or images should instantaneously communicate a reason for them to stay on the site.
A press release must immediately convey the necessary information to the reader for them to continue. Marketing materials must prove that your product is worthy of a shopper’s money and contain a call to action.
With an email, it is imperative to have a subject header that persuades the recipient to open it and read the contents.
Here’s a test. Which of these two subject headers would persuade you to stop scrolling and open it there and then?
- Improve Your Bottom Line With Engaging Written Content
- Jane Peyton, co-host of the Food Talk Show On Why Good Writing Is So Important
The first option is concise and direct about why you should open the email. It promises to solve one of the problems that all business owners have – increasing customers and profit. The second option is not snappy, it’s rather vague and wastes valuable word space for the header.
‘Cutting Through’ – is a term we regularly hear and is something that keeps brand owners pondering how they can achieve this and compete with the bombardment of messages we receive daily. Whether it is with the aid of images, video, or audio, some choice words are needed as accompaniment.
Unless you are an accomplished writer and can do it yourself, then hire a professional writer. You wouldn’t expect a professional writer to effectively produce your superb food or drink for you, so why would you as a producer, expect to write your own marketing material? Your time is too valuable in making your excellent products to spend it on something you may not excel at and it diverts you from the core of your business.
As the business advice goes, if you can’t do it yourself, hire someone who can. Writing is an essential and, compared to other tools, an inexpensive instrument of marketing.
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Written by: Jane Peyton writes marketing and publicity copy for a number of brands, PR agencies, and marketing companies. She is the author of several non-fiction books, co-host of the Food Talk Show podcast sponsored by Produced in Kent, is an alcoholic drinks expert and founder of the School of Booze.
