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Are your words in the right order? Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. When you are writing your marketing campaign materials, you might sometimes have the right words, but not necessarily in the right order. Here are two mini case-studies to explain what I mean. * Case study one. Some time ago, I was asked by a company that sells software to give some feedback on their web site. As part of my critique I wrote this (I have changed some details here to protect their confidentiality): "On the page about software brand X, you begin with some technical jargon that doesn't really say what the product does. It wasn't until I got to the end of the second paragraph that the penny dropped: this product would let me make changes to my own web site. There are lots of benefits to business owners in being able to change their own site, but these benefits aren't presently the focus of your page about this product. A better route might be to begin by purely talking about the benefits of the product: saves times, makes changes easy, saves money, opens up new marketing opportunities etc. Then and only then list the technical stuff for those who are interested." I took another look at the web site recently and they have certainly acted on my feedback. Here's what they say now: "If You'd Like To Be In Control Of Your Web Site And Alter Aspects Of It As And When You Want To... Just Released...A Content Management System That Enables You To Call The Shots When Managing Your Web Site. This powerful software is a 'non-techies' delight. It takes a novice by the hand so in no time at all you'll master all aspects of running a web site... just like a 'veteran' IT professional would... Now you can update your web site...Adding pages...Taking pages down...Putting up photographs and news items...Whenever you want to. Within days you'll become an accomplished web editor... Performing tasks that you previously would never have undertaken." I don't know about you, but I think they have got it just about right. It used to take nearly two paragraphs of technical information to reach the benefits. But now it's clear right from the first line what they are selling, and what it can do for you. So here's a simple exercise for you. Revisit your marketing materials and see if, just by changing the order a little, you can make improvements. * Case study two. Earlier this week, I was struggling to complete an article for a client's newsletter. The problem was that I didn't have a good ending. The article just fizzled out at the end. I had already used the maximum number of available words and so would have had to remove some text to make way for the ending. But suddenly I realised that all I had to do was move an earlier paragraph to the end, and there it was: the perfect ending. What made the paragraph in question work so well as an ending? Simple really, it talked about what would happen next. So the article ended on a positive note about the future. So the next time you are struggling with the ending of an article, brochure, letter, web site page or whatever, try a bit of cut 'n' pasting. You might have already written what you need without realising it. Only when I understand exactly what you are trying to do and the Copyright 2004 Richard Groom |