The Halbert Copywriting Method Part III: The Simple, Fast, & Easy Editing Formula That Forces Buyers To Read Every Word Of Your Ads

"The first step is to format copy so readers don't rule out reading the rest because it looks like heavy reading. If the copy is one huge page-long paragraph, the reader will immediately sigh and weigh the decision to read even a little bit of the copy because nobody feels comfortable stopping in the middle of a paragraph. However, if your promotion is made up of short, easy to read paragraphs and snippets of copy, the prospects are more likely to at least skim the copy or decide to start reading just a little to see if they want to read the rest. My father called it Eye Relief and without it, you will lose everyone who doesn't have OCD. Newbie writers think if the copy is interesting enough, people will read it. Wrong!"

"All the power in your sales copy comes from what you are saying and knowing your audience... not how you say it. In other words... market research is much more important than any creative writing ability. It takes marketing talent/experience to develop highly effective hooks, offers, an solutions from your research. The editing process which I'm going to thoroughly explain... is where all the professionalism comes into play. Just remember. no amount of clarity will make a bad offer better. Selling the wrong products to the wrong people at the wrong time will result in more wastec energy and resources than poorly worded copy."

"Anyway, many copywriters feel such words show laziness to find an even more powerful description so instead of saying "the room is messy" or "this technique is extremely effective" you might eliminate the adverbs and go with "the room looked like a hurricane came through" "this is a powerful technique" but don't go too far with this. very or Sometimes an adverb does help add punch so here is what you want to do in this step of the editing process. When you find an adverb in your copy jot down a few alternative ways fo say the same thing and then go with your gut as to which makes a stronger statement."

"Commas- Insert commas whenever you would normally have a slight pause in VOur voice or take a natural breath when reading your copy out loud. Normally, writers use commas, like the commas to the left and right of this bold part of this sentence, to highlight an explanation inside a sentence. But normally the flow will be much smoother for the reader it you use parenthesis (like the parenthesis to the left and right of this bold bold part of this sentence) before moving back to the main point."

"Here is another example. Earlier I wrote: „Let's start with the most important one." This becomes much more clearer if we drop the word "one" and spell out wha are talking about. Now it reads: Let's start with the most important pronoun to hunt down. Again you just need to question each one and if the copy would be more clear if you spelled out what the pronoun refers to do so. Or consider if your sentence would still be clear if you removed the word."

"Online I prefer to use Arial for a font and in print I like Courier New or Times New Roman because they are easy to read and nobody stops to think about how cool the font looks. There are many other great choices which will work just fine but you don't ever want prospects to stop and think about how lovely your layout and design are. Good copy is all about the message."

"Never confuse good grammar with good copywriting. "Got Milk?" is a brilliant marketing campaign using bad grammar. Don't sweat being grammatically correct until you are editing and even then you BU need to know when to break the rules. Everyone eventually sends out copy with errors so it is helpful to know a good grammar Nazi and thankfully they are a dime a dozen."