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What grade level do you market to?

by Brad Gosse
1 replies
Lot's of sales copy manuals tell you to cater to the 8th grade reading level. They caution you never to use big words etc.

Has anyone actually experimented with this?

I am thinking of doing 2 landing pages, one that reads at the college level while the other is 8th grade at best. I wonder what will sell better.
#grade #level #market
  • Profile picture of the author eholmlund
    I don't know specifically, but I've been told that my writing is about a 6th-7th grade level.

    I was taught in high school that when you're writing about technical things, you should always assume your audience knows nothing. So that's what I do, for the most part.

    The trick there is to write in such as way as to not alienate or insult the intelligence of the "smarter" people. One way I do that is by throwing in some humor. Beyond that, I've found that the educated people will forgive your low-level writing if it's grammatically correct and well written.

    As for your split-test... it really depends on who your target market is. If you're targeting the mass-market, then I think the 8th grade will be better than college level.

    But if you're targeting a high income bracket, doctors, lawyers, etc... maybe the college level would be better.
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