Are your bullet points hitting the target?

Bullet points give your copy the punchy feel of an engaging speech.

• They’re great for emphasis
• They draw your attention to them
• They make your message stand out

They’re also very easy on the eye, not unlike Sergeant Phil Esterhaus from Hill Street Blues

When you’re first learning how to engage with your audience you’ll learn that you definitely want to have bullet points in your copywriting bag of tricks.

But what you might not realise that using bullet points for the sake of using them, or simply to break up the page is not the best use of these little fellas.

Bullet points stand out on the page. They’re a chance for you to grab your reader’s attention and get them to listen to the really important parts of your offer. Not using them to the full effect is like storming into a TED conference, taking the stage, pushing Sir Ken Robinson out of the way, grabbing his microphone and then saying:

“Oh, nothing, never mind… As you were Ken…”

So here are the best way to use those bullet points to make sure they’re firing the most important part of your message at your audience.

Use them for objections

A very simple way to air objections and wave them away is to be forthright and take them head on in your objections.

For example:

“Now, I know what you might be thinking:

• This is going to be too difficult
• This is going to be too expensive
• I don’t know enough to do this

But let me tell you…”

If the idea of tackling objections still seems a little alien to you then this is a simple and effective way to do it. It airs them, and once that’s done, you can go on to use bullet points later on to…

Point out the benefits

“and that’s why you’ll find that this course…

• Is so simple you complete the entire course in 60 minutes
• Is only $29 if you order today
• Is designed specifically for beginners

Using bullet points this way brings the most important parts of your offer or service to your reader’s attention (as most people will skim read your content – cruel I know but true :-)).

There’s another way to use bullet points which is a personl favourite of mine, and that’s to…

Tempt your audience

and encourage them to peek behind the curtain of your offer, by letting ghtem know you’ve got some first rate, meaty content behind that paypal button.

“We’re going to cover some key elements to make sure you succeed on this course, for example:

• Why you don’t need to start with a plan (and where you should be starting)
• The 3 types of customer you need to succeed in business (and why you need to treat each one differently)
• How to attract 200 visitors to your site a day (in just 10 minutes work a day)
• The number one rule of business (and you won’t have heard it anywhere before)

Can you see how much more intriguing those points are with the added parentheses?

These are just a few ways to make more impact with your bullet points, but just remember not to take them for granted, or to misuse them…

And let’s be careful out there…