On Words and Business

Bland. Boring. Uninspiring.

That is what happens to your writing when you don’t take a point of view.  You can never satisfy every person in your audience, so don’t try. It makes the final product wishy-washy.

Write with verve. With passion. With confidence. Take a stand.

People will appreciate that. Your enthusiasm will shine through. And that makes your writing eminently readable. No matter the topic. Even the seemingly mundane topics of business.

Ha, I say that but sometimes I tell and forget to show. Like the post earlier this week in which I talked about how to write a script for a video, but didn’t give any good examples or even write it as a video script (or produce it as a video).

Show, don’t tell. If you came to marketing from journalism, you no doubt have had this drilled into your head. If you came from pretty much any other background, especially a business one (like I did), you probably have been figuring this out as you go.

Show, don’t tell. The marketing equivalent: talk about the benefits do not just list features.

Is it harder to show? Personally, sometimes I do struggle with finding good examples to give, especially when speaking. (As evidenced by the occasional confused looks that accompany many of my extemporized attempts at illustration. Which are, thus, often followed by an awkward explanation by me that I simply conjured up something to illustrate the point. Deflating all excitement about the topic and usually leaving all participants with a desperate and sudden need to attend to something on the far side of the room.)

What other examples are there of how easy it is to tell versus show when creating content?

Here are a few tips.

Find someone who:

• Can write (and with luck, speak) in plain English. This is most important if you have a fairly complex product or service. Some of your materials may require technical details, but very many things, such as marketing materials, do not.
• Has experience or can get up to speed quickly on a topic if they don’t already know about it.
• Is both firm and flexible. He or she will fight for what they know is right, but bend on the things that don’t matter so much. The best writing is rarely done by committee, but good writing requires good editing by somone and a writer who understands that his or her words are not sacred.
• Can explain their process and/or billing model. Seriously. If you don’t understand how you will work together or what you will be paying for, expect other issues along the way.
• You like to talk to and work with. This person doesn’t have to become your best friend, but life is so much easier on both sides of a contractor relationship if you can at least stand each other and communicate effectively.

What do you think is the most important quality to look for when hiring a writer?

Or is it?

Headlines, and their cousins email subject lines, do matter.

Have you ever gotten an email newsletter with a subject line like: Acme’s February Newsletter? You have to really care about the organization to bother opening that.

The best subject lines, just like headlines, help readers understand what they’ll get for the effort of continuing to read. Such as: Better Marketing Management or How to Grow Your Business with Facebook.

With a headline or subject line like that, readers know instantly if the content is relevant for them. These days, we all filter out so much information, anything that can help readers make an informed choice is a good thing.

When I write marketing materials I have two real people in mind. One I have met, one I haven’t.

The one I have met is a client and an ideal one at that. I think about what makes her tick and what works and doesn’t work when reaching out to her.

The one I haven’t met is a potential client, also pretty ideal. I think about what information will be useful to him and his company.

They are both smart, accomplished executives. So I write things I believe each will find worth the time to read.

Otherwise, if I think of all my clients and possible clients, it’s just too big and too vague a picture. Imagining these two executives enables me to personalize the message and write more clearly. (I think!)

What are your tricks to focusing on your customers and prospects in your marketing materials?

When it comes to business writing, a lot of us (myself included) have a strong aversion to using emotion. Business writing is supposed to be staid and professional which means removed from the vagaries of mood or states of mind.

Readers are people, though. And people respond to emotion. When used correctly and fairly (not manipulatively), the use of emotion or feelings or mood or sentiments or human reactions in business communications improve our chances of reaching our audience.

Who among us hasn’t seen a commercial that brought tears to our eyes or made us laugh out loud or feel empathy? Was there anything wrong with that?

There was a commercial for the Sydney Olympics that made me cry every time I saw it. That was eleven years ago and, while I don’t remember the audio or video frame for frame, I still remember the experience and how it made me want to watch the games.

Why not tap into something deep inside us all to reach our customers and prospects? Why are we afraid to occasionally, when appropriate, move away from the corporate speak and gobbledygook and speak to the heart of what makes our audience tick?