The White Bunny

Knock knock

Who is it? 

Me, the cus­tomer. You should know exact­ly who I am, and I need to learn, very quick­ly, why you’re The One. 

But our mod­ern world is com­pli­cat­ed and busy and full of noise. Everyone’s fight­ing for my atten­tion. What makes you dif­fer­ent? I can’t see it. One. Two. Three. Four. Five seconds. 

I’m out. 

Our win­dow of oppor­tu­ni­ty to enchant a vis­i­tor is extreme­ly nar­row. Brands need all the help we can get to widen it. It’s 2025 and we can tech beyond our dreams, but mar­ket­ing is still the same. Words mat­ter. Sym­bols work. So do humor, tim­ing, tone, personality. 

And the lit­tle things. 

Relat­ed: Every pix­el is a billboard

Small wins lead to big results

Micro copy­writ­ing is the fine art of car­ing about the small words on your web­site, archi­tec­tur­ing and design­ing them in a way that facil­i­tates and enrich­es the user experience. 

Sub­vert­ing familiarity

Every­thing is bor­ing. So bor­ing that we spend hours gorg­ing on 10-sec­ond videos of dance chal­lenges. It doesn’t mat­ter if your brand’s for­mal or cheeky. Find com­mon phras­es and give them a tiny twist. 

Nudge’em

The Nudge The­o­ry (Richard Thaler, 2008) is a behav­ioral eco­nom­ics con­cept that explains how, when we archi­tect ser­vices in a phys­i­cal or dig­i­tal space, we can add tiny clues every­where that steer peo­ple through a cer­tain path. 

Like any behav­ioral the­o­ry, it can get manip­u­la­tive and shady, but used hon­est­ly, it’s sim­ply a way to play with standards. 

Exam­ple: ​“You’re $10 away from free ship­ping!” is friend­ly. You’re not ask­ing me to buy, you’re giv­ing me a choice. But it’s an easy one and we both win. 

Prim­ing expectations

You can use tiny bits of copy to tell your cus­tomers what they can expect from you, even before they’re buy­ing. In oth­er words, to thank them in advance. Be nice, like­able, and gen­er­ous. This will cre­ate an envi­ron­ment of pos­i­tive expectations. 

Exam­ple: A ​“Psst, here’s a coupon code for you” cre­ates com­plic­i­ty for your first-time vis­i­tors and it’s a nice way to ease their way to the check­out. ​“Sign up! It takes 60 sec­onds.” promis­es a sim­ple and pain­less process and shows respect for their time. 

Reduc­ing Cog­ni­tive Load

We’re not wired to remem­ber unim­por­tant shit. And if we’re hon­est, most of our shop­ping ‑per­son­al or pro­fes­sion­al- is not that impor­tant in the big scheme of things. Our brains store new stuff on what’s called the ​“work­ing mem­o­ry”, only to save it in long-term mem­o­ry after prac­tice and repetition. 

Good copy works in two ways. It sim­pli­fies deci­sion process­es, because easy equals less stress, and at the same time, voice and tone con­sis­ten­cy helps cus­tomers learn your brand. It’s a tick­et to their hard dri­ve.

Truth & Transparency

What are your cus­tomers afraid of? What are their objections? 

A web­site is a very spe­cial kind of adver­tis­ing because, just like email, it allows you to talk one to one. Write like you talk, with phras­es that would answer the ques­tions cus­tomers bring from past expe­ri­ences. Warn them can­did­ly when you know your prod­uct won’t be the best fit in cer­tain sce­nar­ios. Proud­ly show your strengths but take the Prat­fall road about your shortcomings. 

Have reviews, and make sure they’re real. Once you break trust you lose the cus­tomer. Even if you’re Ama­zon. 

Antic­i­pate pitfalls

Are cus­tomer mis­takes over­load­ing your sup­port team? That’s on you to fix. Use micro­copy in all forms and fields, steps and inter­ac­tions, to make sure your cus­tomers give you the data you need, how you need it. 

Exam­ple: ​“Here’s your cus­tomer num­ber, *|FNAME|!* in your con­tact page makes it extra easy for them to have the right infor­ma­tion at the right time. 

East­er Eggs, metaphor­i­cal and oth­er­wise, are about what you can hide in plain sight. The sum of those efforts will help you stand out from the crowd, and win. 

Relat­ed: On Copy­writ­ing That Doesn’t Suck

Mak­ing things work requires atten­tion to details. This hap­pens in life, fam­i­ly or business. 

It shows how much you care. And, if you do, peo­ple stick around. Per­haps for decades. 

Eas­i­er said than done, true. But the prin­ci­ples are there. 

• Help them know you and love you. 
• Sim­pli­fy their focus 
• Guide their choic­es hon­est­ly in their best interest. 
• Antic­i­pate and reduce their questions. 
• Give them val­i­da­tion to prove you rock.