Page 132 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

So, we gave percentages, “93 percent of Higher Education and
university staff read THE because it’s easy to read.” “THE readers
authorize the purchase of 87 percent of all student books.”
“80 percent prefer THE for job information.”*
We also expressed the numbers graphically, because for a lot of
people, pictures are easier to assimilate than percentages. If you
say 25 percent, it takes longer for your reader to process than if you
show them a cake with a quarter cut out. In fact, this is a good point
to remember: wherever you can, unless you’re writing a technical
document or for statisticians or economists, express percentages
as fractions. Prefer two-thirds to 66 percent; three-quarters to
75 percent, and nine in ten to 90 percent.
Numbers have a precision about them that words alone can often
lack. This precision, for most people, lowers their resistance to
taking in the rest of your message. It’s far more effective to talk
about “savings of £32.74” for example, than “great savings.”

In practice

• Whatever you’re writing about, try to discover at least a couple of

facts that can be expressed numerically.

• When talking about money, cash values resonate more than

percentage savings. (You can hedge your bets by quoting both.
I do.)

* Figures reproduced with kind permission of the Times Higher Education.

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