Transcript:

So remember, clarity over creativity. Curiosity in your headline, curiosity a little bit in your copy, and people will take the action that you want them to.

Hey there, it's Monica, happy November 19th, 2018. It is the evening here, it's a Monday, which is always fun. I hope you had a good weekend. So, today I thought we will talk about something that popped up at a meeting I had earlier. I was talking to somebody who had bought our engineering Black Friday course last week and he was implementing it and was doing a great job. I mean he had busted out these emails and Black Friday is coming. It's Friday, so he was on top of it. I was really impressed and as I was reading his copy, I realized that he made the mistake that a lot of people make. And I see it. So I wanted to talk about it.

He went for a lot of creativity and curiosity, that's right, over clarity. And I see this a lot with people thinking that they've got to be all like super genius when it comes to writing sales copy or any kind of email marketing or any sort of marketing. And I'm just here to tell you that that is a lie. You need to be clear. Okay? Now can you give things fun names and do all that. Yes. But the clear that you make your message, the easier it is going to be for the prospect or the person reading it to understand it. So if you're trying to be all smart and clever, they're going to be like, “Oh, this isn't for me.” and they're going to bounce. They're going to be out of there. Right? So don't do that. One of the things that actually, when I was back in software development, I had to teach people how to write software requirements and software requirements are pretty complex, right?

You've got screens and you know, how they interact with other things and how they interact with the data and the data gets out to reports and all of these things. And the one thing that I always taught the people I was teaching was that if you're writing above a fifth grade level, you're making it too complicated because the thing is, is that you have to write for understanding. And that's true of any kind of writing, actually, it doesn't matter what you're writing, if you're not writing for understanding from your reader, then your message is going to get lost and it's going to get gone. So I see this a lot in people who are writing sales copy and they're new to it. They try to be all clever and creative and while there's a spot for a little bit of creativity, you definitely don't want to use the same boring sentences and cliches and things like that.

You also don't want to confuse your reader. So when you're writing, just remember clarity over creativity and curiosity. I do have one exception for that. And that is the headline- if you're doing headline curiosity all day everyday, but for the rest of the copy, just be clear. Now, don't give away everything, leave some curiosity. But definitely don't name things like, “The 12 steps of Gyronomic laws” and people are like, “What is that?” Nobody knows what that means, right? But, you can't say “The 12 steps to getting the solution that you want” right? So does that make sense?

Alright. So remember, clarity over creativity. Curiosity in your headline, curiosity a little bit in your copy, and people will take the action that you want them to. And also, don't forget your clear call to action. Don't confuse them. If they're downloading a report, make the buttons say, Download Free Report. If you can make it super clear, if you can put an icon on it, put an icon on it. Remember, you're writing for clarity for your reader, not to impress them with how sophisticated and smart you are. They really don't care. Sorry to burst your bubble. So always go for clarity. All right, hope you have a great Monday and I'll see you tomorrow.