The Slide That (Nearly) Killed Me

Why Your Copy Should Be Like a Playground Slide

When I was about 10 years old, the church my family attended growing up installed a new playground.

“New” is relative – it was a lot of old metal parts re-purposed into a playground

I’m pretty sure this whole playground was invented before there were things like “safety”.

And if you played on it too long, there’s a good chance you’d get tetanus.

But my favorite part of the playground was the slide.

This wasn’t one of those five foot plastic slides made on playgrounds today.

No, this slide stood about 20 feet high with two bumps in the middle.

And it was made of steel covered with chrome panels.

One time I decided to borrow some wax paper from the kitchen and ride it down the slide.

No lie….I was airborne between the second “hump” and the bottom of the slide.

My back hurt for days.

But man was it fun.

Here’s the thing: Your copy should be a lot like the slide.

The headline needs to pull the reader toward the sub headline.

The subheadline should pull the reader toward the first sentence.

The first sentence should pull the reader toward the second sentence, etc.

Because if you can’t get them to even read the copy, there’s virtually no way you’re going to get them to make a purchase.

Joe Sugarman (one of the direct mail copywriting greats) talks about this slide concept in his book, The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook.

For those of us in digital, the slide might look a little different.

It might be Ad -> Landing Page Headline -> Subheadline -> CTA

But the point is still the same. We need to focus on motion.

Good copy and good funnels are like a slide.

See you at the bottom!

Your Favorite Marketer,

Tyler @ Analytive

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