And this little copywriter wrote, "We! We! We! We!" all the way home.

One of the biggest mistakes copywriters make is forgetting to focus on the customer and/or prospect. Instead,their copy is inwardly-focused on their company or client. "We do whatever it is we do better than anyone else. We're the biggest in our industry. We're cutting edge." We ,we, we - get it?

This type of ego-driven copy does not answer the number one question a prospective customer will ask - "What are you going to do for me?"

In this economic climate, that question will probably be a bit more blunt. "If you're going to expect me to pay (insert price)for your so-called great product or service, what the(%$#@&)am I going to get in return?"

Yep, it's tough out there. Every sales lead counts and every lead coverted to a customer is critical. Sorry copywriters, but qualified leads and conversions will not flock to your clever prose if it is drowning in "we-we."

Now before you reach for the Depends, Future Now, a New York City-based interactive marketing optimization that specializes in increasing online conversion rates, accountable multi-channel marketing and web analytics, has a great, free online tool to measure how customer-focused your copy is.

Although primarily developed for interactive and e-commerce web site, it can and should be used to check any copy from collateral materials, sales letters, you name it.

Use this link to check you marketing collateral and ad copy:

http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewetext.htm

Use this link to check a web page:

http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewetext.htm

Fun, useful and eye-opening, the We-We calculator results may come in handy when your boss or client is editing your copy and forcing you to we-we. "Thanks for the feedback, J.B., let's run it through the We-We Calculator and see what we come up with."

Good luck with that.