I love Ivan Levison, a direct marketing writer based in the Bay Area. His writing is clear, punchy and it will make you want to buy pretty much anything he’s writing about.
Today’s post curates a newsletter article—“When it comes to copywriting, it pays to be specific” —he published in February 2013. His ideas are timeless, worth as much today as they were more than a year ago.
Mr. Levison’s message is that you can more easily catch readers’ attention and persuade them to take action if you ditch the generalities and use specifics. For example—and this is one he provided—write this headline: “The seven biggest mistakes database marketers make – and how to avoid them” rather than “Mistakes database marketers make.” The numbers make the difference here, and they spur readers to find out what those doggone mistakes are and what they can do to steer clear.
I’m reminded of the day that my colleagues and I met with senior management to try to persuade those worthies of the righteousness of our approach to a specific problem. Our spokeswoman used the expressions “a whole bunch” or “a lot” instead of specific figures or percentages. Management listened politely—this was the 80’s in Virginia, not right now in Silicon Valley—but by the end of our session, it was clear that we’d wasted our breath and everyone’s time.
BTW, I know that my headline is a touch cute and doesn’t really address the subject of the post. How would you fix it?
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