Throwing Exclamation Points Around Like Darts

I started writing copy about 10 years ago. And in the beginning I learned from trial and error as opposed to reading the classics or hiring a coach (both of which I rectified over the years).

It's amazing how many people who start from trial and error use these: !!!

Not that they shouldn't be used. But these things (!) should be used with care.

Throwing exclamation points around carelessly is like carelessly throwing darts around: dangerous!

At my blog I likened the effect of careless exclamation points to a salesman pointing at someone in a crowd and shouting, "You, I want to sell you something!"

If every third sentence ends with an exclamation point, you're telegraphing that something is for sale. And that violates the maxim, "People hate to be sold but love to buy."

And we're supposed to write copy like our prospect speaks, correct? Well unless our prospect is a sleazy under-performing salesman, we're probably in trouble. No one talks like this: !!!

So I try to use exclamation points with care.

The secret, as Michel Fortin shared with me, is to only use them if you want to accentuate the last word of a sentence. If the last word deserves highlighting, go ahead and add an exclamation point.

This keeps them rare and effective.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean