The little things like spelling and grammar and formatting?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have any more time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t sweat the small stuff\u201d they\u2019ll say.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I love learning from Herschell Gordon Lewis.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/lewis-herschell-gordon-001-reading-book-to-camera-300x169.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
He\u2019s passed away, but pick up his books whenever you\u2019re able.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll teach you the value of the small stuff that enhances your writing\u2019s clarity.<\/p>\n
For instance, if you\u2019re selling wine to an affluent crowd, you may decide to give away a free aerator.<\/p>\n
So you make the offer:<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s special: Buy 2 bottles of O\u2019Connor\u2019s Delight wine and get a FREE aerator!<\/strong><\/p>\n Except that offer\u2019s a dud.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because if you\u2019re dealing with the affluent market, a free offer holds little value.<\/p>\n To them? While not insulting, it just doesn\u2019t speak to them.<\/p>\n But wait. Before you kick the idea to the curb, try this:<\/p>\n Today\u2019s special: Buy two bottles of O\u2019Connor\u2019s Delight wine and receive a complimentary aerator!<\/strong><\/p>\n When the affluent person hears the word \u2018complimentary,\u2019 it tickles their ears.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an offer that speaks directly to them.<\/p>\n Also because they\u2019re upscale, they also prefer the word \u2018receive\u2019 over \u2018get\u2019.<\/p>\n Not to mention using the word \u2018two\u2019 instead of \u20182.\u2019<\/p>\n Hershell would obsess<\/em> over the little things like this.<\/p>\n He\u2019d have tons of copywriting rules.<\/p>\n It\u2019s nuanced stuff, but it all adds up, adding to clarity. And LEGITIMACY.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, legitimacy.<\/p>\n How so?<\/p>\n Well, have you ever read a sales letter and thought to yourself \u201can amateur wrote this\u201d?<\/p>\n That\u2019s because even though the copywriter understood the big rock elements of copywriting, they didn\u2019t get the memo on the finer points.<\/p>\n I call these gaffs in clarity and legitimacy \u201ctells\u201d.<\/p>\n Kinda like when you\u2019re playing poker and you can know if your opponent has a good hand or bad hand by their telltale quirks.<\/p>\n This is a big part of putting muscle into your copy.<\/p>\n The sad part is the majority of copywriters will brush off such mistakes without a second thought.<\/p>\n They can\u2019t be pestered by details.<\/p>\n Maybe that\u2019s because today\u2019s copywriters were heavily influenced not by Lewis, but by Gary Halbert.<\/p>\n Everyman\u2019s copywriter, Gary Halbert hated Lewis\u2019 rules.<\/p>\n He was too busy trying \u201cbig rock\u201d stuff to be worried about the little things.<\/p>\n Yet today, your buyers ARE subconsciously looking for these tells–anything to prove you are not who or what you say you are.<\/strong><\/p>\n You can no longer ignore the details, like Gary.<\/p>\n Because if you can\u2019t be trusted with the small stuff, how can you be trusted with the big stuff?<\/p>\n More critically, tells act like little \u201cspeed bumps,\u201d slowing your reader down on things unrelated to your offer.<\/p>\n \u201cHe should have used a semicolon instead of period.\u201d I\u2019ve watched over-the-shoulder of visitors using http:\/\/crazyegg.com<\/a> and http:\/\/hotjar.com<\/a> and you can actually see them pause over small stuff.<\/p>\n Fix them and you\u2019re good to go again.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019ll admit focusing on the small stuff takes extraordinary amounts time to get it right, because you\u2019re OCD obsessing.<\/p>\n But you and I know writing copy isn\u2019t a race.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about CONVERSIONS, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Big takeaway? The decision to \u201cclick the buy button\u201d is made up of a thousand of micro decisions to agree and keep reading.<\/p>\n Till next time,<\/p>\n Matt<\/p>\n P.S. Let\u2019s be clear:<\/strong><\/p>\n I am not talking about being a perfectionist, I am talking about eliminating the speed bumps which can stop your prospect from taking action.<\/p>\n “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never achieve it.” – Salvador Dali<\/p>\n P.P.S.<\/strong> If you Google Herschell, you\u2019ll see he was a director, semi-famous for his cult films 2000 Maniacs and Buckets of Blood, firmly establishing the splatter genre of horror.<\/p>\n He was ahead of his time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many copywriters work with what I call \u201ca big rock\u201d mindset\u2014making sure you take care of the most important things. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the story… A professor stands in front of the group of business students and says, “Okay, time for a quiz.” He pulls out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and sets it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5600,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5482\/revisions\/5600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cHe\u2019s overusing ellipses.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m 50 years old, why is he writing to me like a millennial who hasn\u2019t finished college?\u201d
\n\u201cDoes he always have to use a yellow highlighter on everything?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n