How to Strengthen Your Copy by Being Concise

When writing copy, one thing you must pay attention to is making it concise. To quote Strunk and White's book, The Elements of Style, it says, "Omit needless words." This applies to writing copy as well. When your copy is concise, your sales message is strengthened. It gets straight to the point and is easier to understand. If your copy is longwinded, you may lose your prospect.

So how do we write concise copy?

First, write the first draft without editing yourself. Get it all down in writing and let it flow naturally. Don't censor anything. This is because if you write and edit at the same time, you get a "creative block" and the flow of your writing stops. Remember, you can always edit your copy later.

Okay, now your first draft is complete. Look over your copy to see if it can be more concise. Look for any unnecessary words that can be deleted.

Here are examples of sentences that are rewritten to be more concise.

Example #1

"There are two different people." Rewritten as, "There are two people."

By definition, two people must be different. Stating they're different is redundant. We remove the word "different" from the sentence.

Example #2

"You know that the book is heavy." This is rewritten as, "You know the book is heavy."

We remove the word "that." Often, the word "that" doesn't add meaning to the sentence. It can simply be removed.

Example #3

"He had developed it quickly." It's rewritten as, "He developed it quickly."

The word "had" is unnecessary. The word "developed" already shows it's in the past tense. Mentioning "had" to point out it happened in the past is redundant.

Example #4

"Write down your personal details about yourself." Rewritten as, "Write down your personal details."

We take out "about yourself" because "personal" is already referring to yourself. Adding "about yourself" is redundant.

Another thing to look for is to remove any benefits that are irrelevant to your prospect. For instance, if your prospect is looking for software that will boost her productivity and you list the benefits of having a pet cat, you'll lose her interest.

Also, remove any paragraphs that go off topic or trail off. Anything that doesn't add to your sales message should be removed.

Avoid redundancies and repetitions. The only exception is if you include a repetition for emphasis, such as emphasizing your guarantee or your unique selling proposition.

So after you finish writing your first draft, check your copy for conciseness. Remove any unnecessary words from your copy. Your copy will be strengthened as a result.

Francis Lui is a freelance web copywriter with web technical skills. To get FREE web copywriting and Internet marketing tips, sign up for his FREE newsletter, The Web Copy Letter, at http://www.francislui.com/.