Copywriting Archives - McLellan Marketing Group

Give your message some space

September 9, 2020

This past fall, I was able to spend some time in New York City and was able to catch several Broadway shows. Some were musicals, and some were dramas. Some were based on real-life events, and others were pure fiction. Some featured award-winning, famous actors and others did not. Some were set in modern-day, and others harkened back to an earlier time.

To say they were all very different would be an understatement. But all of them had one thing in common. Each one was roomy. What I mean by that is each show gave the audience plenty of room to absorb the message.

The sets were simple and more representative than actual. For example, in Come From Away, twelve chairs were a plane, a path, and a church. To Kill A Mockingbird, two tables and four chairs were a courtroom. The dialogue was deliberate, and the silences were purposeful and effective. It occurred to me that we could learn from these masterful playwrights and directors.

One of the common mistakes we make as marketers is trying to pack five pounds of message into a one-pound bag. We end up drowning our core messages with noise in a desire to include everything. My recent experiences as an audience member reminded me that when we do that, we actually weaken our messages because they don’t have room to breathe, grow, or take hold.

The truth is that our audience is only going to remember one or two key points of any marketing message. Given the barrage of marketing messages out there, we can help our audience get the main point by not complicating the delivery so they can grasp and retain the message easier and faster.

There are some ways we can minimize the noise and give our core message the room it needs.

Visuals: One of the common missteps I see in ads, websites, tradeshow booths, and collateral material is the reliance on the photo montage. Rather than letting one visual stand alone and deliver the message, we feel compelled to use multiple images. That means the audience’s attention is immediately divided. Each photo or visual is smaller and has less impact.

White space: Another way we demonstrate our lack of conviction in our product or service is by using up every inch of space in a layout. We’re so worried that we’re not going to catch or keep someone’s attention that we need to add a starburst, five different font families, a headline, subhead, body text, bullet points, and some bold and underlined words as well.

Instead, we create a blur for our audience and force them to decipher what is most important … if they’re willing to invest the time.

Words: How do you leave room when it comes to words? There are a few ways. First – use fewer of them. Don’t tell them what you want them to know, and then tell them what you told them, and then sum it up by telling them again. Just say it. Say it boldly and clearly. And then, shut up.

Let your audience have time and space with your message so they can connect to it and assign it meaning that is relevant to them. Or, in some cases, decide that you aren’t relevant to them at all, and move on. Either outcome is better than having no impact.

It takes incredible confidence in your product or service to execute on this idea of giving your marketing message some space. If you lack that assurance, more words or pictures probably isn’t going to cut it. Instead, you probably need to take a step back and ask what would need to change so you could get comfortable giving your message a little bit of white space.

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

I confess — I don’t write these posts on my own

May 27, 2014

Circled spelling mistakes in grade school paper I have a confession to make. I don’t write my blog posts on my own. I’m just not a good enough writer. And I’m even worse at proofreading.

That’s why I use Grammarly’s proofreading software because, with my luck, public would become pubic without its keen eye keeping me on the G-rated side of the tracks.

When I started in the business, every time we drafted anything, it immediately went to the proofers. Over the course of an ad’s creation or a brochure’s multiple drafts — the proofer was there at every turn, making sure we writers didn’t embarrass ourselves or our clients.

Think of Grammerly as a much less intrusive, less time-intensive insurance policy for today’s much faster paced world.

So much of the content we create is either live — tweets, Facebook updates, etc. or done on the fly like blog posts that we’d better have a back up plan. All you have to do is drag and drop your copy into the Grammerly editing window and voila — it catches all of your mistakes and even suggests alternatives.

Here are some of my other “try not to embarrass yourself Drew” writing/editing proofreading tips:

I read my posts out loud. Some people suggest reading your content backwards, but I want to hear how it sounds so I know how the readers hear it in their head.

When possible, let it sit overnight. I’m always astonished and disappointed at all the errors I find when I go back the following day to something I’ve written.

Know your own bad habits. My brain moves faster than my fingers so many of my errors are just sloppy typing. Maybe you struggle with then/than or to/too/two. Whatever it is…watch for the repeat offenders.

Never forget to spellcheck. It’s fast and free. But don’t count on it to catch everything.

We create content to demonstrate our expertise and to encourage people to trust that we’re capable and qualified. Don’t let silly mistakes or sloppy writing undo your efforts.

Note: The folks at Grammerly gave me a trial subscription to their software and asked me to test it out. They invited me to write a blog post in exchange for a gift card. I want you to know — I now choose to pay for a subscription because the tool is valuable and I wouldn’t be writing about it if that weren’t the case.

4 tips for writing a strong case study

September 20, 2013

Everyone loves a good story. And there’s a reason why Aesop and others opted to teach their life lessons through stories that have been told and re-told for many years.

Case Studies are the marketing version of Aesop’s Fables. Stories told to make a point or teach a lesson that demonstrates the value of your product or service. So how do create a good case study?

CS Tip #1: Structure it like a story. Make sure there’s a logical flow. Explain the problem (identify the villain). Introduce your company/product (bring in the hero). Describe how the challenge was overcome (tell of the battle). Sum it up (give it a happy ending).

CS Tip #2: Include lots of details. Don’t just say, “We were losing customers.” Give specifics. Our sales were down over 42%. Be sure to give details in describing both the problem and the solution. If your client isn’t willing to let you use their company’s name and information, choose a different example. This isn’t the place to be generic or vague. Your credibility goes hand in hand with the level of disclosure.

CS Tip #3: Use quotes to give your case study its authenticity. Be careful not to dumb them down so they sound generic.

CS Tip #4: Make sure everyone signs off on it before it goes public. The power of a case study is that it reveals an actual problem and its solution. Some businesses may be reticent to air their dirty laundry. Before you pitch your case study to a reporter or post it on your website, get everyone’s blessing.

Case studies are incredibly compelling when done right. If you’re lucky, you’ll tell a story that people will tell over and over.

Write so they will hear you

October 30, 2012

Most people, when faced with the blank screen on their computer and a deadline for a new marketing piece looming, get a little uptight.

It’s intimidating to capture everything you want a prospect to know and share it in a compelling way. Your product or service is superb and you have so much to say — how will you do it justice?

Which is why most marketing copy is dreadful. Here are the most common mistakes:

We do a brain dump, sharing everything we know.
We want to demonstrate that we’re experts so we use impressive words and jargon that shows that we’re in the know.
We cram way too many words into the piece because it’s all important.
We talk about our company, our product, and our people…but not about the customer.

If you make even one of those mistakes, odds are your prospect is taking a glance at your first two or three sentences and then moving on. You haven’t invited them into the conversation – you’re just talking about you.

Remember, you are trying to start a conversation. Who would you rather talk to – someone who walks up to you and asks a question about you or a person who walks up and starts telling you all about them?

So how do we avoid those mistakes? We can ask ourselves these questions.

How do they talk?
I can have the best deal in the world, but if I tell you about it in Japanese and you don’t speak Japanese – you can’t possibly want what I am selling.

You need to know your prospect well enough that you know how they talk.

Are they engineers who use very precise, detailed language and acronyms?
Are they teachers who speak about their students with affection and pride?
Are they purchasing agents who need to squeeze every penny from the deal and deliver the highest ROI possible?

Understanding the language they use and how they’re going to have to sell your offering up/down the food chain, will allow you to craft your message in their native tongue.

Your prospects are busy and won’t take the time to translate your marketing messages. If they don’t instantly understand it and see that you’re talking to them, they’ll pass it by every time.

Do they know they need you?
No one wants to buy something they don’t need or want. That sounds like a duh, but many times businesses try to sell solutions to a client who doesn’t realize they have a problem.

Often, we just go right to the solution without even mentioning the problem. Let’s say that I want to sell my home in the next 12 months. You own a landscape business and send me information about how good your work is, showing me pictures of gorgeous yards, etc.

But I dismiss it, because I’m not going to live in my house much longer so why spend money on something I won’t get to enjoy?

You’ve lost the sale, because I don’t know I need you. But if one of your marketing pieces was titled “5 landscaping tricks to sell your house faster” now you have my attention.

If the first line of body copy told me that 34% of buyers passed on at least one home because the landscaping was disappointing – you have just converted a “no” into an interested prospect.
Now you have my attention.

By paying attention to these two elements – you can effectively avoid all four of the mistakes I mentioned.

You’ll speak in their language and only talk about what matters to them – their problems and how you can solve them.

Content that your audience loves

September 8, 2012

I saw this on Scott Monty’s Facebook status…and loved it. I couldn’t track down the creator but if I do, I’ll update the post.

Just wanted to give you something to chew on over the weekend.

Start with Why

July 27, 2012

One of the 20 most watched TED talks of 2010 was given by Simon Sinek and speaks directly to anyone who is trying to market or sell something. Sinek’s premise is simple.

Always start with why.

Sinek began his adult life as a student of anthropology. His fascination with people led him to a career in advertising and he found himself combining his chosen work with his earlier studies to try and understand what motivated people.

All of that pondering led to his book Start With Why*, his focus on how leaders motivate companies and customers and his famous TED talk.

His findings are very applicable to us as we market our products and services.

In the vast majority of marketing today, the lion’s share of the language and imagery we use is self-focused. We talk about ourselves, our products, our services and our organizations. When we don’t think that is enough, we dissect even deeper, breaking down the facts into bullet pointed lists of features that detail and justify the claims we make.

It’s not that anything we are saying is inaccurate. In most cases, it’s spot on. But we are blathering on about facts and figures. That’s the what. We know that people buy base don emotions and justify that purchase with the facts…but all too often we just feed them the justification with first holding up the emotion.

We rarely get into the why of something.

The why of something inspires. It makes a consumer want to believe in you. It leads them to want to give your product a try. It makes them feel as though you’re on the same team.

I’ll give you an example. I never really paid much attention to which brand of dishwashing soap was on my sink. My theory was – they’re all pretty much the same so I’ll buy whichever is the cheapest. I’ve probably seen hundreds of commercials for dishwashing soap over the course of my adult life. But they all talked about how well they cleaned dishes. The facts. And it all sounded pretty much the same to me, so not one of them stuck in terms of brand loyalty or preference.

But when Dawn started showing the commercials of the oil spill rescue workers using donated Dawn to clean up the wildlife covered with oil – all of a sudden, we had a common why. We love animals.

Did you see what happened? It went from them and me to we. And now, when I go to buy dishwashing soap, I don’t think about getting clean dishes. I think about ducks covered with oil and how Dawn is going to make a donation if I buy their product.

All the other dish soaps are still talking to me about removing grease or their aromatherapy scents. They’re talking what. And they are talking to me. But Dawn talks about how we are going to protect and care for the world’s wildlife.

You don’t have to align yourself with a cause move from what to why. You just have to re-frame the way you think about and talk about what it is you market.

This gets back to a question we asked a few months ago. What do you really sell? If your answer is your product or service – you’re in trouble. Whether it’s insurance, a boat or a complicated piece of equipment – you’re a commodity. Someone else out there does (or will do) what you do.

Harley Davidson creating a community of bikers that rule the road, have plenty of attitude and join together at rallies, rides and for causes. People don’t buy their motorcycles. They buy being a part of the Harley community.

You need to find your why and own it.

*Affiliate lnk

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto

Find newsletter content in a flash

June 8, 2012

Drew’s note: Here’s a guest post by Patrick Carver on a relevant topic — how do you create and sustain the creation of an enewsletter.

Don’t you just hate writing newsletters? We all know the feeling. It’s Saturday afternoon and you realize the company newsletter is due to go out on Monday. You can feel the blood start to boil when you remember how long it ACTUALLY takes to write all that content. Don’t you just wish your newsletter would just write itself?

A great option is creating a ‘hybrid’ newsletter using a mix of original and curated content. Curation is a fancy name for finding relevant content (articles, videos, white papers, etc.), qualifying it, and then sharing it with your audience.

Using curated material is a great way to complement your own message and save a lot of time ‘thinking of what to say’. You can use the outside content as a jumping-off point and establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche at the same time.

The first place to look for free content is through one of the these tools. Google Reader let’s you add your favorite websites to a list and then view all their most recent posts in one place. A great way to monitor your sites without having to bounce around. Google Alerts is another free tool that lets you add specific keywords to a list and then will email once a day with relevant links and stories.

There are a handful of social bookmarking sites out there like Delicious, Reddit, and Digg that will help you find material but these aren’t always terribly useful. Without a human curation element, there is way too much automated/aggregated content on there to really find what you’re looking for.

One of the best options for finding free content is using a ‘personal newspaper’ service. The gist is that you add some topics that you’re interested in and then the software produces a personalized digest of the ‘best’ stories on that subject for you. Some of the more popular products are paper.li , scoop.it , and Flipboard but there are lots of these sites out there. AllTop is a great resource that will list all of the relevant blogs on a topic and display their latest 5 posts.

Now you just have to incorporate all that great content with your newsletter template. People often use an email marketing tool like Constant Contact, MailChimp or InfusionSoft for this. But, if you don’t like messing around with templates, you might consider trying FlashIssue (it’s Free).

Newsletters can be a lot of work but it’s definitely worth the effort. Don’t get deterred if your first try doesn’t come out amazing and go viral. Stick with a core theme but experiment as much possible with different story-lines until you find something that really sticks. If you can figure out how to speak to your customers in a way that makes them want to listen, you’re on to something big.

Patrick Carver is the Director of Marketing for FlashIssue, the newsletter solution. You can follow him @FlashIssue or read more of his stuff on the FlashIssue Blog.

Zemanta – A Free Customizable Curation Tool(contentcurationdesktop.com)
Info Curation and Aggregation Services, Tools & Apps(speedofcreativity.org)

How to keep writing when the well is dry

May 31, 2012

From my mailbox:

I read your emails and your piece in the Business Record. I think a gal here at my company might have heard you speak at the NAWBO Conference last year (does this sound right?) Anyway… she said one of the things she took away was that you made a comment of how no matter what you had going on and/how you felt, you made sure to be consistent with your blog posts.

Some days I’m just not feeling it… like today, but I know I have to post consistently. Do you have any tricks you do to keep your head in the game or your confidence up when you write? I tell myself I’m my own worst critic and this is just one post of many… and regardless of it being great or crappy… it’s not going to make or break me.

My reply:

Hey there —

Happy to offer whatever advice I can. There are certainly days when I feel like the tank is empty. I’m either over scheduled or over tired or just over stimulated and I have nothing to say. Or, as you say — I’m feeling like what I do have to offer is lame or expected.

On those days, which fortunately are not all that often, I do one of a few things:

I cut myself some slack. I remember that one blog post is not going to make or break my blog and that no one is paying as much as attention as I think they are.

I sit it out. If I’ve just posted something on the blog (I average 3-4 posts a week) I’ll give myself permission to take a day off with the mental promise of being back on it the next day.

I go to my reserves. I always have a few posts written and tucked away for a rainy day. If I use one — I have to replace it AND write new stuff for the blog, so I have to be in bad shape to go to this solution.

I curate. There’s lots of good stuff being written out there and most of it goes pretty unnoticed. So on a day when I am not feeling inspired…I’ll go through my robust feedreader and find a gem that I think got overlooked by many. I’ll write a little intro, add some context as to why I think it is relevant and then post the link.

I seek out guest bloggers. I don’t do a lot of guest blogging on my site. But every once in awhile, sharing a different voice is kind of nice.

I use the answers to questions I’m sent. I get a fair amount of email from the blog and I try to answer it as best as I can. When someone asks something that I think others might care about too… I use it as content. (Like this exchange)

The bottom line is — you’re right, no one is going to die if your blog content is a little light for the week. But it can quickly become a rut that’s hard to climb out of. So hopefully some of the suggestions above will help you avoid the rut in the first place!

So — how about it readers — how do you create content when your well is feeling dry?

Build your key message hierarchy

April 9, 2012

When you get a chance to talk to a prospect — you want to make sure you talk to them about what matters. And if you’re not well prepared…that usually doesn’t happen.

Think back to when you were a teenager (or a pre-teen if you developed early) and were figuring out how to talk to that boy or girl you had a crush on.

Remember how your brain just fuzzed over when you got the chance and the next thing you knew, you were babbling something about how your cat was stuck in a tree, your grandma had a mustache and you didn’t like pears?

The same phenomenon occurs when we begin to talk to someone new at a networking event or a prospect who just called/walked in the door.

Without a plan, we babble.

The solution is an easy one. At McLellan Marketing Group, we call it your message hierarchy. Here’s fair warning — when I tell you how to do it, it is going to appear to be quite simple. You might even think “seriously Drew, that’s all you got?”

But I assure you, it’s harder than it looks. And it deserves some time and attention.

Assume you’re at a networking event, and someone you’ve never met before approaches you. They extend their hand and say — “Hi, I’m Bob. Nice to meet you. Tell me what you do for a living.” (I know…no one sounds like that but play along)

Answer these questions in this order.

If you could only tell Bob ONE thing about your business (a single sentence) that you hope he’ll remember forever and repeat often. What would you say?
If you discovered you had time for a second sentence, what would you add?
For some reason – you get a chance at adding a third sentence. What’s next.
Wow…Bob seems fascinated. Add another sentence about your business.
You’re on a roll! Bob hasn’t said a word…he’s so mesmerized. Add another sentence, quick.

You get the idea. It’s the first question that’s the killer. If you could only say ONE thing…and then had to walk away and that was all Bob was ever going to remember about your business — what would you say?

But once you figure that out — that’s golden. Now you know the key message you should always lead with. It doesn’t have to be the exact same sentence every time, but the message should be the same.

When you look at the answers to those 5 questions — you’ve build your message hierarchy. Think of it as a triangle, widening with every sentence. The most important point is at the top and then you add a layer underneath, over and over again.

Please give it a try. It’s tougher than it looks but it will help you stay on target no matter what marketing tool you’re creating.

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

Brilliant writing is timeless

September 7, 2011

Two months into launching my blog in 2006, I stumbled upon this example of copywriting brilliance and shared it with my readers. Back then, my readers consisted of my parents and about 2 other kind souls who took pity on the newbie blogger.

I was going through some old posts for a project I’m working on and discovered it again. Now that I have a whole handful of readers, I thought I’d share it again.

As you experience the copy, think about how it must have evolved. The time it took. The precision of the language. This kind of work doesn’t happen when you’re rushed or not really thinking about the end game — what do I want my audience to feel/realize at the end?

There’s a twist to this…so stick with it until the end. It’s worth it.

Enjoy.

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