Get More Sales By Improving Your Writing (part 2 - The BAR test)

In the last article we went over how to make your writing not scare off customers. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s here. 

Ok, so now that your writing looks the part. It’s time to make sure we make it easily digestible. Once you've lured them in it’s your job to keep them reading whatever you wrote.

How? 

The same way you would do it inside a bar.

One Unsuspected Method To Improve Your Writing

“As a business owner your job is to solve problems… if someone has electrical issues, It’s a good thing you're a certified electrician with your own business to solve that customer's problem. This is the basic principle of running your own business most business owners already know, but what happens when no one knows you even exist? How are we supposed to solve problems if Larry from across the street doesn’t even know who you are as a business? We Market, but we market in a very specific and strategic way that actually allows us to attract clients and make sales.”

If you made it through that without falling asleep or simply walking away… you’re a braver man than I. 

That is real text from an actual article I saw recently. 

It definitely doesn’t pass the BAR test…

“Ok, What's This ‘Mythical’ BAR Test?”

The BAR Test is the undisputed champion of ALL writing methods. It has worked for centuries and will work for centuries more. Even if there are no more bars in the future this test will still work. As long as humans walk the Earth you’ll be able to use this to drastically improve writing.

Here’s how… 

You look at a piece of text and you ask yourself: 

‘would I say this to an actual human in real life?’

Simple. 

Look at this sentence, 

“As a business owner your job is to solve problems. This is the basic principle of running your own business that most business owners already know, but what happens when no one knows you even exist?”

Saying this out loud will sound robotic. 

In a real conversation, this would sound something like:

Most business owners already know they solve problems for a living. But that’s hard to do if people don’t even know you exist, right?

See how that makes more sense? And a lot easier to consume?

The first sentence sounds like an alien creature pretending to be a person. The second sentence sounds like an actual human being.

Here’s The Quickest And Easiest Way To Fix Your Writing

Here’s a trick that works every time. It’s going to sound simple… almost childish, but if you give this a try I promise you’ll be hooked.

Read your copy out loud.

See how it flows. Where do you stumble? Where does it sound weird? Would you actually say this to a person?

Pretend you’re talking to a friend. Here’s another example that I read recently:

“But, most of the people running businesses nowadays barely even think about what problem their product is even solving, let alone whether or not their most likely buyer is male or female, what their age range is, what their interests are, or even what haircut they have…”

This is a 47 word sentence. If you read this sentence out loud you’ll probably notice it’s a run-on sentence. It needs a period somewhere in there. Because in real life we rarely speak in 47 word sentences.

Conversations flow. Some sentences are long, others are short. 

Get into this habit. It’s going to change your writing for the better. I guarantee it. 

Apply this advice to your content and see how much more responses you get to whatever you write.

Happy hunting,

-Jason Anderson