# Editing for Impact After you've written your first draft, the real work begins. During your editing/rewriting phase, you'll be searchign for the perfect words to ... make your copy kickass and have it convert. Remember, the purspose of persuasive copy is to get your readers to *feel* something/Taking action is an emotional event. Notice how all of the suggestions and examples below affect the feel of the copy—that's the goal! Also notice brevity is a key factor here. Every word has emotions associted with it and tells a story. And all good sales presentations are an emotional oupouring or words, feelings, and impressions. You sell on emotion… And then justify that purchase with logic. (After the fact.) ### Inject More Passion The idea is to create the condition where the prospect is in perfect, harmonic resonance with your copy. Emotions follow the resonant frequency. If you want someone to feel love reading your letter, love them. If you want them to feel a certain fear, feel it yourself. Every element of your copy is a tuning fork. The headline, the picture, the caption, the first sentence all the way to the final offer. To get your reader to vibrate at that frequency, ask yourself: what are the emotional reasons your reader wants to take action? Then, *feel* those feelings yourself—connect with them. And then add more passion, ever more passion, into your copy. Go through your pitch. How can you inject more of the dominant emotions you want your readerto feel? ### Learn to Love Words This follows the "tuning fork" idea. Words are stories unto themselves. Think of them as drawers in a chest, containing entire worlds within itself. See every word as an emotional expression of some feeling. A little story. It's the difference between having the material delivered to you vs. getting a book in the mail. Between signing the paperwork and signing the contract. Every word has an emotion associate with it and tells a story (a courteous refund, respectfully installed—doesn’t need to make sense. just needs to convey the right emotions) To begin, just know that different words carry different emotional flavors and subtext. They make the reader *feel* differently. Your job, as a Kickass Copywriter, is to find the perfect words to resonate with your reader. And then record them on your voice/tone guidelines (lINK). ### Include the Senses making your reading a sensory experience gives your reader the feeling that they have already agreed to your pitch. The test drive. They're in the seat with the wind at their face. Scan your copy five times. With each pass, ask yourself where you can include language for each of the five passes. Sell back patios with the sounds of clinking glasses, the feel of stone pavers under bare feet as the sun goes down, the splashing owater droplets on your face when your grandchild does a cannonball in the new pool. ### Reorder Your Content With all of your main bits hammered out, ask yourself a few questions: * Am I anticipating and answering reader questions as I go? * Is the information presented in a logical flow/order? * Does a portion of my copy feel flat stagnant or stagnant? Often, copy can be made more impactful by simply reordering sentences and the flow of information. If something is lacking the pep/zest/simmer, copy paste some different sentnece orders to see how the emotional tone changes. ### Focus on the Reader Search your copy for areas where you're talking about yourself—your accolades, your story, etc. See if you can turn those phrases around to make them about your customer. For example: > *"For the holidays, our customers can find the perfect childrens' books on our website."* Becomes: > *"Find the perfect holiday gift. Shop now."* The key is to speak to the reader: their problems, their transformation, what you want them do to. There's always room for personal anecdotes, but refrain from making it all about yourself. ### Favor Active Voice Passive voice has its place—especially for imbuing a sense of elegence or anonymity. However, in most instances, favoring the active voice is the way to go. Passive = > *"You have received a gift card from Maria."* Active = > *"Blackwell sent you a gift card."* Ex: "Coffee is served at 11 am." Rely on your voice/tone sheet for this. ### Keep it Conversational Write how you talk. Unless your tone/voice thing says otherwise. use teddy's article here. just one sentence. it's in my integro drive. corssroads construction. ### Get In, Get Out Get in, make your point, get out. Your goal is to make your point with the maximum amount of emotion in the fewest words possible. The following page will help you do that. For now, some things to consider: * Grammar comes second to emotion and legibility—feelings are more important (caveat: unless your client's tone suggests otherwise) * Use simple words—they carry the most weight. * Keep it specific: Find any vague claims in your copy and make them more specific (unless you're selling on hope LINK). ### Onward ➔ Good job. In the next section, you'll learn how to write in a way that serves the #1 goal of *all* written communication. Copy! Bah!