Here are five reasons you should attend a marketing writing course in Glasgow.
Including knowing your steak, staying stylish and ensuring you meet the dinner-table test.
Five tips we use for every blog.
They’re designed to take your marketing writing to the next level.
Whether that’s in Glasgow, Greenock or Guangzhou.
Imagine you’re sitting in the dental chair as they look up your latest x-ray results.
The dentist checks the results and proceeds to tell you all about the day he’s had.
The traffic, the difficult patients, the fact he hates working Mondays.
You might politely nod along, but inside you’re thinking:
“I don’t care.”
We want people to get to the point.
So why do we treat our marketing writing differently?
We start a job advert by writing a background on the business.
We start a newsletter with a recap of what we covered in the last newsletter.
Your audience is bombarded with thousands of marketing messages a day.
So rather than politely nod, they’ve already left the room.
Challenge yourself to get to the point in the first 26 words.
Just like we did at the top of the blog.
I’ve mixed feelings about ordering steak.
What I’ve always been fascinated by is how it’s described.
“Charcoal-broiled”.
“Superbly grilled”.
“28-day dry-aged Highland Wagyu”.
“Slow-cooked, juicy tenderloin”.
“Charcoal-broiled, smoky sirloin”.
Read fully-fleshed wine or single malt descriptions and you’ll be equally enticed.
“An overwhelming rush of burnt blood-orange with a crisp, aromatic honeydew finish”.
There’s a mythical appeal to it all, where we end up happily sold to.
Even though we accept we’re unlikely to fully agree with the description.
Food and drink marketers have plenty to work with.
In other industries it’s tougher but we can apply the same principle.
Simply consider the audience’s motivation for giving you their money.
People buy a room at the Premier Inn for a good night’s sleep on a budget.
That shines through in their marketing.
Families buy seats on a budget aeroplane to get to the beach and the sun.
That’s why easyJet will show you pictures of a sun-soaked family on the beach when you visit their site, rather than a picture of your seat.
It’s the sizzle that really entices us.
Some job adverts stand out.
They’re corporate love letters, shouting “pick me!”
Clear on the benefits to the employee, clear on the company culture, clear they want you to apply.
Others simply fade into the background.
Often that’s due to a simple wrong decision made by the writer.
There are two broad writing styles in marketing.
Informative offers information, without agenda:
“The role will be subject to an annual performance review”.
Persuasive aims to promote a particular action (in this case, submitting a CV):
“Every year, you’ll meet with your manager to help you develop and grow”.
Almost everything I write is persuasive.
And once I’ve decided that, it makes writing the copy a great lot easier.
Think about the last thing you wrote.
A text, WhatsApp message, email, blog, social media post.
What was the very last thing you said?
Did you attempt to influence the audience to do something?
If so, you’ve used the number one tool in the marketer’s toolbox: the Call to Action.
It inspires action and it keeps the feedback loop working.
Think of your communication like the squares on a Monopoly board.
Skim-readers will typically locate the introduction, headlines and a Call to Action.
Those are your Mayfairs and Park Lanes.
So maximise their value by placing your hotels there.
Focus on the end as much as you do the start.
A clear instruction, a link to find out more, or a question to ponder.
That presentation you gave last week.
Who was talking about it with their family over dinner that evening?
If the answer is nobody, consider a different approach.
Tell a story with your words.
Use analogies from outside your industry.
Appeal to lessons people can learn beyond just the project update.
In other words, see if your message meets the dinner-table test.
If it does, your audience is armed with a great gift: to take your message away and explain to someone else.
That’s how you can increase your marketing reach way beyond the initial audience.
Next time you’re writing, consider these marketing writing steps to increase your own reach.
And remember, if you want to apply these techniques to your business, we can run a marketing writing session for you.
Or you can learn at your own pace with our Business Writing e-learning course.
Remember the sizzle, stay stylish, and enjoy your dinner.
Andrew McFarlan is the Managing Director at Pink Elephant.
Read more about him here.
Photos in Marketing writing course Glasgow blog by Pink Elephant Communications and by Kasumi Loffler.
Marketing writing course Glasgow blog by Andrew McFarlan.
Marketing writing course Glasgow blog edited by Colin Stone.
24th March 2023 Featured in: Blog, Business writing training blogs, Social media training blogs By: Pink Elephant
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