Today, you’re getting 2 quick copy tips.
Why?
This morning an excellent marketing email landed in my inbox, but I noticed 2 very small changes that would make it a tonne easier to read.
I started writing a quick note to the author and then thought, why not share this with my whole list? (because I am lazy efficient)
So here ya go.
1. Space it out
We are all time poor. So we scan, rather than read.
Unless something catches our attention.
Walls of text don’t to that. Spaces, bullet points and headings do.
We need to get our audience to understand the content, really fast. We need to create a few stand out moments in our copy that do that. If our audience - in the few seconds they give us - decide that the content is for them, they will read on. If they decide it isn’t for them, awesome! You’ve saved them time and made their day easier. They might even love you a bit more than they did before.
The caveat: people who use screen readers don’t have the luxury of scanning. It’s likely that they are using a keyboard to move through website content. I must admit I don’t know if the same works in emails. Subheadings help these users skip through sections to find the right bit for them.
2. Bring out the benefits in your buttons
Like bullets, buttons stand out. Those of us who can see our screens, have learnt that buttons are there to be clicked.
We might not read the full copy, but our eyes will be drawn to the buttons. That means:
- Buttons should get to the point, fast.
- Buttons should tell me exactly what will happen next.
- Ideally, buttons should be unique on a page.
By that I mean, if you have three buttons on the one page that link to different places, they shouldn’t all say the same thing, e.g. ‘learn more’. When our pals who use screen readers move through the content, they might not be served the ‘learn more’ immediately after the thing that they would learn more about. It’s confusing. And, if we’re scanning, if we just see three ‘learn more’ buttons it hasn’t helped us understand what the page is about. It hasn’t saved us time. God forbid, we actually have to READ.
What we want to do is highlight ‘the thing the user wants to do’.
- Register
- Sign up
- Download
- Go to
- Join
- Listen
- Get
- Learn about (hugely different to ‘learn more’)
Add ‘the thing’ to the end to really drive it home:
- Register for ‘Amazing Workshop That Will Change Your Life’
- Get your voucher
- Join the waitlist
- Learn how to write right now!
None of these are particularly FUN. But, they are faster to understand than ‘Click here to register for ‘Amazing Workshop That Will Change Your Life’ and more meaningful that just ‘Learn more’.