When it comes to improving the value of copywriting in print or online, a particularly effective strategy is to make a product or service seem more impressive than it really is. New Jersey–based copywriting expert Bob Bly (bly.com), author of Internet Direct Mail: The Complete Guide to Successful E-Mail Marketing Campaigns, offers a time-tested example: Sea-Monkeys, those “instant pets” that once promised a “bowlful of happiness” and still sell to this day. They probably would not have become such a phenomenon if they were marketed as unhatched shrimp eggs. Here are four other smart ways to improve the effectiveness of your promotional copywriting:

1. Keep goals modest. Focus your copy on realistic objectives — a meeting, a phone call, or another specific call to action. “You can’t change a person’s or group’s entire way of thinking based on one email or flyer,” says Rodger Roeser, president of Eisen Management Group, a public relations and business development firm in Newport, Ky.

2. Emphasize customer benefits. “If you’re selling vacuum cleaners, you don’t want to dwell on the engine,” says Craig Garber, a marketing consultant in Tampa, Fla. “Talk about the proven increased suction that decreases the time it takes to clean your house by an average of 35 minutes.”

3. Keep it simple. Effective marketing uses uncluttered language. Lyn Mettler, founder of Mettler Public Relations in Mount Pleasant, S.C., aims for eighth-grade vocabulary. “You don’t want to talk over anyone’s head,” she notes. “And write how you would talk.”

4. In your email marketing strategy, focus on the subject line. Your choice of words in a subject line is critical to making your permission-based email message stand out. Jordan Ayan, author of The Practical Guide to Email Marketing, suggests testing several emails with different subject lines. Go with the one that works best. Words that suggest a deadline are particularly effective, he says.

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