Another simple way to gauge your copy’s potential effectiveness is to highlight it in two different colors. Whether you’re developing a letter, a brochure, a web page, or any other channel, take a few moments to highlight all of the sentences that are really about your customer and his or her needs. Let’s do that in pink. Next, highlight all the sentences that are about your company and what it does in yellow.
Now look at the page. What color is your page?
If it’s a sea of pink, you’ve probably done a great job of reaching out to your audience. You also probably have an excellent grasp of marketing strategy. That’s because it’s more effective to talk about your customer and his or her needs than to go on and on telling the customer why you’re so great.
If your page is overwhelmingly yellow, it’s going to present you as an egotistical bore. You know the kind — the guy that stands off to the side at the party, talking nonstop about himself and what he’s doing. He’ll never engage with anyone else, because he doesn’t really know they exist.
And if your page is a mix of pink and yellow, you’re heading in the right direction, but you need to rewrite your copy to make it pinker.