Copywriting is a big part of marketing. If you are part of a large organization, you might have someone whose job it is to write all of the marketing copy. If you work independently, or market for a small business, the onus is probably on you.
In the past month I’ve written two posts on the art of copywriting for those of you who are looking to take your copywriting skills to the next level. The first one was all about making your marketing copy readable. The second focused on the need to use positive language.
Today, I wanted to focus on another aspect of copywriting, which will go a long way to improving the effectiveness of any message. Though it might sound stupid (or overly obvious), there are pieces of any text that are more important than the rest. And by calling those areas of interest to the reader’s attention, you can make the key points of the message stand out that much more.
Underline, Bold, Color
Tell the reader what you want them to read. It’s easy for someone to say, “I wrote the entire thing because I want people to read what it says.” But the truth is, as we’ve pointed out time and time again, people will read what they want to read. And their time is the most valuable thing in the world to them. So instead of cutting out parts of the message, make sure the most important things jump off the page.
This applies to marketing emails, print advertisements, website copy, direct mail, etc. Major differences in the text will stand out, and draw the attention of the reader’s eye. Therefore, you can make the words/phrases Act Now, or Value, or Reliability more powerful than it would be if it were simply included in line with the rest of your text.
By making the reader aware of the key points you’re making with visual clues, you’re making it that much more likely that they will take SOMETHING away from the message.