The online written word can be very powerful. It’s your number one tool to make people want to buy from you in internet marketing. When you rely on the written word to get a message across, there are things you can do to increase your chances of having your desired impact.
Here are some helpful Writing Tips to help you get what you want from your articles, blogs posts, and sales letters.
1. Headlines
Part of the battle is getting people to actually read what you write and a good headline can help you do that. Think like you’re writing for a newspaper and imagine that there are a lot of choices for people on what they’ll read.
You want your headline to stand out from the rest. Write a great headline but make sure you’re going to deliver what you promise.
2. Grab Attention
Tell people why they should read the article in the first paragraph. Enticing them in the beginning of the article will help keep their focus and attention. People have short attention spans online so you need to grab their attention and tell them the benefit of staying with you ASAP.
3. Short Paragraphs
Use short paragraphs. White space can keep people reading, even if it’s a long article because it won’t seem like it. Think ‘scannable’ content.
4. Aesthetics
Make your headlines big and bold and your sub-headings stand out as well. Use bold and italics for emphasis. Fonts can definitely help you get strong points across in your message. A line or two with yellow highlighting if in a sales letter or landing page (don’t overdo it) can also really drive a message home with people. Photos and embedded online videos that support the message on the page can help, too.
5. Call To Action
Give them somewhere to go at the end. A call to action or a ‘learn more here’ definitely helps. Provide value in your article but ensure you leave something to the imagination so people will want more and follow you to find out more.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
The yellow highlighting… heehee, that makes me giggle. There’s a group of copywriter bloggers/IM’ers who call themselves “Third Tribers” to describe a certain style of IM’ing that subscribe to. They say they hate yellow highlighted words because they think it’s the sleaze kind of IM’ing. Not gospel, just makes me smile when I see it now
Hi Sean,
These are great tips and I’ve bookmarked the page. The more I read about the importance of writing to get people’s attention; the more I cringe when I think of what I have been writing.
I feel my posts are like some soccer Mum’s minivan. It’s reliable and dependable and it will get the job done. But it’s not pretty. You can walk in the parking lot and nobody is looking at it. I want my posts to be a Porsche. (Apologies to any soccer Mum’s who have a minivan.)
Great comment Jazz… I had a laugh (no I am not a soccer mum)
I wonder if Journalists are the better IMs as they are used to headlines, attention grabbing and content writing. Or copywriters
.
I guess it is something where you always can improve, so I will keep on learning on this issue.
Hi Sean
Thankyou for the great information in this post. It is so crucial to be able to write copy that is short and to the point and gets peoples attention. I don’t know if many people can do that naturally. Did you learn this skill from someone?
I really like your 5 writing tips which is a sort of checklist. It is a great reference for my copy writing from now on.
I have bookmarked as it is very valuable information.
Blessings
Elly
Like the idea of spacing between paragraphs and using short sentences. Notice these type articles are easier to read and keep my attention till the end. This being the desired result..
Plenty of spacing allows the reader to imagine it is a short article.
Small things can make big differences when it comes to online copy John
Yes, these are excellent points to make – especially about making paragraphs scannable – we all tend to do that first before going into a proper ‘read’ as it were. Then the headlines become important to grab out attention as well.
Hey Sean,
I’m amazed at how many people don’t use the spacing between paragraphs, regardless of if it’s a sales letter, blog or email. Quite often, when I send messages or emails to people online, I’ll get complimented on the fact that I use the a ‘letter’ style of writing, as opposed to just pushing a solid block of text at them. It makes it so much easier to read.
Just a thought!
Cheers,
Pete
What a great blog and so true I lose interest if the articles I read are to long.
Tiffany
Hi Sean,
Attention grabbing headlines can mean different things to different people and depending on what the interests are. If reading a newspaper I’m looking for headlines on worldly events. If reading the Financial Review I’m looking for investment headlines that grab my attention. If shopping I’m searching for promises of a bargain in the newspaper advertising section.
Which leads to a question Sean: Is it possible to grab everyone’s attention with attention grabbing headlines or just people who are interested in a certain niche?
You could have the most attention grabbing headline ever, but if certain people are not interested in that topic, there’s a fair chance they won’t click through regardless of the headline. In saying that, people who are interested in the topic probably won’t be able to bypass a good headline without checking it out
These simple attention grabbing writing tips are handy to have beside you when writing articles. Having a great headline is the biggest thing to getting people to actually read your articles.