Editing

Edit Your Copy for Specificity

O. Sentrec

• 1 min read

Is your copy specific enough?

General statements tend to be less credible, so read your copy and make it more specific. Some tips:

  • Focus your copy on one topic. You can’t be specific if you are talking about several topics.
  • Help the reader visualize how the product would work or what it would look like in their lives.
  • Create vivid word pictures.
  • Engage the reader’s imagination.

Let’s see how to edit your copy for specificity.

1. Use facts and figures when it makes sense. Facts and figures are specific and increase credibility.

Statement A — “43, 543 people are using our service”

Statement B — “Nearly 50,000 people are using our service”

Statement A is more specific. It sounds like a fact, giving the impression that you have count your users one by one.

Statement B sounds like a marketing message, a claim made without having any proof. In your reader’s mind, it seems an exaggerated claim.

2. Write numbers as digits rather than words.

Numerals stop wandering eyes and enhance the scannability of the content. Research from Nielsen Norman Group discovered that numerals stop wandering eyes and attract fixation because numbers represent facts.

Readers look for specific facts on sales and product pages (product’s weight, dimensions, resolution, memory size, battery life).

3. The same applies to symbols. When the reader is scanning your copy, he will see first $ than the words “money,” “dollars,” or “savings.”

4. Help the reader visualize by creating vivid word pictures.

Make sure you have transformed important messages into mental images. One way to do it is by using sensory words and metaphors.

We use metaphors when we cant’ visualize intangible concepts. A metaphor makes the intangible tangible providing a concrete mental image that makes your message more persuasive.

Review your copy and see if you can find a sensory metaphor for key words in your copy. Adjectives like polished, sharp, fuzzy, heavy, and bright originate in sensory experiences but have become commonly used as metaphors.