Copying has to do with words. Or is that it?

Copying is using words to describe the benefits of your offer. About using words to paint vivid mental pictures. About the use of words to agitate the senses, press all the “hot buttons” and press the reader to take some kind of action.

But is it really ALL about words? I mean, just words? No.

Some copywriters claim that graphics, formatting, and photos should NOT be added to a sales newsletter because they are distracting. They can divert the reader’s attention from the message. I agree. But not quite.

You see, it is definitely true that words are extremely important. And the words you choose can make or break the sale. You should describe your offer in a way that gives you sex appeal, a sense of urgency, and a dose of excitement.

But cosmetics are also equally important.

They help direct the reader’s gaze. They also help you remember important points. But most of all, they help replace the non-verbal cues, nuances, and subtleties that occur in traditional face-to-face sales encounters.

They are proxemic, haptic, and most important to us writers, kinesic.

Proxemics is the science of personal space. The distance between people during, for example, a conversation, a meeting, or a shared activity.

This is not a metaphysical “Feng Shui” thing. I am referring to our psychological (and often subconscious) reaction to the distance we maintain with other people, such as during a sales meeting.

For example, sitting across from someone at a desk can unconsciously convey that the other person is being confrontational. This is why some sales training programs tell you to sit next to your potential customer.

Haptics, on the other hand, is the science of touch. Some psychologists have studied the effects of touching during conversations. For example, they tested how people would react when they were told a certain statement.

This is what they did.

In some cases, the speaker simply told the listener a story.

In other cases, they were told the same story. But sometimes the speaker would lightly touch the listener on the forearm for a few seconds, especially when he was saying something important.

According to the study, the subjects in the second test felt that the speaker was more credible. They had higher memory scores. Physiologically, they felt more relaxed and comfortable with the speaker. They felt a certain “connection”.

Of course, proxemics and haptics are more than that. And you can’t really use them in copywriting. But the only type of non-verbal communication that you can use (and that I want you to focus on) is kinesic.

Kinesics is the science of body language. Non-verbal gestures, postures, and facial expressions by which a person manifests various physical, mental, or emotional states and communicates non-verbally with others.

These messages delivered through non-verbal signals, which can be verbal or physical, can support, emphasize or contradict what is being transmitted.

In face-to-face selling, Kinesics is often used to emphasize key benefits. But they are particularly important because they can bring home important points, like adding emotion to a sales pitch, that goes beyond words.

Uncrossing of arms or legs. Brow lift. Chin rubbing. Leaning forward. All of this can indicate that you are interested in your client, or if the client does, you can tell them that they are interested in your offer.

But the verbal cues are usually the ones that are conveyed through the qualities of the voice, such as pitch, volume, rhythm, pitch, pause, and inflection.

All of these can be interpreted as many things and used in different ways.

For example, inflection is the musical quality of the voice: the verbal ups and downs of a part of a word, an entire word, or a series of words. In sales, vocal inflection is probably the most widely used form of kinesic communication.

Why? Because it can change virtually the entire meaning of a message, even when a single word is declined. Take, for example, the following sentence:

“I didn’t say that I love you.”

It’s pretty straightforward, right? But instead, if I said:

“I didn’t say I LOVE YOU” (where the verbal emphasis is on the word “love”, as in “loooovvvve”), then it could be implying that I simply “like you”.

On the other hand, if the word “you” was emphasized (such as “I didn’t say I love you”), then it could imply that I love someone else completely.

If I declined the word “I didn’t”, as in “I DID NOT say I love you,” then it could imply that I wrote it, or that I said or wanted to say something else.

In essence, it is not what you say but how you say it.

In copying, we are limited, not by what we want to say but by how we want to say it. That’s where cosmetics, formatting, and certain “visual triggers” come into play.

Sure, you shouldn’t add graphics in any way. But you should add graphics and photos that support (and perhaps even emphasize) the sales process, and not graphics that can distract the reader from the sales message.

Auction giant eBay reports that listings with images outsold those without images. While anecdotal, I have heard of bid increases of up to 400%.

So if you can add a photo of your product (or if you sell a service, a photo of yourself in action with a customer), you will likely achieve better results.

But graphics and images aside, the look of the copy is just as important as the words themselves. So when I write a text, I usually pay a lot of attention to cosmetics. I even call it “copy design”.

How do you do that?

Incorporate visual triggers, cosmetic “commands,” and response devices into your copy, usually formatted, to increase readership and response.

Now, I’m not talking about going crazy with different fonts and colors.

I’m talking about bold, italic, typefaces, font sizes, boxes, bullets, colors, whitespace, borders, and so on strategically placed. (Take, for example, the way I emphasized certain words in the inflection example above.)

As copywriter Martin Hayman noted: “Michael Fortin is right. The way the copy is presented on the page makes a big difference to the way the reader responds. Typography professionals have known this for a long time, oh, centuries”.

Here is just one example.

More than 60 years ago, Frank H. Johnson, a direct mail copywriter, decided to start a new technique to increase the readership and impact of his sales newsletters.

I would highlight the offer in a centered rectangular box placed at the top of the letter above the salutation. Why? Because you wanted to summarize your offer in advance in a way that would save your readers time and hassle.

Rather than forcing readers to read a large number of copies before bidding, he gave them the essentials, in advance. The results were amazing.

Direct mail copywriter Ivan Levinson reports that he has seen claims that adding a “Johnson Box” to a plain letter can skyrocket response rates by as much as 40%.

This technique can also be applied to boxes placed within the heart of the copy in strategic locations, such as just before any call to action or when highlighting some of the most important points of your copy.

So, on your copy, put your bonuses, bonuses, guarantees, testimonials, facts, key points, stories, and side notes on Johnson Boxes.

Take a look at my membership website at TheCopyDoctor.com. You will notice that the Johnson boxes are interspersed throughout the copy, often in different colored or shaded boards.

My theory of why they are so effective is this: these boxes tend to direct the eyes of readers and force them to read their content. They help instill in the minds of your readers the key points you want to take home.

There is little that your prospects will retain from your copy. But if you use Johnson Boxes, the probability that they will remember your content more, and about any other point indicated in the rest of the copy, will be stronger.

However, the moral is this …

Copying isn’t just about what you say. It’s also about what you want to say.