Technology Marketing by Tatum MarketingJust another WordPress weblog

When I work with clients, I sometimes find they worry more about the length of the copy rather than what’s in it.

I guess we all have some preconceived notion about what a finished piece will look like, and I fully appreciate that people are super busy, but if length is the primary motivator when we write, we’re going about it all wrong.

Good copy requires that you put yourself in the reader’s shoes. In addition to leading the reader, you must also anticipate and address questions, doubts, and objections they’ll have about your product or service. Stop short of these goals, and you may not achieve your desired call to action.

So how do you overcome the very valid concern that prospects won’t take the time to read your collateral if it’s too long? The answer lies in good design coupled with a few copywriting secrets.

During the next few weeks I’ll share some secrets anybody can use to make their marketing messages pop. Here’s the first tip.

Make your marketing messages pop tip #1: Keep your sentences short and punchy.

If your sentences are wordy and hard to comprehend, the most likely culprit is a passive voice. Take a look at the two sentences below:

Active Voice: The executive committee approved the new policy.
Passive Voice: The new policy was approved by the executive committee.

Notice how the subject and object are switched?

Sometimes a copywriter will deliberately use the passive voice to front load a sentence with impactful words, but as a general rule, you want your copy to live “in the present” with action-oriented verbs.

Microsoft Word has an option that will help you find and fix those passive sentences. The picture below shows you where to find this option in MS Word 2007:

The other piece of advice I can offer comes from the book: “The Elements of Style,” by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. This quick-read book has an entire chapter devoted to omitting unnecessary words.

When I write, I first focus on getting my thoughts down on paper. After it’s written, I’ll go back with my mental scissors and clip every unnecessary word I find. Using this approach, I can literally cut 100, 200, sometimes 300 words from a piece that was originally 900 words long. The slimmer, trimmer copy gets the point across faster because prospects won’t have to sift through meaningless words to find the substance.