Yesterday I shared how my flight attendant was the funniest dude ever.
Great personality, timing and delivery, with jokes that disrupted our typical “zombie” behavior of just putting on our headphones or snoring our way through the safety procedures demonstration.
But being able to disrupt automatic behavior and get attention from people, is not only about personality and delivery. It’s also about knowing where your readers or listeners are, and catching them right there.
We already mentioned that in copywriting you first and foremost learn the stage of awareness your prospects are in, before writing any words.
They might be completely unaware about their problem, about solutions and about your product, or they can know some of those.
The more they know, the shorter the copy and usually the easier the sale (not always).
The same way, in humor writing there’s a spectrum that you should keep in mind when approaching your audience if you want to inject some fun in your copy.
You can see it here.
From the book “How to write funny”:
“Just like visible light and audible sound exist on a spectrum, beyond which humans can’t see or hear, humor also has a spectrum…. humor produced at the highest end of the spectrum with overtones and undertones that resonate across the entire perceptible spectrum of humor will produce the most hilarious humor.”
This spectrum goes from the most simplistic type of humor (that even chimps could understand), to the most elaborate (for aliens or futuristic humans).
What the flight attendant did well other than adding his personality and perfecting his delivery, was to pick the perfect spot in this humor spectrum.
In this case it was a mix of conversational with a touch of snark humor. Something that could grab the attention of the random person on a plane, busy in their thoughts or bored to death.
And it was effective!
All this is to say that you can write the most compelling, clear and concise copy ever, but unless you can interrupt people’s thoughts by matching their awareness and sophistication levels, you’re dead in the water.
Keep that in mind, especially next time you try getting someone’s attention.
Catch them where they are.
Get in touch if you want to learn how to get this precious information from your customers and visitors.
