The Readability Loophole: Is Your Marketing Smarter Than a 5th Grader? It Shouldn't Be!
What do Hemingway, Harry Potter, and successful marketers have in common?
No, it's not a trick question.
And no, they're not all secretly wizards (though that would be cool).
One of the biggest secrets to their fame is The Readability Loophole…
According to studies…
The reading level of your marketing has a lot to do with how successful it is.
Contently ran a study of all the best-selling books, and they found that…
An author's reading level often determines the popularity of their book.
For example, Hemminway’s most popular book, The Old Man and The Sea…
It is written at a 4th-grade level…
And it's one of the most popular books of all time…
The same thing applies to marketing and copywriting.
I use a free nifty tool called the Hemmingway App…
And it's about to become your new best friend.
Just paste your content in there, and it will give you a score as well as suggestions.
This Hemmingway tool tells you if you're writing like a stuffy professor…
Or if your writing is simple enough for a 4th grader to understand.
I always write all my ads, content, emails, etc.… at a 5th-grade level or lower…
This email you are reading now gets a 5th-grade readability score.
Now, why should you care?
Imagine your customer reading your latest marketing campaign…
Every time they don’t understand a word or phrase, the effectiveness of your ads drops…
But if your content is conversational and simple to understand…
They keep reading because they feel a connection.
It's a psychological trigger that makes them feel like this person is talking my language.
In order for marketing to be effective, it needs to be UNDERSTOOD.
Which is why I avoid writing like a Harvard research paper.
I chopped sentences, ditched the jargon, and watched my engagement soar.
This will help your ads convert better…
And your website will turn more visitors into sales.
It's like turning your content into a page-turner that your audience can't put down.
And remember, if Hemingway can win a Nobel Prize for writing for the elementary school crowd…
You can surely hook your readers without making them reach for a dictionary.
What readability score did you get?
Evelio
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.