The power of you in marketing

 

What is the point of marketing your business?

To draw in customers who want to buy your products and services, right?

So if you know that, why are you driving them away?

In my experience, most marketing materials are written from completely the wrong angle.

Although they are supposed to attract buyers, they tend to concentrate on the company that’s produced them.

What do I mean?

Well, how often have you read a website, brochure or email that’s said: “We are the market leaders….”, “We provide stunning website design…”, “We are the UK’s leading breakdown service…”

Really?

Is that supposed to convince the reader to spend their hard earned cash with you?

The brutal truth is no one cares about whether you’re a market leader (N.B. this is an over-used term that has absolutely no meaning whatsoever). No one cares if you can create stunning designs. The only thing people are bothered about is whether you can make their life easier by solving the problem they are facing.

The power of you

One of the most important things about your content is that it must address the reader at all times.

That means ditching the academic-style third person writing you learnt at school and the overly pompous [ostensibly] ‘professional business’ style that many managers would have you believe their customers love.

Instead, you must go for a conversational second person style that’s informal, friendly and engaging.

Before you shout me down saying you’re a B2B business who deals with top executives, I don’t care. They are still people that just want plain facts in an easy-to-understand way.

The education levels of your audience are irrelevant.

The only thing you should concentrate on is creating a style that’s engaging, and that focuses on the things that matter – the main benefits that make your product or service stand out and make your customers’ lives easier.

That’s all there is to it.

When you switch from the third to the second person, your writing becomes engaging, easy to read and far more persuasive.

It comes across as being genuine as if you were standing in front of the reader and having a conversation with them.

And that’s the approach that works.

So in summary, ditch the third person business-speak and adopt a friendly, second person style that engages and ‘speaks’ to your reader.

 

Sally Ormond is an independent copywriter and owner of Briar Copywriting Ltd. For tips on copywriting, marketing and social media, you can also read her words of wisdom on Briar Copywriting’s Blog.