Blog Warning: This post contains starred expletives, as well as a mention of pet excrement.
Were you a badge or button collector? Did you cover bags or jackets in those little badges adorned with peace symbols, spiky cannabis leaves or pithy save-the-world slogans? Did you have a favourite badge? One that really summed you up?
As a teenager I never collected badges. They just weren’t that popular. But there was one button that I bought in my late-twenties, that even if I had bought when I was 16, I wouldn’t really have appreciated until later.
This badge made wearable the clichéd truism that still lies behind so many of the questions I ask: Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups.
And it really is.
Assumption might have a few co-parents – like Laziness, Stupidity or Haste – but at the end of the day Assumption is usually at the very least the stork where f*** ups are concerned.
The importance of never assuming when it comes to copywriting was brought home to me again this week when I was doing some keyword research and copywriting for a physiotherapy products website.
The product was freeze spray –an instant cooling spray for minor injuries.
I guessed at a couple of the possible keywords and phrases that people might use to find this product, then used some software to further research the options. I’d assumed what other types of products might come into the mix – anti-freeze spray for example. But I had not reckoned on one: Poop Freeze.
You type ‘freeze spray’ into Google and Poop Freeze is the third product on the list. And, yes, it does what the product name says: freezes poop. Specifically pet poop, although I’m sure you could use it on other varieties. And there is more than one such product on the market, although the others have less to-the-point names.
Now, I realise that I was probably unaware of this product, firstly, because I don’t own a pooping pet, and secondly, because I’ve always played a great deal of sport where freeze spray was a common pitch-side accessory. But I was unaware of it. Couldn’t even have dreamed of it.
To be honest, at the end of the day it didn’t make much difference to the words I included in my product description, but it did remind me about assumptions and how wrong they can be. And potentially how wrong we can be when ignore them in marketing communications or copywriting.
Never assume until you’ve done the research
Your personal frame of reference is never going to be big enough. You’re always going to be biased when you write or act, and you just don’t know who or what you’re competing with or what else it out there. But you can enlarge the frame as a start.
When you’re writing an article, doing research for keywords, picking a company name, a domain name or planning a marketing campaign – research, research, research. This might seem pretty obvious, but it’s often ignored, as in the case of a public health cycling campaign having the same acronym as the web address for an established porn website.
But doing your own reading and asking the questions you come up with is only going to inform your own assumption.
Our set of assumptions is one of the most personal things we own, and people will always be reading your words with their own assumptions in place. Being aware of your own assumptions is not enough, you need to research and be aware of others’ assumptions too. You don’t know what comes into someone else’s head when they hear ‘freeze spray’.
Everybody makes assumptions – don’t ignore them
There are constant reminders to writers not to assume their reader knows something – the meaning of an acronym, for example. And then there are reminders to write for your reader. This is all excellent advice. But it is only one side of the warning. You don’t just have to write for your reader, you also have to write for your reader’s assumptions. And to do that you need to have a vague idea of what they are.
The obvious place to start when questioning our own assumptions is the Internet. But the best place to understand other people’s is from them directly. Not just by ’stepping into their shoes’ though, because while you’re stepping into them, you’re usually taking your assumptions with you.
Twenty seconds of playing the word association game provides excellent insight on what other people’s assumptions are about a word or phrase.
Speak to friends, colleagues and strangers, your crew on Twitter or Facebook. Ask for their assumptions, and compare them to your own. Is there something crucial you’ve missed? Could your carefully crafted tagline have a negative association you couldn’t even have imagined on an hallucinogenic trip? Could your company name be putting people off? Is your main benefit actually a turn-off?
Obviously we don’t always have the time to research assumptions in depth, or with our exact target audience. Awareness is a good start though. And with social networks, friends, neighbours or even friendly strangers we have easy access to one or two more assumptions than just our own.
Spending a bit of time on this is important, because it does matter what other people think. And if you’re lucky, an assumption’s only going to lead to a misnunderstanding and not to a total f*** up.
Ever made an assumption that got you into a big pile of poop?
Turn your unglamorous info into a marketing tool
Ever been unable to find the most basic specifications for a product you’ve wanted to buy online? Or couldn’t find the contact info you needed for a specific department? Or the direct debit form they kept referring to but wasn’t attached to the ?!@&$%!! renewal form?
How did it make you feel about the business or organisation involved?
I’m no mind reader, but I’d bet a lot of money on it that ‘warm and fuzzy’ is not the phrase you’re thinking of right now. Probably something more along the lines of ‘incompetent’ or ‘unprofessional’?
So you already appreciate why well-written, user-friendly and useful information is an asset for your business. I’m not talking about your advertisements or your glossy brochure, or the company blog you use to promote yourself online. I’m talking about the rest of the information that your customers or clients receive or use - all the ‘admin info’. Things like your membership forms, your product details or technical specs, your support documents, your service information, FAQs, price lists or your booking confirmation emails.
All that ‘unglamorous’ information without which sales and marketing copy is largely a waste of time.
Good information as a marketing tool
Good written information is itself a marketing tool. It’s a foundation for good customer service, it builds customer loyalty and increases conversion.
Why? Because good information does not irritate people, inconvenience them or make them go somewhere else to find an answer.
Good information shows your customers that you’re making an effort to save and respect them by valuing their time and making the info they need concise and easy to use. It also adds to your credibility, and it reduces the number of customer queries you’ll need to deal with.
So, before you throw huge amounts of money at expensive marketing plans and strategies, assess the information that you make available to your customers. Is it good enough to convert and keep the customers that are alerted to your business because of advertising or social media campaigns?
Or would some of your marketing budget be better spent reassessing and polishing your essential written information?
What is good information?
Good written information:
- Answers questions
- Is concise, clear, accurate, and easy to understand
- Is easy to find, easy to use, and easy to act on
The great thing is, you probably already have all the information your customers or client need. All you need to do is structure it, edit it and fine-tune it to make it into a marketing asset.
Where do you start to make your written information better?
The best place to start is by trying to see your information from your customer’s perspective. Write down what a customer or client needs to do, or what you would like them to do, with each piece of written information you provide. Write it out step-by-step.
For example, for a membership renewal letter, the customer will need to:
- decide if they want to renew
- know how much membership will cost
- check the date they need to renew by
- speak to someone if they have an individual query about their membership renewal
- complete the renewal form
- choose their payment option
- make the payment (online, by cheque or direct debit)
- post the renewal form and payment slip or cheque
Now give them the info they’ll need to complete each step. It sounds simple, and it is. But it’s surprising how easy it is to leave out key pieces of information if you just start writing without a checklist of what you need to include. It can leave basic questions unanswered and frustrating holes in your info.
Having a checklist that corresponds to how the reader will use the information will help you structure it clearly and keep to the point.
The same step-by-step checklist approach can be applied to anything, from web content to services information. Once you’ve written your information you can edit it and polish it in the knowledge that at the very least you’re giving your customers time-saving, useful information and answered any important questions they might have.
Elements that make well-written information better
Good information is well written and concise. But to make it valuable and a marketing asset it also needs to be well-structured and well laid out. It is the simple things that make the difference between well-written information that might never be read, and well-written, easy-to-use, easy-to-find information that’s an asset to your business.
Informative headings and sub-headings. Quirky might amuse you, but it probably won’t amuse a customer or client whose time is being wasted trying to find the right piece of info. Headings and sub-headings are sign-posts to the right info.
Numbering. On large documents with a lot of cross-referencing, using a numbered system of headings and sub-headings can be very helpful to the reader.
Page numbers on written documents. The ‘x of y’ pages format is exceptionally useful on documents that are likely to be printed out – even if they’re only two pages long.
Bookmarking pdfs. This helps people find what they’re looking for fast, as well as get a quick overview of what information is in the document.
An index and/or table of contents. Just because you whiz around your digital documents using the search function, don’t think everyone does. An index can save your reader a huge amount of time for any printed document, and a table of contents lets them scan and assess the whole document as well as navigate through it.
A summary or précis. Summaries save people time, and they let you give a distilled version of your information. Use them.
White space. As important online as off, having the correct amount of ‘breathing space’ around different text elements can be the deciding factor between a useful and a useless document, irrespective of how well it is written.
Legibility. It’s all useless information if you can’t read it. There are many elements that make text more or less legible, including font, text size and line spacing. Make sure you consider them, or that your web or graphic designer understands these important issues.
Visual information. Some information is easier to understand as a chart, illustration or diagram. Could you condense a page of info into a simple diagram, or a complicated step-by-step process into an illustrated user-friendly flow chart? How much easier would it make things for your client?
Good written business information doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be concise and use common sense. Editing and proofreading always help, but it’s the little bit of forethought that makes your written information into an asset and an invaluable marketing tool.
What crucial business information do you notice is often missing or buried ?