Improving Bland Copywriting with Dead Characters
Why playing it safe and generic doesn't work in copywriting
Most of us write blandly. I know, not you, not me. Yeah, sure. But our natural inclination is to write bland, predictable stuff. That's because when we sit down to write, we know exactly what we want to communicate and we go in a straight line to our destination. BOR-ing!
See, your visitors read that kind of predictable, straight-line stuff all the time. They know exactly where you're going with it, too. And if they know where it's going, what reason is there for them to read it?
What gets their attention then? Kill their expectations - like in the movie I took my family to a while back.
The movie was a big-screen version of a short-lived, but cult hit, TV series from a couple of years ago. We enjoyed the movie immensely. It had both the action and the humor we had always loved in the series. But one thing they did took it to another level of edge-of-your seat suspense.
They killed some main characters. Killed main characters? You don't do that in a movie where the built-in fan base already loves those characters! Ah, but you do if you want viewers to feel suspense when the other characters face danger in the climax.
Let's face it. When you expect the characters to be there in any sequels, you know that no matter how close to death those characters appear, they're going to be OK in the end. But if you see characters that you consider irreplacable actually die, you take seriously the jeopardy the others face later. You think, "Hey, the writers already killed off character A. What's to guarantee they won't kill off this one, too?"
In short, you build the audience's interest by pulling the rug out from underneath what they expect.
So what does this have to do with your writing? Just this: if you want to grab your visitors' interest, you can't write straight line, predictible stuff. Throw them off the track and get them curious about where you're going.
Consider this article. If I had merely done a straight line toward an intellectual conclusion that it was important to throw an occasional disconnect into your writing to pique your readers' curiosity, would it have held your interest as much as detouring into a (seemingly) unrelated discourse on movies?
Reversing your readers' expectations is just as effective in copywriting as it is in screenwriting. It raises their curiosity and puts a vice grip on their attention as they focus on figuring out the unexpected direction where you're taking them.
So look at your copywriting. Find where you can disconnect your visitors from their expectations. Take them on a slightly unexpected (but totally relevant) path toward where you planned to take them all along. They'll thank you for it by paying far more attention to your message than they ever have before.
Helping you become the successful business owner you want to be.
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