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THE DIRECT MARKETING COPYWRITER'S DILEMMA

THE DIRECT MARKETING COPYWRITER'S DILEMMA

When writing a direct mail letter many writers deliberately use contractions and punctuation because they want their letters to sound more like conservation.

Therefore, phrases like" You will" or "We will" are pared down to "You'll" or "We'll" just like in normal speech.

However, there is a hidden danger in doing that because first, contractions tire the eye. They force the reader to take into consideration the presence of a tiny apostrophe lurking in between letters and that slows reading down.

It takes almost the same amount of time to read the words in the second column as the first:
Shan't Shall not
Can't Can not
Won't Will not

Things can get more complicated with the addition of punctuation, like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence that looks almost the same as the capital letter "I" or a lower case "l".

For example:
"Here's how!"
“Get this great new bow!"

Most readers first only skim over the letter, trying to decipher the content, so they often look at the words with a lazy eye and this can cause the words to appear other than what they are.

The word "how" with the exclamation mark coming after the word may make it look like the word "howl" and the word "bow" can be mistaken for "bowl". This often forces the reader to stop and go back and reread the passage, interrupting not only the flow but also the comprehension.

Many modern writers have also decreased the amount of punctuation in sentences, eliminating commas and hyphens to speed up readership.





THE DIRECT MARKETING COPYWRITERS DILEMMA - To learn more about this author, visit Billy Sharma's Website.

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Stephanie Robey
Stephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals.

She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com   Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences.  Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

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Billy Sharma
(Visit Billy's Website) BILLY SHARMA Billy holds a Bachelor of Science degree and is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of J.J. School of Art (Bombay) and the Hochshüle für Gestaltung (Bauhaus School of Design, Germany). After many years of working for other companies, Billy founded Designers Inc. In 1999 he became Managing Director and Creative Director of Brann Worldwide in Toronto. Under his stewardship the agency grew three-fold in two years when Brann Worldwide was elected the number one direct marketing agency in the world in 2000. Billy has extensive advertising and direct marketing experience gained in many national and international advertising agencies in Europe, U.S. and Canada. This has honed his creative skills to help provide breakthrough creative ideas for his clients.

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