Good Morning
In my last tip I wrote about the seven emotional hot buttons you must have in your copy. In this tip I would like to address some basic rules for creating easy-to-read copy.
Again, it does not matter if you are writing pay-per-click ads, social media posts, copy for your videos, podcasts or anything that a customer or prospect will see or hear; you need to have at least a basic understanding of writing for sales.
Short3
“Short Words! Short Sentences! Short Paragraphs!” – Andrew J. Byrne.
Optimal Sentence Length (Number of Words)
Tests have shown that a sentence of eight words is very easy to read; of 11 words, easy; of 14 words, fairly easy; 17 words, standard; of 21 words, fairly difficult; of 25 words, difficult; of 29 or words, very difficult; so this sentence with 54 words, counting numbers, is ranked impossible. – Virginia-Pilot.
Optimal Line Length (Number of Characters)
For online readability “the optimal line length for your body copy text is considered to be 50-60 characters per line, including spaces (“Typographie”, E. Ruder). Other sources suggest that up to 75 characters is acceptable.” – Christian Hoist, Baymard Institute.
Serif vs. San Serif
Experts urge the use of serif type (e.g. Times, Garamond) for print copy and san serif (e.g. Verdana, Helvetica) for online or digital use.
Type Must Be Readable
“Type smaller than 9-point is difficult for most people to read.” – David Ogilvy. I tend to use at least 12 point type, and the older your reader the larger the type (14-16 point).
These are just some of the rules for creating easy to read text. If you would like to know more, give me a call at 817-616-5155 or contact me by using this link and I’ll be glad to help you.
Till next time.
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