What is advertising? part 9

Write To Be Scanned
Your layout is very important in a sales letter, because you want your
letter to look inviting, refreshing to the eyes. In short, you want your
prospect to stop what he’s doing and read your letter.
If he sees a letter with tiny margins, no indentations, no breaks in
the text, no white space, and no subheads…if he sees a page of

nothing but densely-packed words, do you think he’ll be tempted to
read it?
Not likely.
If you do have ample white space and generous margins, short
sentences, short paragraphs, subheads, and an italicized or
underlined word here and there for emphasis, it will certainly look
more inviting to read.
When reading your letter, some prospects will start at the beginning
and read word for word. Some will read the headline and maybe the
lead, then read the “P.S.” at the end of the letter and see who the
letter is from, then start from the beginning.
And some folks will scan through your letter, noticing the various
subheads strategically positioned by you throughout your letter, then
decide if it’s worth their time to read the entire thing. Some may
never read the entire letter, but order anyways.
You must write for all of them. Interesting and compelling long copy
for the studious reader, and short paragraphs and sentences, white
space, and subheads for the skimmer.
Subheads are the smaller headlines sprinkled throughout your copy.
Like this.
When coming up with your headline, some of the headlines that
didn’t make the cut can make great subheads. A good subhead
forces your prospect to keep reading, threading him along from start
to finish throughout your copy, while also providing the glue
necessary to keep skimmers skimming.