This article is a Five-Minute Communication Test: Do you have connectors?
In exactly five minutes, you can find out for yourself if your copy on your Web site/brochure/sales letter etc., will be read by your customer from start to finish. It's a simple, yet extremely powerful test.
Take five minutes to read this article and you'll be amazed at the power of connectors, and how it greatly improves the chances of customers reading... and then buying your product or service.
So what are the connectors in copywriting?
You may have not realized it, but you just read a connector. Look closely. What was the last line of the last paragraph? The line said "you'll be amazed at the power of connectors, and how it greatly improves the chances of customers reading... and then buying your product or service." And then the very next line said, "So what are the connectors in copywriting?"
Do you see what's happening?
The reason you slid from one paragraph to another so easily is because you have a connection.
A connection is like a bridge
See? I did it again. I took the last word and connected it in the next paragraph. And yes, connectors are like bridges. All you have to do is take the last thought of the last line, and somehow re-create that thought in the first line of the next paragraph. And you have a live connection that keeps customers reading, and almost slip-sliding down the paragraphs.
Why is this slip-sliding so very important? Think about it. The purpose of this line is to get you to read this line. And then the next line and the next line, till the copy comes to a logical conclusion. By connecting lines to the next line and paragraphs to the next paragraph, I keep the connection always alive.
Example, example
Here's a piece from a recent article. See the connectors?
Been to Santa's Web site recently?
Before you decide to go clickety, click—Santa doesn't have a Web site. You knew that, didn't you? But what if Santa came to you and said, "Hey, I'd like to create a site. Can you help me?
You'd have navigation. You'd have graphics. You'd have content. And Santa's Web site would be like any site. Or would it? What would differentiate Santa's Web site from any other Web site on the planet?
Santa's site would rock, wouldn't it?
You'd put in stories of Rudolph. Of Dasher, Vixen, Prancer and all the other reindeer. Santa's personality would bubble through. You'd feel happy and generous and full of good cheer once you stopped over at Santa's Web site, wouldn't you? His personality and giving nature would shine through and you'd really like this fat, cheerful chap who brings so much cheer to the world.
And so on....
My personal experience with connectors
- In most of my copy I use connectors. They're very powerful, and they get the reader to really slip-slide away. However, in some cases I also use a concept that's disorienting. I do this on purpose, to snap the reader out of a reverie.
I'll talk about a disjointed connector in a future article, but if you look through a lot of the hidden articles, you'll get a head start and see exactly what I mean. - If you noticed, the content in this piece didn't have enormous style. It lacked stories. It lacked metaphors. And yet it made a distinct point. It taught you something very powerful. Of course, the biggest reason you continued to read was because of the connectors.
Every movie, article or sales letter that's brilliant always has a connection. And that's because stories have connections. As a child when we listened to stories we always wanted to know what came next. Your connector is a bridge to what comes next.
