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- Formatting matters
Welcome to the 24th issue of Write On!
The newsletter that met its yearly quota for cheese curds and deep-dish pizza on its trip to Milwaukee and Chicago this past week.
Estimated read time: 2 minutes 48 seconds
“Nobody cares about my story.”
This is by far the biggest misconception I hear from entrepreneurs when it comes to selling their products with storytelling.
They usually think this way because of 1 of 2 reasons:
They never tried telling their story.
They tried to tell their story and failed.
Addressing objection #1 is easy. Not telling your story is imposter syndrome getting in the way. Plain and simple.
Addressing objection #2 comes with some baggage. You’ve gotten past the fear of starting. But now you’re afraid of repeated failures.
Here’s one of the main reasons why people fail at telling stories in their copywriting:
They think the story is about themselves. But it’s actually about the reader.
If you want people to care about your story, it must always tie back to the reader.
But how do you write a story about yourself or your business that relates to the reader?
This topic is much more complex than one newsletter intro can handle.
That’s why I’ll be covering it in detail with my new course: The Storywriting Playbook
205+ Write On readers are on the waitlist to become a better storyteller so they can sell more online. Consider joining them because you’ll get:
Early access to the course launch
Sneak peeks into the course
Exclusive pricing
Just click the button below 👇
Top Finds This Week:
📖 Storytelling: Compelling copy combined with good storytelling is an unfair advantage. Here’re 7 copywriting tips to help you write sticky stories: (link)
🧠 Psychology: 9 psychology secrets that will 3x your conversions: (link)
🖼 Framework: 11 copywriting frameworks to help you sell your ideas: (link)
📜 Principles: Quick tip to help you write visually appealing content: (link)
⚙️ Resource: A free tool that analyzes your headlines and provides suggestions for improvements: (link)
🤖 AI: An acronym to help you craft the perfect ChatGPT prompt: (link)
✍️ Write On: How many "yes" answers did you have on this copywriting test for your brand? (link)
Formatting matters
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
We’ve all heard some version of this old saying before.
But it’s relevant to copywriting too.
It’s not just about the words you write. It’s about how it looks.
Because the easier it is to read through your copy, the better your chances of getting a conversion at the end.
Here’re some quick tips to improve the formatting and readability of your copywriting:
Short copy:
Did it work?
99% of you are probably saying “yes” in your heads right now.
Our brains have been trained to skim and look for quick patterns.
You read the first line because it’s:
Centered
Has the biggest font
Uses contrast (black font on white background)
You treat the font size as your gauge for the level of importance.
Smaller font = Less important
These formatting principles are best applied to:
Ads
Emails (above the fold)
Landing pages (above the fold)
(Above the fold = Copy is visible on screen without having to scroll)
Long copy:
Raise your hand if you skipped over reading those blocks of text. 🙋♂️
Listen… I’m not saying all blocks of text are bad. We read books, blogs, etc. when we’re really interested in a topic.
But, you’re facing an uphill battle with most of your audience by writing your longer copy like this.
For most readers, white space is your friend.
The best writers are using white space purposefully without you even realizing it. Your favorite:
Emails
Landing pages
Twitter threads
Linkedin posts & carousels
They’re all spaced out with one goal in mind:
To get you to read the next line.
Then the next line.
Then the next…
It flat-out works. Because it feels less daunting to read one line at a time than a big block of text.
💡 Bottom line: Use font size, contrast, and white space to make your copy easier to read.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.
See you next Wednesday!
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here’re two ways I can help you:
Facts tell. Stories Sell. Use storytelling in your copywriting to grow your business. Get early access to my new course: The Storywriting Playbook (👉Add me to the waitlist!)
Keep your writing sharp all year round and enjoy free lifetime access to my collection of Write On copywriting guides (👉View all guides)
P.P.S. If you've got a moment, I'd love to get your feedback:
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