“Dear Name” Copy

Posted on October 14th, 2008 by Larry Chase

When writing copy, it’s a good idea to not only visualize who your reader is, but to give him or her a name as well. Most copy I see is what I call “Dear Name” copy, since it doesn’t really resonate with anyone in particular. It seems to be written to a demographic or an imaginary audience. Then the writer or client wonders why it didn’t pull well.
This isn’t just true of ad or sales copy. In the early days, radio variety show host Arthur Godfrey actually had a picture of a person’s face right over the microphone so he could talk to it. Listeners to his program always said they felt like he was talking directly to them. This doesn’t mean ad or sales copy has to be chatty. Sometimes bullet points speak louder than paragraphs because the reader is scanning instead of reading. The bottom line is to think about who you are writing to and how they’re reading you. LC

The Internet Marketing Tip above originally appeared in Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers which you can subscribe to at no charge at www.wdfm.com.