Many of us have to write our own marketing material whether or not we
enjoy writing. Often we’re so busy thinking about what we want to say
that we lose sight of our audience. Even experienced writers can fall
into this trap.
The problem with writing marketing
material for ourselves is that we tend to waffle before we get to the
point. Sam Leader, director and editor of Flying Solo, says that having
edited some 600 articles for Flying Solo, she has “to get rid of an
average of two or three warm-up paras time and time again”.
So
how can we avoid this? I suggest you clarify your thoughts before you
start writing by asking yourselves questions using PACKO: purpose,
audience, context, key messages and outcome.
Purpose
Why are you writing this document? What do you want to achieve?
You
may want to provide information, make a recommendation to solve a
problem or persuade your readers to buy your products or services.
Sometimes you may have more than one purpose.
Understanding
your purpose helps determine the structure of your writing. For
example, if you’re writing an informative piece, you can often get
straight to the point without much preamble. You simply record your
information in order of importance to the reader.
If
you want to persuade your readers, you may need to spend more time
setting the scene to demonstrate that you understand their situation.
The challenge is to write from their point of view, not yours.
Audience/s
Having
established what you want to achieve, think about your audience/s. What
do you know about them? Are your writing for single or multiple
audiences?
The more you tailor your writing to suit your readers, the more powerful it will be. As Cicero said:
If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words.
Context
I
never used to think about context, but I have become increasingly aware
that many writers make assumptions about their readers’ knowledge when
writing marketing material. Explaining the context or background may not
always be relevant, but if you think about it, you’ll know whether or
not you need to explain your terms or include some background
information.
For example, at the end of 2008, the media
covered how Bernard Madoff lost his clients a lot of money through a
Ponzi scheme. Many newspapers did not explain what a Ponzi scheme is,
leaving readers to guess or look up the information. (According to
Wikipedia: “It’s a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to
investors out of the money paid by subsequent investors rather than from
profit.”)
Key messages
What are your key messages?
You must be able to articulate your key messages in clear statements that even a 12-year-old can understand.
This
sounds common sense, but it’s amazing how many highly intelligent
writers don’t make their key messages clear. I think it’s sometimes
because they think they’re obvious. Professor Chip Heath of Stanford
University calls this the “curse of knowledge”.
Outcome/s
How
do you want your readers to respond? This question relates back to
purpose, but thinking about it separately reminds you to check your
details.
For example, a friend of mine, who owns a
restaurant, sends a wonderful chatty email to customers. A recent email
was as interesting as usual, but she’d forgotten to include the
restaurant’s phone number. Had she thought: “bookings, bookings,
bookings”, the phone number would have been prominently displayed.
So before you start writing marketing material next time, just pause for a moment and ask yourself the PACKO questions.
This article first appeared on www.flyingsolo.com.au
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