Remember how, a while back, we talked about the benefits of using active verbs in your copy (Think Active!)? You must have got some benefit from that discussion – it’s one of my most popular articles ever. So I think it’s time we played Fun With Grammar again (if only your 9th grade English class had been so application-oriented).

If you buy that the passive voice is death to persuasive writing (which was the point of that other little piece), then…

...continue to read "Pump Up Your Verbs"

Rhythm is an powerful element in your writing. And you can think of the rhythm of your writing in (at least) two ways. It can be the technique of matching the pace of your copy to the feelings and visuals you intend to create. But you can also think of rhythm as a way to impart a “musicality” and unpredictability.

Consciously using rhythm techniques helps you generate sight, feeling and, yes, even sound images for your reader.

Rhythm as Visual Mood

People internalize…

...continue to read "Practice Pacing the Rhythm Of Your Copy"

A couple of thoughts came to mind after reading Seth Godin’s brilliant post on “The power of smart copywriting.”

1) The best way to reveal the real substance (or lack thereof) of your message is to strip it down.  Remove all the wordsmithing, jargon, self-applied labels, ad-speak, etc and you’ll get down to the core message.

The process of stripping “Unlike any coffee you’ve ever had before” down to “The Best Coffee” reveals the rather empty content of a slogan that,…

...continue to read "Saying Something Powerful with Signaling Theory"

Do you have the courage to say what you’re not?

Most people don’t want to draw that sharp line of distinction, and it’s why their marketing efforts blend into the clutter.

Discernible edges and silhouettes allow us to visually “grip” an object and separate figure from ground.  Eliminate those edges and you’ll effectively camouflage yourself.

In the picture above, notice how the legs present a solid silhouette and are easily identified, while the man’s upper body camouflage breaks up his silhouette and…

...continue to read "Branding Through Reverse Camouflage"

I knew I had to buy a copy as soon as I saw it on the magazine stand: the issue of Time Magazine with Presidential temperament as the front cover story.  They even had four presidential faces on the cover, which, before examining them, made me think of previous explanations of temperament using the Four Presidents on Mt Rushmore:

Dutiful George Washington for Sensing-Judging / Methodicals Philosophical Thomas Jefferson for iNtuitive-Thinking / Competitives Rambunctious Teddy Roosevelt for Sensing-Perceiving / Spontaneous…

...continue to read "Presidential Candidates, Temperament & Website Copy?"

Imagine the following:  You’re alone at night, walking to your car in an isolated area.  A large man pops out of an alley and heads towards you.  It’s not just your nerves, he’s clearly coming after you, so you get ready to defend yourself.  In the dim light you see what looks like a club in his hand.  He swings.  You throw your hand up and block! 

Bet that conjured up some not-so-nice…

...continue to read "Are Your Headlines Offensive?"

One of the key things we teach in our Persuasive Online Copywriting course is how to speak to your customers, in their language, about what they care about.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson should have attended our course.   According to many analysts, he’s doing a terrible job of selling the bailout package to the American people.

MSN Money blogger Charley Blaine talks about the problem, and how he thinks, of all people, Jim Cramer has it right on how to put the…

...continue to read "Why Henry Paulson Needs to Attend Our Copywriting Course"

Want your website to sound open, uncontrived, and authentic? Keep reading! In our previous compendiums on copywriting advice, most of the links to Roy Williams’ Monday Morning Memos never made it into the post due to some kind of technical glitch. So to fix that, I started compiling most of my all-time favorite MMM’s that dealt specifically with writing.

Yet as I was compiling these links and re-reading the Memos, a central theme seemed to emerged: many of the Roy’s memos dealt with…

...continue to read "Learn Web 2.0 Copywriting Strategies in an Evening of Enjoyable Reading"

Salesmanship is about transferring confidence, and you can’t inspire confidence without first establishing your credibility. So when it comes to Landing Page copy, credibility is truly Job #1.Here are five must-haves for building that credibility where it often counts the most: 1. Scent They’re called landing pages because they’re where you plan for visitors to “land” after clicking through on PPC and targeted search terms. So before you do anything else, convince those visitors they’ve come to the right place by…

...continue to read "5 Copywriting Keys to Landing Page Credibility"

Who: Bryan Eisenberg, Holly Buchanan, Jeff Sexton and select members of the FutureNow team.

What: Our most popular seminars return to New York City for this exciting two-day training event. Get first-hand advice from FutureNow’s leading experts in online conversion, persuasion and customer focus.

In order to keep things relaxed and ensure that guests have a chance to get all of their questions answered, class size is limited, so act soon!

Choose one seminar and save. Choose both and save big.

Persuasive Online Copywriting is…

...continue to read "Two FutureNow Seminars, 6/2-3 in New York City"