The Subtleties Of White Space In Copywriting
Using White Spaces To Create Emphasis, Add Impact, and Make Your Copy Easy to Read
White space is a handy tool for making your copy more readable and impactful. Using white spaces to highlight the crucial points of your copy will draw your readers’ attention. And that’s what you want! You want to add impact to your copy.
When used strategically, white spaces can help you:
- Highlight certain tones and thereby control your reader’s emotions
- Control the reading pace
- Add extra emphasis to important pointers like the offer or benefits, etc.
What is white space?
In a copy, white space is the empty space between lines, paragraphs, and words. The empty space (often referred to as the negative space) exists around all content in a layout. It could be the spacing between words, line breaks, or even the text alignment (left, right, or centre).
White space gives your brain and eyes a chance to rest and focus on the important stuff.
How to use white space in copywriting?
Firstly, add ample line breaks! Make sure your paragraphs don’t exceed 3–4 sentences. You can add a paragraph break after a single line or word. Look at this copy example below.
You see how each paragraph is just one sentence?
It allows the reader to process and absorb more information. It creates more impact and makes the copy easy to read. It helps reduce confusion and improves the readability of your copy.
What is readability, and why is it important? Read on!
Using white space strategically
When writing copy, use white space to draw attention to something specific.
For example, let’s say you’re writing an email to remind your newsletter subscribers about a webinar. You can use white space to highlight the webinar time at the beginning and end of the email so people know exactly when to tune in.
Introduce a key idea, set the tone, and leave space to reveal more information. For example, look at this letter by Gary Halbert (for people in the advertising industry, Gary Halbert needs no introduction).
Read the complete letter here: https://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/
Notice how he adds line breaks to control the narration of this lengthy letter. This is what I mean by using white space strategically.
Try this while writing your next product description or email. And take a look at what happened with the conversions.
If you’re reading this, you clearly care about copywriting. Maybe you’re learning how to be a good copywriter, or you’re just curious about new tools and tricks. Either way, I’m sure most of these techniques are still new to you.
So why don’t you go ahead and check out other copywriting techniques here?
Keep a notebook handy. Write down all the great ideas and tools. Then, when you have the time, re-read these articles and implement some of your favourite copywriting techniques.
