
This is my fourth post today on great sales copywriting...strange how that works sometimes, isn't it? You stumble upon an important topic and then seem to find good tip after good tip to pass along!
Here's some more great advice on sales copywriting, which supports
my previous post on the topic (and, while we're busy plugging my recent posts on the subject, don't miss our advice on writing great headlines here, and here).
Courtesy of copywriting expert Will Newman:
The purpose of marketing copy (and a lot of business writing) is to persuade. To convince your reader to buy a product (or an idea) ... donate money (or time) ... or vote for a candidate. The best persuasive writing tends to be conversational. And the easiest way to be conversational is to write in the "active" voice.
Think about it ...
You chat with friends almost exclusively in active voice. In other words, you usually put the person doing the action at the beginning of the sentence. You say, "Bonds smashed the homerun" instead of "the homerun was hit by Bonds."
Active voice makes your sentences livelier and more vivid. It's easy to picture Bonds clobbering a ball out into McCovey Cove. Given the right words, you can visualize it mentally and just about hear the crowd roar.
The opposite of active voice is "passive" voice. Here's an example: "While visiting China, a brand-new idea in vitamin supplementation was discovered by Dr. Smith." You feel like Dr. Smith just stood around until he accidentally bumped into the idea, right?
Now let's change that sentence to active voice: "Dr. Smith discovered a brand-new idea in vitamin supplementation while visiting China." That's much better, isn't it? You can almost see him talking to herbalists and picking plants beside the Great Wall.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course. But your writing will be stronger and more convincing when you put the person doing the action at or near the beginning of the sentence and before the verb.
I would suggest a review of your sales material and make sure that the copy is doing everything it can to help you sell!







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