In college, I was friends with a guy who spoke in a monotone. He was nice. He was sweet. He had a great smile, the crooked kind that was slightly mysterious. All good things when it comes to male friends.
The problem was spending time with him made me feel lackadaisical and sluggish. He spoke in a monotone and it made me feel like life was one. Straight. Line. Of. Non. Emotion. He didn’t express highs or lows. He didn’t exert passion, for anything.
Needless to say, the friendship didn’t go very far. But, it taught me an important lesson. Passion is at the heart of every important decision. This couldn’t be more true than it is with copywriting.
Good copywriting, the kind that inspires action, evokes emotion. Spelling and grammar are great. In fact, they’re vital. Like the foundation of the Sistine Chapel, without them your marketing campaign will fall flat on its face. On the other hand, copy filled with passion sticks. It is remembered. It’s not passed over like rubble in the streets.
Is your business building the Sistine Chapel of words? No. But, do you want your business to be the monotone boy with the goofy grin whose name no one can remember? Definitely not.
How does passion play out in copywriting?
Recently, a local mailing company re-designed their website to highlight their direct mail services. Snail mail is so passé these days, right? Wrong.
Sure, they could have used a standard definition of what they do:
Send letters directly to your prospects.
Instead, we delved deeper into why what they do matters and came up with:
Engage your prospects with a handheld hello.
The meaning is the same. The passion? Well, that’s up to you to decide. Which one makes you want to send a letter to your customers?
