During your prospect's busy day, you know they will be constantly being distracted by an ever growing to-do list, late reports to complete, meetings to arrange, unopened mail, etc. But if only they could spend a few moments to look over your proposal, you know they would instantly place an order with you…

But if their mind wanders even for a split second, your letter, flyer or webpage will be passed over without the slightest remorse.

If you want your prospect to read your offer, don’t make these mistakes…

Your prospect will give up on your sales message if any of the following happen:

1. You confuse them. Unless you have a clear logical path, your prospect will get lost and lose interest.
2. You bore them. Learn to keep the momentum high by being interesting, talk using stories, share experiences and above all focus on the prospect.
3. You make dubious and suspicious claims. Keep your copy clear, simple and concise and constantly focused on the prospect.

In order to avoid the above, follow these 7 Golden rules of writing copy:

1) Keep it logical and organised

The easiest way to taking in new information is by breaking it down into manageable chunks and defining clear milestones to help the reader feel that ground is being covered.

If you can build your offer based on a brick-by-brick approach to each completed statement, then following the logical path of the message will mean the only rational conclusion that can be made, if the whole marketing message was read, is that the reader must be foolish to not respond.

When creating the logical path for your prospects, it is also important to ensure that the path you take them along is relevant to their logic. You must consider what your prospect must believe in order to buy. Outline the clear steps in the same order the prospect needs to see them.

2) Keep it moving

After incorporating rule #1), make sure you make each point only once. Going back over the same point at a later stage will mean you will lose the sense of momentum.

Try to catch areas of your copy where you yourself are distracted or lose interest. By reading your copy out aloud, these areas will become apparent. Imagine if you were your prospect in a busy office with many distractions. Highlight any sections that make you lose interest. Edit or remove these sections until the final draft has you gripped to the last word.

3) Keep it simple

Each sentence should be a clear statement. It should clearly represent one complete thought.

Avoid underdeveloped thoughts, complicated or unusual words, complex sentences, or industry jargon.

A simple technique to keeping things simple:

1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them
2. Tell them
3. Prove what you’ve just told them: facts and figures
4. Tell them what you told them: the conclusion

4) Keep it concise

There are several ways to help you say more with less words…

1. Use a thesaurus to help you find more precise words. By checking similar words in the thesaurus, you’ll very often find a better word to describe your thoughts
2. Eliminate unnecessary words. By keeping your copy conversational, you will discover words such as ‘that’ and ‘then’ can be removed
3. Avoid unhelpful repetition. By adhering to a logical flow and keeping the momentum of your offer, repetition only slows down the copy and destroys the momentum
4. Use figures of speech to convey images. Use metaphors, similes, action words and onomatopoeia in your copy. This will describe your thoughts more accurately using much less copy.

5) Keep it believable

Your prospect will already be healthily sceptical. By making dubious and questionable claims that you cannot prove will only confirm their suspicions.

6) Keep it potent

Keep the topic of conversation on your prospect. Find ways to personalise your copy so that your prospect can see how your offer affects them.

7) Be careful with ambiguous statements and unintended impressions

When you are happy with your content, it is important that non-marketing people read your copy. As you are working on the copy, you will very likely misread sections and assume meanings that make sense to you, but no-one else.