Entries from October 2008 ↓

I cringe every time I read something that is writer-centred. Look at me, aren’t I wonderful! Frankly, I couldn’t care less and neither could your reader – don’t believe me? Then read on.

The other day, a sales flyer appeared through my door with my other post. It was very colourful and had several nice images dotted here and there to break up the text.

It was quite pleasing to the eye so I thought, why not? I was just about to have a coffee so I had a bit of a read just to see what they had to say – I believe it was from a conservatory company.

Well, after the first paragraph I’d learned all about how long they’d been in business, they had told me about the wonderful calibre of their sales team. I then moved on to read about the amazing glass they used and their wonderful weather resistant frames. They had also won a local award or something…as you can tell, I was beginning to flag by this point.

They had made one fatal mistake – they had forgotten who the flyer was going to.

Paragraph after paragraph they told me about themselves. I am sure they are very good at what they do and undoubtedly deserved the award, but what they didn’t do was tell me how their company’s product would benefit me.

OK, you could argue that I am intelligent enough to work that one out for myself. But because the flyer was all about them my reaction to it was ‘so what?’ Why should I spend my time and money contacting a company that paid so little attention to the needs of its potential customers?

The moral therefore is no matter what medium you are writing for, your writing must be centred on the reader. They probably aren’t particularly interested in how long your business has been going. But what they are interested in is what you can do for them to help them save money, time, etc.

Sally Ormond

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Hands up anyone who has come into contact with the lesser-spotted-long-winded-showy-jargon-muncher?

Everyone, at one time or another, has sat down to read what they thought would be an informative article, sales brochure or website only to be bored to tears within a couple of sentences. It might seem an odd thing to say but the one thing to keep in mind when writing is that you don’t want your reader to know what a great writer you are.

Yes, I know, in order for you to be able to pull off that particular oxymoron you have to be a good writer, but what I am talking about here is showman-ship. In sales writing there is no room for showy, flamboyant writing.

You are merely there to provide the vase in which the flowers go – it is the flowers you want your reader to see, smell and want. The last thing you want is for them to be distracted by the gaudy vase beneath them.

Here are three things to remember before putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard:

• Forget the arty similes and metaphors, tell the reader what it is, what it does and why it will benefit them.
• Forget the jargon – no one is interested in it. If it is essential technical vocabulary, fine, but keep it to a minimum.
• Keep it short and concise. I know there is a lot of debate about whether long copy is better than short and each has its place. But in both cases don’t be too wordy – why use ‘in the interim period’ when ‘between’ will do just fine.

Above all, keep your writing simple and conversational. That way you’ll effortlessly build rapport with your reader. You will become that friendly arm around the shoulder; someone they can trust.

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