Copywriting Cosmetic Techniques
I recently had the honor and privilege of being the sole guest on a teleseminar with marketing and copywriting geniuses Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer (if you would like a printed transcript of this call as a free gift from me to you, email admin@copyboosters.com and request the interview transcript). It was a 90 minute call on the topic of copywriting cosmetics, which are techniques and devices copywriters and marketers use pieces that:
1) Grab attention
2) Make the piece easier to read
3) Make the piece look more personal
4) Offer a “dual readership” path for skimmers.
If you are not familiar with these cosmetic techniques, let me list the ones I use most often. In future posts, I will show how each of these cosmetic techniques are individually used to improve your copywriting:
1. Boldfacing
2. Borders
3. Bullet lists
4. Business graphics
5. CAPITALIZATION
6. Captions
7. Cartoons
8. Check lists
9. Color
10. Columns
11. Drop caps
12. Fonts
13. Highlighting
14. Illustrations
15. Indenting
16. Italics
17. Line justification
18. Line spacing
19. Margin notes
20. Number lists
21. Personalization
22. Photographs
23. Pull quotes
24. Screen tints
25. Sidebars
26. Simulated handwriting & doodles
27. Simulated stamps
28. Subheads
29. Text boxes
30. Underscoring
31. White space
While each of these techniques can be used to increase readership, they must be used correctly and with proper intention. I always like to say “overuse = abuse” and its quite appropriate when considering the design of your copywriting project. The other important thing to stress is that no amount of cosmetic technique is going to replace good, fundamental copywriting principles.
