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Pronouns. Little words that you learned about in school but barely think about anymore. However, those little pronouns matter in copywriting. In fact, they matter a lot!
The reason is simple. Your copy should speak more about your customers and less about you. Why? Because no one cares about you. They care about how you, your brand, your company, your product, and/or your service is going to help them or make their lives better or easier. When they look at an ad and listen to or read the copy, all they care about is, “What’s in it for me?” The acronym WIIFM should guide all of your copywriting.
Pronouns are little words but they have a big impact on how consumers respond to your marketing messages. Think back to your school days. Remember your English teacher explaining first person, second person, and third person?
As a refresher, first person (I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours) is the person speaking and second person (you, your, yours) is the person to whom one is speaking. It’s essential that you write copy that speaks to your target audience and not at them. And it should not be only about you either.
Therefore, the majority of the copy in any ad or marketing piece should be written in the second person. For example, do you prefer copy that says, “Through our first-rate sales department, we can deliver cars within 24-hours,” or “You can drive your new car tomorrow”? While the first copy example (which includes more than one copywriting error, but I digress) focuses on the business, the second example focuses on customers and speaks directly to them. It’s more personal, and thus, more effective.
Remember, writing in the second person helps your audience quickly connect the points in your copy to their own lives and allows them to personalize the advertisement or marketing piece. This is how the ad is connected to an individual customer’s own life. By writing your copy so it focuses on the customer rather than yourself, the customer can personalize the ad and product you’re selling and act accordingly.
Apply the 80-20 Rule to You Not We Copywriting
Want to make sure you have an acceptable balance of you vs. we messaging in your copy? Use the 80-20 rule. Here’s how you can do it.
When you’ve completed writing the copy for your ad or marketing piece, take the time to read it and count how many times you use “you” (or another second person pronoun) vs. “we” (or another first person pronoun). As a rule of thumb, make sure you use second person pronouns in at least 80% of your copy and first person pronouns in no more than 20% of your copy. This will give you a good balance and ensure that your ad speaks directly to your customers.
Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes
How do you feel when you’re talking to someone and they conversation is dominated by the other person speaking only about himself or herself? After a short amount of time, you probably don’t pay much attention to what the other person is saying. However, if the conversation is more balanced or more about you, you probably pay a lot more attention and are actively involved in the discussion.
The same concept holds true in copywriting. If an ad or marketing piece speaks only about the business in the first person, it’s not as compelling to customers as an ad that speaks about and to those customers in the second person.
Adapted from Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps
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Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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This is a good explanation of why to use “you” language in copywriting. I never heard the 80-20 rule applied to this, but it makes sense.
You might want to take another look at paragraph 4. The last sentence doesn’t make sense! And even the 3rd sentence is a bit unclear to me.
I know people often say ‘talk TO people, not AT them,’ but what does that actually mean? Sometimes I wonder if ‘talking AT them’ is really just talking TO them about something they don’t want to hear!
Thanks for commenting, Susan. You’re right! The word “not” was missing from the last sentence!
When you have to use first person, is it better to use singular or plural?
For example, “we know how scary it is when you….” and “our product prepares you…” versus “I know…” and “my product…”
Hi Theron, It depends on who you’re writing for and what their goals are. For example, if you’re writing copy for a solopreneur freelance writer, I’d use singular first person and let the copy sound like it’s coming from them personally. This makes their brand sound more personal, which many solopreneurs want. However, if their goal is to develop a brand that makes them seem bigger than they actually are, I’d use plural. For a company with multiple employees, I’d use plural unless the purpose of the specific copy you’re writing dictates using singular (e.g., a blog post or a thought leadership article written by a specific person). Ad copy can be a bit different but if you consider who the message is coming from, who will be reading it, and what the business’ goals are for the message, you should be able to determine if singular or plural is a better choice. I hope that helps!
Hey there, just stumbled upon this great article and I was wondering whether you could help me with a question of mine.
I get that using 2nd person is preferable to first person. But would you say there’s a difference in using possessive pronouns in comparison to personal pronouns?
This example should clarify what I mean. When talking to a potential Donor you could write two versions, which both address the customer in 2nd person, but in different ways:
a) Your donation helps children
b) With your donation you help children.
Would you say there’s a version that’s preferable to the other? A strikes me as being written more efficiently, whereas B highlights YOU instead of only your donation.
Do you have any feedback for me regarding this problem? It would be much appreciated.
Thanks for your comment, Philipp. In the examples you provided, the first option is better. The introductory prepositional phrase in the second option weakens the sentence.