Refining your ads to express exactly what you want to express with the fewest words.

Editing is a nurturing process.

You want to maintain the same emotional feel, the same thought process, the same vibration that you had in mind when you wrote the copy. It's just that you want to do it in the fewest words.

This may mean that you rearrange the words you wrote to make the thought more direct. Or it may mean cutting out words that have little contribution to the overall feel of the ad. It may mean substituting new words that express your thoughts better. And it may even mean adding words to clarify a thought.

The goal with your ads is to express the thoughts you want to convey in the most powerful way but with the fewest words.

Your ad copy has a very focused purpose-to motivate your potential customers to exchange their money for your products. Everything you do or write must lead to this one goal.

With less ad copy, your ad will look less imposing to the potential customer and he or she will be more likely to read it.

The second advantage is that you are removing friction by making it shorter.

Look for 'that'. Most of the time ‘that’ can be removed.

Edit for rhythm. Make sure that you vary the length of sentences so they don't sound monotonous.

Consider combining sentences.

Eliminate unnecessary words

Rearrange thoughts so they flow better.

Use commas where the rules of grammar are clear that they are needed for clarification. Don't use commas in places where I am not violating any grammar rules or where they are considered optional.

Remove all the unnecessary words and still have the ad make sense.

Another technique that will help you in the editing process is time. If you can put aside your ad copy after you edit it and look at it the next day or even in a few days, you will often discover things that you never saw before. If time is critical, put the ad copy down for a short while and get back to it. The key is to allow time for your subconscious mind to digest what you've done and pick out the areas that need work.

Cut out every word or phrase that fails to advance, strengthen, or reinforce your basic sales story. You're not editing to shorten. You are editing to clarify, and that will automatically shorten the letter.