As one who’s been in advertising for 20 years (check out my bio), I’ve worked with a lot of clients. Some understood marketing. Others, inexplicably, thought they did.
For instance, I had a client who believed that his headline, “are you a man or a clown”, would be a great way to advertise age-defying moisturizer that had nothing to do with clowns (or men, for that matter). I also had a client insist that the words “as easy as magic” made sense. Personally, I can’t even make spots disappear on my wine glasses. Magic is hard.
Still, among some of the most inane ideas I’ve encountered by people who don’t realize that there’s actually a lot of thinking and strategizing behind what a copywriter does (oh boy I feel a rant coming on…), is this one: saying “the future is now”.
For the record, the future is precisely not now. It’s later. That’s what future is – later. Now is now. It’s the present. Present and future are not the same. No matter how clever you think you’re being, if you say, “the future is now”; what you’re actually being is inaccurate.
So, for all things sacred, if for some misguided reason you’ve decided “the future is now” would be a witty headline for your dating profile, I beg you to remove it. It’s not witty. It’s illogical.
In fact, don’t try to write a clever ad. Though online dating profiles are ads – they’re nonetheless personal ads. As such, it’s important to sound like a real person and not like a sales pitch. Be real and be yourself. The more genuine you are in your profile, the more likely you are to instill trust, which is big challenge to overcome when online dating.
Better still, it attracts more precise matches.
So skip the fancy ad lingo and call-to-action clichés like Live Love Laugh, and opt instead for being yourself.
When I write online dating profiles for my clients, I use marketing techniques (strong openers, concise copy, smooth segues) because they make copy persuasive and singles stand out. However, I always use the natural language and unique personal style of my clients.
I suggest you capture yours and be true to it. This is good advice on and offline by the way.
For more help in writing your online dating.
You can visit my online dating profile samples. Or, you can get started with my personality questionnaire. It’ll help you uncover some of the anecdotes, interests and expressions that make for a great online dating profile.
