Less is more
In these attention-sparse days, short-form copy has become the norm for many media channels from Twitter to Facebook, the web to broadcast news. Messages must be distilled to their absolute essence. I draw the analogy of boiling a stock pot: the final reduction delivers a rich concentration.
Get to the heart of the message
Don’t get side-tracked. Catch the attention of your reader by getting to the nub of the subject quickly. Great advertising copy writers like David Ogilvy urged his agency writers to make certain that headlines held a either a selling message or a benefit. He also advised: ‘Do not address your audience as if they are in a stadium. When people read your copy they are alone. Pretend you are writing them a letter.’ Don’t let product or service features get in the way of customer benefits.