[ Tips for Marketing Communicators ]

DON'T PUNISH YOUR AUDIENCE/CUSTOMER: Every step of the way, ask yourself, am I rewarding my audience or customer? If your presentation is too long, if your customer has to sit on hold for too long, or fill out a long questionnaire or otherwise jump through hoops to receive your message or do business with you, you're punishing the people who are most important to you. We all want to have the impression that we're valued.

CALL YOURSELF OFTEN: If someone calling your business hears, "your call is important to us" while they're on hold, act like you mean it. Interminable, confusing telephone trees and prolonged periods on hold demonstrate just how important your customer's call really is. Call your office often and find out how you're treated as a customer.

PLAN TO THE POINT: As you review your communications plan, ask yourself these questions.  (1) Is it timely?  (2) Is it consistent with past efforts?  (3) Is it complete?  (4) Is it relevant to the direction our market is going?  (5) Is it clear and concise?  (6) Are its assumptions based on facts?

PRESENTATION POLISH: Always have a handout when you're making a presentation.

EASY READING: Figure your audience has attained a 9th or 10th grade reading level.  Try to limit your sentences to 17 words and no more than two ideas.  Use words that average five letters in length.  Keep paragraphs to six or seven lines.  Studies show readers are more familiar with words that have Anglo-Saxon roots rather than Latin or Greek.

WRITER'S BOOKSHELF: Two handy books for writers by Theodore M. Bernstein -- Bernstein's Reverse Dictionary (revised and expanded by David Gramps, Times Books) lists words by their definitions, and The Careful Writer, a witty guide to English usage.

RESEARCH RESOURCE: A marketing class at a nearby college or university could stretch a tiny market research budget.  As a project, a student team could design a questionnaire to survey your customers and analyze responses.  You will pay for survey typesetting, printing, mailing, postage and student labor.  Send a professional looking, blind survey and your customers won't know where it came from or who prepared it.  To boost response, include something of value in the survey envelope to thank the participant for responding.  Many surveys include a dollar bill.  When they pocket the dollar, most people feel obliged to complete the survey.

SCENT OF SUCCESS: Five factors can predict whether your commercial copy succeeds with its audience.  Did it stimulate them and hold their attention?  Was the copy or situation credible?  Did the copy or situation strike an empathetic chord, was it familiar to the audience?  Was it not obscure; did it make its point in a clear, concise, informative way?  Was it tasteful?  Many commercials win attention in spite of trampling on many or most of those rules.  Still, the grand prize is a sale and its tough for a salesman to succeed by insulting his customer.

READING TACTIC: If you have too many trade and professional magazines to keep up with, encourage staff or team members to read a particular publication regularly.  Have them pull out articles or highlight information they think you need to know.

BENEFITS, PLEASE: Sell the hole, not the shovel.  Your customers want to know how life will improve for them if they use your product or service.  A wider blade on the shovel is a product feature.  Picking up more dirt and digging the hole faster is the benefit.

IMAGE ADS: If everyone is advertising widgets similar to yours, look for another angle for advertising.  Emphasize your reputation, your guarantee, your service or a brand name.  Studies show buyers will pay more for an identical product if it has a good brand name or reputation.

MARKET SHARE: "The meek may inherit the earth, but they won't increase market share."  -- William McGowan, founder of MCI Communications

HEADLINE SAVVY: To attract more attention to your ad's headline, frame it with plenty of white space and don't overprint any portion of the headline over an illustration. 

WRITER'S BOOKSHELF: Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law is the typographical style standard for writers preparing news releases for newspapers.  Some papers, such as The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, add their own twists, but the AP is still the standard guide.  In the words of my copyediting teacher, "It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, as wrong as you're consistent!" Some websites follow The Chicago Manual of Style.

PUBLIC SERVICE PROMOTION: Send a news release to public service directors at area radio stations.  In the release, offer a worthwhile list to anyone who sends a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  For example, the list could be names, addresses, email addresses, phone and FAX numbers for your state's congressional delegation or reservation numbers for state parks and campgrounds.  The list has to be as public spirited as it is useful in order to get the public service director to use it.  For your customer database, you get the name and address of someone who was interested enough to write.  You also get a postage-free way to get useful information and a sales message to a potential buyer.

EXPERT TESTIMONY: Frequently business news media seek independent comments on new products and services.  You can be one step ahead if you review key media and see whom reporters quote about products in your area.  Lists of speakers from industry conferences are also valuable for identifying experts.  As soon as you can, without compromising your product announcement, get information to these independent experts.  When you are ready to announce the product, get news releases to the experts and invite them to attend press events and product demonstrations.  Because of their industry knowledge, they may be able to help you understand strengths and weaknesses of your product.  Be prepared, however, some of their comments may not be positive.

THREE LITTLE WORDS: Effective news leads concentrate the facts and importance of a story into the first three words, sometimes called the feature of the lead. COMPARE: The Jones Co. announced today that is introducing a new machine that can produce 300 gizmos per hour . . . WITH: A new machine that produces 300 gizmos per hour has been announced by The Jones Co....

WRITER'S BOOKSHELF: The Associated Press Guide to News Writing is the best brief guide to all of the elements of news writing.  It helps writers learn to write compelling leads, select effective quotes and produce stories that command attention from readers.

REGIONAL ANGLE: If the publicity story you're pitching has a strong regional news angle, approach a publication's regional bureau.  If the story's a good one, it's easier to get a reporter or editor in bureau on your side than trying to sell the idea to a national desk.  Let the credibility of regional bureau help sell the story to headquarters.

RELEVANT REALITY: News writers remember to ask themselves who, what, when, where, how and why as they begin to prepare a story.  Marketing copywriters need to add who cares?  Who is your audience?  What do they want to know?  Also, what do you need to tell them (that they didn't know they need to know)?  The advice has been around for so long that it must be good.  Sometimes it helps to pick someone you know and write the copy to answer the questions they would have.

WORD WARY: Say or said is the best verb to use in attributing a quote in a news release.  Some writers try to dress up their quotes with stated, asserted, noted, pointed out in order to add variety.  Each of these words have meanings of their own.  State implies a formal statement.  An assertion is a strong expression of a thought.  Note and point out each imply that what the speaker says is beyond doubt or question.

PODIUM POLISH: After a speech or in a Q&A session, remind the speaker to repeat the question.  Not only does this allow all audience members to know what the question was, it gives the speaker an extra few moments to frame an answer.

KEY QUESTIONS: Before your start a communications project, answer these questions.  (1) What must we accomplish with this communication piece?  (2) Why is our product (or service) better than the competition's?  (3) How does the market perceive our product?  (4) What do our best sales people say to sell this product?  (5) What do customers resist about our product?  (6) What makes our product worth its selling price?  (7) What product benefits have the greatest appeal to our customers?  (8) What do your competitors say to sell their product and what can we say to differentiate our product?  (9) How does this communications item (ad, news release, brochure, sales letter, etc.) fit into our overall marketing scheme?  (10) How can we know whether this communication piece worked?

MULTIPLYING MODIFIERS: Is a success any better if it's a great success?  Is the cake any tastier if it's awfully good?  Is the day any hotter if it's very warm?  How about a tiny raise, confusing instructions or a crisp presentation?

LEADERSHIP: "The Master doesn't talk, he acts, when his work is done, the people say, 'Amazing.  We have done it all by ourselves!'" -- from the Tao Te Ching.

PRODUCT TIPS: What about tips for getting the best performance from your products and services.  Customers may be more likely to read a lively brochure or tips-filled bill-stuffer than an instruction manual.

WORD WARY: Pay attention to these frequently misused words -- its/it's, your/you're, further/farther, compose/comprise; "hopefully" when it is used to mean "it is to be hoped," and "XYZ Co. is promoting its (not their) new product."  Also, the media are plural and the medium is singular.  Data are plural, too!

TV SAVVY: In a TV interview, don't make eye contact with the interviewer by staring at her or his face.  Look back and forth from one of the interviewers eyes to the other.  The eye movement causes the whites of your eyes to change shape and your eyes appear to sparkle.  Repeat the interviewer's name frequently when answering questions.  Keep your answers short and to the point.  However, if it's appropriate, weave a personal experience into your answer.

RADIO ADVERTISING: Selling a vacation destination, an abstract product or one that appeals to buyers' emotions?  Advertise on radio.  Skillfully written radio ad copy encourages listeners to use their imaginations.  Call it TV for the mind.

WRITER'S BOOKSHELF: On Writing Well by William Zinsner, a great guide for nonfiction writers, including marketing copywriters (right?).

MISTAKES: "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." -- Elbert Hubbard

YOUR TIPS, TOO: Use a link on your website, an ad or news release to offer a "brochure filled with valuable tips" to anyone who offers their name and email address or sends a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  For your customer database, you get the name and address of someone who was interested enough to write.  You also get a postage-free way to get useful information and a sales message to a potential buyer.

Do you have a favorite tip or several?  Share them here radewey@radewey.com  and I'll credit you as the author.