Wow! Did You See The Body On That One?

Writing Body Copy

Body Copy is the "body" of your marketing piece, whether it is a sales letter or a space ad.

Just as an attractive person catches your eye and may cause you to study their shape, attractive body copy captures the eye and interest of your prospects.

The way your body copy looks is vitally important to the effectiveness of your copy. It has to be easy on the eye and not appear intimidating.

You want to break the look of your body copy up so that it doesn't seem ominous to the reader and you definitely want to construct it so it gets read.

Here are the most important elements in creating killer body copy.

1. Use serif and sans serif type properly — I'm writing in serif type now. It's easier to read but takes up more space. This is a sans serif type. It takes up less space but is harder to read. *NOTE: In print it is often best to use Sans Serif (i.e. Arial) for headlines and sub headlines/paragraph separators, and Serif (i.e. Times, Courier) for your body copy. Online however, Sans Serif fonts are preferred for body copy and Arial and Verdana seem to be the most desired choices.

2. Don't use too many different fonts — It's easy nowadays to put a huge variety of fonts in your copy. But limiting it to a couple makes your copy look more organized and easier to read.

3. Use italics to emphasize a word, phrase etc., but don't over use it.

4. Use a 10-point font or larger— there are some cases where people will read even 6 point type, but as a general rule 10-12 is the best.

5. Break up long copy-use short paragraphs, sub headlines, bullets and illustrations to keep the reader interested and help lead them down the path to the sale.

6. Avoid Reverse Type it is hard to read and should be used sparingly.

7. Indent Paragraphs — it give the reader a clear starting place and increases white space for ease of reading.

8. DON'T WRITE IN ALL CAP'S- use capital letters for emphasis in certain areas but not entire paragraphs.

9. Use the space your paying for — the more you tell the more you sell. Don't make the mistake some large ad agencies do like buying two pages in the Wall Street Journal and sticking in three words. In bold type. This can create a lasting memory, but chances are it won't cause a sale. Too much white space is a waste.

10. If you use illustrations — caption them. The captions should be strong; a captioned photograph is read more often by prospects than the entire ad or letter on it's own.

On the next two pages you'll find examples of two different ways to write the same information. One good, and one bad: