Why
do they do this?
They
dont focus on the coffee; instead, they focus on savoring the aromatic
taste of hand-picked Columbian beans ideal for starting your morning and so on.
It's
not the beans theyre sellingits the benefits. In the sentence above, it reminds
you how their exquisite coffee helps you start your
morning - a nice touch (benefit) that we can all relate to.
So,
with this in mind, lets look at some ways to convey those benefits.
1.
Persuade use words, phrases, and expressions that persuade. Active
verbs and short phrases carry a lot of punch.
Think of ˇ°Just Do Itˇ±; ˇ°Im Lovin itˇ±; ˇ°Coke Is It.ˇ±
Theyre all easy to remember and roll off the tongue without any problem. No strange
terms or buzzwords.
2.
Product investigate the products your audience is interested in. You
have to know your prospective consumer inside out; including their habits, new trends, and
their dislikes.
3.
Incentive examine the triggers that make consumers want
one item over another. An emotional trigger
could be a bonus, incentive, or prestige.
4.
Motivation what motivating factors drive consumers; for example, exclusivity
is a strong driver for up-market products, as it implies that only a select band
of people can afford/are worthy of the product.
5.
Words sharpen your material until the benefits become very
persuasive.
Once
you have worked on these areas, ask yourself:
6.
Who will benefit most from the message?
7.
What are their basic needs?
8.
Which is the most attractive benefit?
9.
What is the key benefit in my message?
10.
How can I write the key benefit in one sentence?
11.
How can I 'sell' this benefit?
12.
What will help illustrate this message?
Your next step is to write the "sales message" using
words that will:
13.
Demand complete attention.
14.
Create intense interest.
15.
Encourage the reader to act.
The
three stepsget attention, create interest, and call to actionare
the key ingredients of great sales copy.
But
--- even the sharpest copy wont win customers if your product is poorly presented,
confusing, or overpriced.
With
that in mind, here are some final suggestions to get the most out of your words --- and turn
passive readers into active consumers.
16.
Define the Who, What, and Why before you start.
17.
Gather all the collateral, documents, brochures etc that you need to write the copy.
18.
Set a goal for yourself. Only sign-off on the final draft once you
reached this objective.
19.
Imagine that you are the consumer; write from his or her point of view.
20.
Read your material aloud once youve finished it.
If you stumble over any section, or if something grates, revise it and try it out again.
21.
Once finished, put is aside for 24 hours. When you write for long periods, you may get
snow-blind; a 24-hour break will help you see if what you wrote makes the grade.
How do you write sales
copy? Let us know and I'll post your
comments.
Academic vs Business Writing
By Jane Watson
On the morning of a second
day of a business writing workshop, one of my participants said, "My wife is an
English teacher. When I told her about the changes in writing that you taught us
yesterday, she got very upset. She said if I ever start a sentence with the word and or if
I ever write a one sentence paragraph she will slap my wrist."
The man-and his wife-hadn't
understood. Business writing is different from the writing you learn in the classroom.
This is because both the readers and the image you want to project of yourself are
different.
In school the teacher
assigns or negotiates a topic with the students. There is a specific word count involved.
A student may be asked to write a 1,000 word essay comparing the use of symbolism in
George Orwell's book 1984 and Margaret Atwood's Handmaiden's Tale. Sound familiar? The
student then scrambles to read the books (not having quite completed the earlier
assignment), looks up the word symbolism and tries to make sense of the assignment.
The student runs into three
problems. First, understanding the assignment and pulling the information from the texts.
Second, producing the required word count. Students soon clue into the idea that these two
problems can be solved by writing about the same point several times but using different
words. This hides the fact that the writer isn't too clear on the topic and brings up the
word count.
The third problem revolves
around image. If a student can make himself sound ten years older and give a pompous
flavour to his paper, he will get top marks. This is difficult because of the vocabulary
level. If you listen to many teenagers words such as like, rad, yo (now in the
dictionary), duh, dissing are sprinkled throughout their conversations. None of these will
fit into an English assignment. But the solution lies in the thesaurus.
One young man I know writes
his essays according to his normal speech patterns and when he is finished uses the
thesaurus to upgrade all the nouns to polysyllables. It changes an easy-to-read document
into a more complicated one and certainly gives in a more ponderous flavor. And, yes, he
always receives top marks.
So this is what we learn in
school: how to disguise our thoughts if we are not sure what we are saying, how to pad
sentences with unnecessary words, and how to project the image of someone we are not.
Does this style of writing
work in the business world? Absolutely not.
Our readers do not receive a
salary for pouring over our efforts. Our readers are busy people who want to pick up
documents, read them quickly and know what they are to do next. They also want to feel
there is a live, warm-blooded person writing to them-not the ghost of Ernest Hemingway.
Here are some tips for
today's writing:
Begin with the idea you
are speaking face-to-face with your reader.
Use the same words you
would use when talking.
Change nouns to verbs when
possible. (For example: An announcement was made by the president. Better: The president
announced)
Start sentences with and,
but or because, if the message calls for an informal tone.
Remove words that don't
add to the message. (For example, remove this useless filler: I would like to take this
opportunity to)
Use personal pronouns: I,
we and you. (Use you more often than I.)
Leave in the words of
courtesy--please, thank you, I appreciate
Bertrand Russell, the
English philosopher once said, "Little men use big words, big men use little
words."
©2002, Jane Watson is dedicated to
advancing business communications. She is a consultant, author, keynoter and trainer and
can be reached at jane@jwatsonassociates.com
or (905) 820-9909.
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