Since the beginning of time, people have looked to those with creative acumen and wondered what the mystical formula was that made them able to take simple ideas and spin them into gold. How can I work the voodoo that they do? How can I use their mystic alchemy to pull my audience into my message and ensure that they are entranced by it? Help make it so they never forget it?
So, what is the secret alchemy? Well, the truth is, there is no secret alchemy. In most cases, it’s just that they were willing to try harder. They worked at learning the secrets to good communication, and they used them.
Notice how I didn’t say the secrets to good writing? This isn’t about good writing, this is about good communication. Writing is when you sit down and put words on a page in the appropriate order, with all the right punctuation and structure. It’s about you and the page, and it’s a one-way process. Communication is a two-way process. Communication is about interacting with someone else. And, if you want to know the secret alchemy, that’s it right there. Those people who turn their marketing messaging into gold have discovered that good messaging is a two-way process, and they’ve pursued an understanding of how that works. They talk to their audience, not at them.
“So, how do I do that?” You’re asking. Well, I can’t teach you all the secrets of the masters in one post. But, I can give you some basic rules you can follow that will help you on your road.
These first three are cardinal rules that I covered in detail in my last post, so I won’t go into detail here, but they are worthy of a reminder. At the very least, you should keep these principles in mind when you write:
- No one cares about you.
- No one wants to be sold anything.
- No one is going to listen to everything you say.
The most important thing you can remember when you write for engagement is that your audience doesn’t really want to hear anything about you or your product. Your audience wants you to talk to them about them. They want to know your product does to help them, “what’s in it for me.”
Focus on those things that are really a benefit to them. Do it in a way that will keep them engaged and won’t make them want to put your message down before they finish it, without making them feel like they have to commit to buying anything. Reward them for reading your message. Don’t make them work to get through it.
Those are the big things, and if you want more details about them you can read my last post Making Your Audience a Part of Your Story – Part 1: Leprechauns and Other Fantastic Creatures. But let’s take a closer look at some of the writing tools you can use right now to improve engagement.
Tone:
Talk to your audience like they are your friends. Keep the tone of your copy conversational. And don’t make the mistake of trying to define their needs for them. Nobody wants to be told what they want, they already know that.
Remember that the average publication in America is written at a ninth-grade reading level, and most people converse at a 13-year-old level. Try to keep your writing at that same level. Your audience prefers to read words that are 5 characters long or less. And, they prefer short paragraphs to long ones.
In short, make it simple.
(The Flesch-Kincaid Reading level scale uses this equation to determine reading levels: 0.39 x Average No. of words in sentences + 11.8 x Average No. of syllables per word – 15.59 = grade level.)
Scanning:
Most people are not going to take the time to read everything you write. Sad, but true. What they will do is scan the information on the page picking out a few items of interest here and there as they go.
Use this tendency as a tool to emphasize the important parts of your message. Take the time to make sure that those things you really want the audience to see, stick out. Here are some tools that will help you do that:
Keep it Short
Arrange your message into short, easy to read, sentences, and paragraphs. This helps your reader move more quickly through your message. Three sentences per paragraph is a good length to shoot for. And this principle holds true for both sentence length, and word length. Shorter is usually better.
Personalization
Seeing our name in print makes us feel important. It also makes us feel like someone is addressing us personally. Try to find ways to make this work for you.
If technology allows, personalize your message to your reader by using their name in your message. If your messaging format will allow, try to repeat their name three times.
Formatting
The way you arrange the information on your page will determine how effectively you viewer assimilates your message. Calling out parts of your message by using bolding, italics, colored text, or similar technics will also help ensure that the reader’s eye stops at that information as it scans across the page. Use these techniques to emphasize the parts of your message you want the viewer to remember after they have finished reading.
And, since no one will read everything you’ve written, make the content of your formatting stand on its own. Think of it as a message within a message.
Chunking
Grouping information together into blocks helps your reader organize your message into groups of ideas. Readers like to read shorts groups of ideas more than they like to read an entire page filled with information.
These are some basics. They sound, simple and you find yourself wondering how they can make such a big difference in what you write after you read them. But you’d be amazed at how many writers, both professional and not, forget these simple rules in their day-to-day work. Or convince themselves that they don’t have to follow them because they are “Writers” and have transcended these simple rules because of their professional status. But it always comes back to this, you can never hold a conversation by yourself. Once you include someone else in the equation, it’s the simple tools that facilitate effective communication. Mastering the simple tools is mastering the art. And that’s where the alchemy comes from.