Copywriting places a big emphasis on words, naturally, and while words are great for storytelling or highlighting your products' benefits, too many words can scare readers away.

Nothing keeps readers persuaded and engaged with some well-placed numbers sprinkled into your copy.

Not only do numbers help break up larger chunks of text to make your content more palatable, but people associate numbers with facts. It’s a clean and compact way to display information.

And according to studies, people’s eyes naturally fixate on numbers while reading, so taking advantage of numbers in your copy is a simple way to get more information across cleanly.

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Practice makes perfect: The use of numbers in practice

🛬 Landing pages

Landing pages often involve big blocks of copy to highlight the features and benefits of the product or service. Use numbers to break up these blocks of text with quick facts or to add more oomph to your headlines.

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Examples:

• “96% of men said they’ll never go back to using their old razors again” (header)
• “1 million pairs of shoes sold, and we’re just getting started.” (header)
• “Dries 5x faster than other towels.” (quick fact)
• “500k trees were planted because of customers like you.” (quick fact)

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🧐 Monetary offers

When making an offer, there are several things to consider. If you’re deciding between a dollar amount or percentage discount, always pick the larger number.

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Example:

• 10% off vs. $248 off = Use the $ amount        
• 60% off vs. $12 off = Use the % amount

You can also break down larger purchases to sound more appealing to the customer. $20/month sounds high for a health tracking app, but $0.69 cents a day (billed monthly) sounds a lot more doable.
With the growing availability of financing tools such as Affirm, Afterpay, and Sezzle, you can now effortlessly reframe large offers by dicing them up into smaller, more feasible monthly payments.

$1895 upfront for a brand new Peloton bike will almost certainly provide some sticker shock, but monthly payments of $58? Where do I sign?!

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✉️ Email

Using numbers in emails is a powerful way to increase open rates and pull in low-intent readers.

Using phrases like “Read 252 words” in the preview text or placing “2 min. read” at the top of the email are effective ways to signal to the reader, “this won’t take long.”

If the time is unknown, the brain thinks they may just be stuck reading forever, and they’ll quickly talk themselves out of it. Using numbers is an easy way to create certainty in email land.

People love certainty.

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💻 Blogs

Posting blog articles on your website is a solid strategy that provides value for your audience and builds SEO. But no one wants to sit down and read an essay unless they’re highly invested in learning AND have the attention span (lol).

The reason blogs like Buzzfeed and Huffington Post are so successful is because they consistently draw readers in using numbered lists.

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Lists are the most effective way to break larger ideas down into something readers will actually look forward to reading.
Of course, we couldn’t mention listicles without giving a major shout out to clickbaity headlines that accompany them.

• “10 ways to quickly lose weight before summer”
• “7 free marketing tricks to scale your brand faster”
• “50 things to do before you’re 50”

And that’s because they work—90% of the time, every time.

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Words are magical for telling a story, but numbers tell cold hard facts and will ultimately help you drive home the sale.

We’re 100% sure that if you found this content helpful, you will 100% want to check out our friends over at Pilothouse for insights that will 100% improve your strategies.