Marketing Writing
- Omer Ben Yehuda
- May 31, 2006
- 4 min read
As a knowledge management consultant, I sometimes recommend that organizational clients working with websites, intranets, portals, and communities invest in training their site writers in concise writing adapted for the internet and marketing writing. Many clients raise an eyebrow and ask, "Why do I need this? I'm not selling anything to my employees..."
These clients fail to distinguish between sales writing and marketing writing. While conceptually similar, they differ in their purpose and directness.
Sales writing is a method; marketing writing is an approach:
In sales writing, there are clear, direct, and unambiguous messages to influence the recipient: "Only at our store, the cheapest TVs in the country!" "Buy two products, get the third free," "Our vegetables are the freshest in the country!" This writing style, which doesn't hide its intentions, is suitable for the sales world. Still, as some clients correctly argue, it's inappropriate for messages characterizing internal organizational solutions designed to convey messages and information to users. How, for example, would we communicate a new work directive that causes employees to work more using sales language?
For this purpose, we can use marketing language to turn (almost) any text into a more friendly, soft, and inviting read. We can discuss the advantages of any topic without selling it directly, and we can soften difficult messages and make them easier for the reader to accept through persuasion.
Using marketing language is, above all, a mental approach that believes that we need to sell an object and the message itself with any type of message. This style suits any content, and its influence is overt and subconscious.
For example, when an organization announces its intention to raise the price of a product, it doesn't write "We raised the price," but uses marketing language to soften the "blow": it writes "Prices have been updated."
The result is identical in both cases, but the implicit message differs. The message "We raised the price" says, "The price was low, and now we have raised it." The message "Prices have been updated" is that an update was performed without pointing an accusing finger at the organization. The word "updated" is softer and hides within it a message that this is a change due to objective circumstances, not a price increase. And who knows, maybe the next update will be a price reduction (really...).
Marketing and sales language are not limited to the organizational and advertising fields. Each of us uses them daily. Think, for instance, of a parent who says to their young child, "If you're good, you'll get ice cream." In this case, the parent is using sales language; they're directly telling their child that there's a reward for good behavior, or in other words, they're selling the child the desired behavior. On the other hand, when the parent tells the child that "Ice cream is given to those who behave nicely," the parent isn't selling the child a way of behaving but marketing it. They emphasize the benefits of nice behavior without directly conditioning it on a reward (although implied).
Key Principles in Marketing Writing
Formality - Personal writing about an acquaintance or friend is preferable to "high" business writing. High writing is more impressive but less marketable as it is perceived as what it is, "high" and condescending.
Use of neutral words - As the example shows, "updated" prices are preferable to "raised" prices. Searching for content words with negative connotations and replacing them with neutral words increases the friendliness of the message, provokes fewer resistance mechanisms, and consequently enhances marketability and persuasive power.
Positive writing - Positive content makes topic acceptance easier and softens resistance. Using positive language (don't say what "not" to do, say what to do "yes" to) softens the text and raises the level of marketability. For example, instead of saying, "The store will close at 5," say, "The store will be open until 5."
Enhancing the text - If you're selling a flashlight, don't say you're selling a flashlight; say you're selling a light. In a business context, don't convey a dry message, but add components that will help transmit it persuasively: Emphasizing benefits for all parties - Even if the message is less positive, write a rationale of advantages and what will be gained from it. Use of slogans and design - Slogans, taglines, and design improve the appearance of the message, and even if its content is less positive, it will be received more easily. The reason is that people perceive messages in which work has been invested as messages in which thought has been invested. Use of humor, or at least lightness.
In summary, marketing writing, like sales writing, sells us something. However, it is not as direct and "aggressive" as sales writing but uses softer persuasion methods to convey messages.
In my opinion, marketing writing skills are important for everyone in all areas of life as they help convey ideas and messages in a way that ensures higher chances of being read and listened to. But for now, I'll "settle" for instilling this understanding in organizations.
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