“When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.” – Elmore Leonard
As strange as it may sound, Mr. Leonard is correct in his thinking. No, I’m not asking you to discover some hidden power of clairvoyance lying dormant in your brain. It’s simple, know who you are writing for and don’t waste their time. You wouldn’t want someone wasting your time, right?
When writing copy to make someone buy into an idea, service or product, it is paramount to win them over as soon as you can. Don’t make them sit through a couple lines of nonsense before ending on a partially successful plea to buy what you are selling. Copywriters and salesmen aren’t that different, they are both selling something. And when you are selling someone something, you need to pitch them and close them as quickly as you can.
I personally despise wasting words and most other people should too. Why say something in ten sentences when you can do it in two or three. The first sentence of any copy should be the strongest. It needs to have the idea, the sell, the tone and attitude of whatever comes after all combined into one. That’s not to say it needs to be chocked full of words and ideas, instead, it needs to be concise and to the point.
In Hollywood, when you pitch a movie to a producer, you need to win them over with that first line. No stumbling, no reaching, just pure content. And just like copywriting, you need to win them over with that first line and make sure that the rest follows suit. If you promise something in your first line, you better act on it. The initial line is the most important because it is the point where a reader will decide if they are going to take the content serious, as a whole.
The first line can be any combination of intelligence, wit, information and numerous other things but, in the end, it needs to be what the customer is looking for. I can’t stress the importance of snagging a customer on the first line hook, line and sinker because it makes everything after that so much simpler.
Is One Word More Important Than The Other?
