In a previous Conversion Clinic blog post, I introduced the concept of how to tell stories with a funny video. Today, I want to address some more copywriting tips that help you convert visitors into paying clients.

Conversion Clinic Tip #1: Feed your reader with bite-size chunks

That means use: Short words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs.

Short words

Short words are anchored in childhood, before our intellectual development takes place. So they speak directly to our emotions. George Bush knew this well – speaking to the lowest common denominator of society with unparalleled success – Democrat John Kerry at the other end of the spectrum spoke with such sophisticated language that even seasoned political pundits needed a thesaurus to decipher his cryptic messages!

In his book, Words that Work, Frank Luntz explains this with exceptional humour and revealing honesty – in fact it’s one of my ‘must read’ books on my Linked In Reading List for anyone writing copy.

Of course being exponential, you might want to come up with words like antimimeticisomorphism, but that’s a discussion for another day!

Short sentences

A sentence is like a puzzle. It must be decoded by the reader. Aren’t long sentences more difficult to decode than short ones?

Sure. The long ones require you to think just to figure them out. They add needless overhead, narrowing the mental bandwidth available for your sales message. And they run counter to the pleasure principle, because thinking for most people, hurts.

Read this next long sentence and you’ll see what I mean …

A sentence is like a puzzle that must be decoded, with long sentences being more difficult to decode than short ones, adding needless overhead, narrowing the mental bandwidth available for the message, and running counter to the pleasure principle, because thinking for most people, hurts.

Do you see how much more involving and pleasurable it is reading short sentences?

Of course being Exponential, you actually might want to have long sentences, such as this one… (Take a deep breath!)

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Short Paragraphs

Now paragraphs are another thing altogether. Each paragraph is a decision point. Your reader is asking himself, “Do I really want to tackle this one?” “Do I want to keep reading?”

How does he or she decide?

By the look of it of course …

Short paragraphs are inviting. They hold out the promise of instant gratification. Long ones are intimidating. They look like work. And who wants more work?

It’s human nature not to want to start something we may not want to finish. The same goes for paragraphs. It’s also human nature to want to remain consistent with our commitments. We don’t want to stop something we started. The same goes for paragraphs.

Of course you can throw that out the window and great MASSIVE paragraphs just to be antimimeticisomorphic, but the point is to do that as the EXCEPTION, not the rule.

So there you have it – the long and short of it.

Yes, the pun was intended! We recently taught participants at the recent Professional Mastery event – Unleash The Speaker Within, how to use puns, quotes and metaphors so they could become corporate rockstars… You would have been on the floor laughing your head off if you had been there – it was the most electrifying performances we’ve ever witnessed – totally engaging and captivating, but that’s a discussion for the Professional Mastery Blog!