Write for a Walmart audience, not a Bloomingdale's audience

Executive overview

Elegant copy rarely converts. Plain, literal, common language almost always outperforms writing that sounds impressive or polished.

Unless you're selling luxury goods, write for the most common person in your audience — not the smartest or most sophisticated.

The simplest copy test: read your copy aloud like it's on a Walmart PA system.

Writing for common language, not class

• Literal beats figurative; short sentences beat long
• Ignore what an English teacher would say about your writing
• Target your audience, but write for the most common person in it
• Writing to impress with word choice or sentence structure lowers conversion
• Before writing, say to yourself: "Attention Walmart shoppers"
• After writing, read it aloud as a Walmart announcement — is your language common enough?