I first learned about Laura Belgray through the Sidehustle Nation podcast.
Laura is an expert at copywriting who advises businesses on how to write like they would talk in real life… Natural, conversational speaking that has clarity, personality and resonance.
The problem with most writing online is that people speak as if they are afraid they’re offending someone…
Indeed, fear is a huge part of most people’s days so they probably are afraid!
The result is that they tone their message and language down… They repeat just. the. facts. ma’am.
Safe.
But that type of “playing it safe” by playing to the middle of the bell-curve doesn’t work on the Internet… Indeed, the solution is to write to elicit emotion, be it humor, fear, disgust, shock, etc.
As Seth Godin said, facts don’t change people… Emotions change people.
If you want to change people who visit your website for the first time, the best way to do that is by eliciting some emotion in them.