Marketing Matters: Writing Copy? Start with a '3 Sticks' mindset
As a marketing copywriter, it's important to remember that the only reality that really matters is the customers reality.
If your prospective buyer has no idea what your product or service does, your attempt to influence their behavior with words - that they don't understand- is pointless.
A.A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh, brilliantly describes this simple - yet continuously ignored principle of communication - by forcing us to reexamine the most basic element of language, a single letter.
"To the uneducated, an 'A' is just three sticks."
- A. A. Milne
Essentially, what Milne is saying is that if someone has never learned what the letter "A" is, then it may appear to that person to be nothing more than 3 lines (sticks) that simply happen to be aligned with each other in a particular way.
In other words, without any prior knowledge of the meaning, relationship and significance of each letter in the alphabet, the combination of these things to form words, phrases and sentences will be meaningless.
Another example of this can be witnessed in the film adaptation of John Irving's novel "The Cider House Rules". Each season, a written list of house 'rules' is posted in plain site inside the building where the apple pickers all live. Ironically, we learn later that the 'list' is meaningless to the people living there because none of the pickers can read. Perhaps rightly so, the pickers ignore them. ("Those rules ain't for us. We are supposed to make our own rules.")
So, how does this apply to writing marketing copy?
Simple: If your prospect doesn’t realize that they have a problem - or that a problem even exists - they’ll never go searching for your product/service as a solution. At the same time, if the words, phrases, acronyms and other messages are filled with industry-specific jargon, you had better be sure that the ONLY people you want to reach with that message are those who happen to understand it.
While ignorance can seem blissful at times, ignorance is also a marketers’ worst nightmare. Good marketing always establishes ‘the need’ first, ‘the difference’ second and ‘the value’ third – and does it always in that order.
Without a prospect first becoming aware of their ‘need’ to buy, click, call, or visit, bombarding them with messages about how fabulous your product or service is never going to convince them to take the action that you want them to.
Only after you truly understand your customers needs – and they understand how you can help them to be met – can the sales process begin.
Otherwise, you might as well be speaking a different language.
Always start with a ‘3 Sticks’ mindset when attempting to speak to your audience of potential customers.
Seen any 'good' examples of marketing #fails? Share them below.
~ Tim