How to Light the Ticking Time Bomb in Your Copy

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” — Elmore Leonard

As a fiction writer, I’m used to the term “ticking time bomb.” It’s that not-so-obvious — or sometimes overtly obvious — facet of a story that gives it immediacy or a sense of urgency. A character may have to get somewhere or do something by a certain time, or perhaps two totally unrelated occurrences are about to coincide with disastrous — or miraculous — results. Really, the number of ticking time bombs in fiction is as limitless as stories themselves.

And, then we have copywriting’s version of the “ticking time bomb,” which is essentially finding a way to instill lightning-fast pacing into your copy in order to kick responses into high gear.

This is something the “A-Listers” of the copywriting world do instinctively. You know the names — Dan Kennedy, Michael Masterson, Gary Bencivenga, and Clayton Makepeace. These guys know that from the moment a prospect’s eyes first spot a headline, a little stopwatch starts ticking in his head — like a ticking time bomb. And, if at any point in reading the copy, the prospect feels it’s not moving along quickly enough, a little bomb goes off in his head and his interest is destroyed.

A-Lister John Caples once said that copy must have all the “power of a runaway locomotive.” Give your prospect just one moment where he’s allowed to think of the 101 other things he could or should be doing — things he’s not doing because he’s reading your copy — and you’ve created a dangerously easy exit strategy for him.

The good news is that as long as you get the fundamentals right, and then move your copy along with great speed and momentum, you’ll gain a significant edge over other writers in the industry, many of whom have never heard of or do not understand this high-level tactic.

So, with that in mind, here are 10 surefire ways to light that ticking time bomb in your copy and keep your reader engaged from headline to close: