19
The senior copywriter who told me to cut every word that starts with 'that' in a press release.
At an agency in Portland three years ago he made me rewrite a 400 word draft down to 260 and the client actually said it was the cleanest version they'd ever seen so now I do that before hitting send on anything professional.
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
the_wren22d ago
and honestly the 72% thing probably goes way higher when people use filler words like "that" or "just" or "really" because clients just see a wall of text and shut down. trimming the fat forces you to actually say something worth reading and thats rare in emails these days.
4
stella_lane19d ago
oh yeah the 72% is probably the people who made it past the subject line before their brain shut off. i once sent an email that was basically just "per our call" and somehow that got a faster reply than any carefully crafted paragraph i've ever written. i think the real skill is learning to sound like a bot but without the friendly corporate theater. maybe the secret is just to write like you're angry and out of time, which honestly describes most of my day anyway.
6