On the virtues of clarity

Copy has to be clear, or it is useless. Worse than useless, in fact; because badly written or confusing copy will not only deter potential customers from buying your product, it will damage your brand.

The insistence on clarity should go beyond the grubby, commercial business of copywriting and exist as an ideal for writers - because the final purpose of writing is to communicate a message, not to dazzle readers with linguistic splendour. When Juliet looks down on Romeo from her balcony and says

My bounty is as as boundless as the ocean,
My love as deep, for both are infinite…

We can admire the beauty of her language, but what really strikes us is the power and sincerity of her message, helped along by similes that are all the more striking for being couched in plain, ordinary words.

You’re not a love-struck Veronese teenager charming her gormless, pantyhose-wearing boyfriend. But with your sales copy you’re trying to persuade your reader just as surely as Juliet was trying to persuade Romeo that she wasn’t going to dump him as soon as the next hottie in tights came along. So, like her, you need to be powerful and sincere, and for that you need to be clear.

That’s why copywriting – all writing, in fact – is the only skill that gets harder the better at it you become. Forget recognition and paying work. The day you become a writer is the day you find yourself staring at a ten-word sentence for over an hour, fretting about whether it’s as precise and elegant as it could be.