Most marketing writers think verbally, placing great emphasis on selecting the right words and then combining them into phrases, sentences and paragraphs. To most, the art director or designer is responsible for making all of those words look pretty.

But design folks can't do the job alone. A good direct marketing writer uses both the verbal and visual parts of his or her brain to create copy that's highly "scannable": text that will communicate important points - key benefits, offer, call to action - even if it's not read completely from beginning to end.

It's a base assumption of any good direct marketing scribe that no reader is going to consume every word of his or her copy in its entirety. This has always been true of direct mail, for example, and why the classic direct mail package is made up of multiple components - letter, lift note, brochure, reply device - so that each piece can stand alone in communicating key selling benefits and a clear call to action.

Online, because readers' attention spans are dramatically shorter, scannable copy becomes even more critical. A quick scan or momentary glance is the most you can expect before the recipient determines whether your message is worth reading.

To give your copy a high degree of "scannability", follow these steps:

• Break up your copy using subheads every few paragraphs or so - this helps readers track through the copy and highlights key selling points

• Create "call-outs", quotes or excerpts pulled from the main body copy, and run them in the margin or sidebar to help communicate important messages that may otherwise be buried.

• Keep paragraphs short (2-3 sentences at a maximum), to make the copy seem less burdensome to read at first glance

• Use captions for pictures, charts and graphs. Studies show that captions have higher readership than body copy

Many thanks to Connect Direct senior copywriter, Richard Bloch, for his contributions to this month's tip.