8 easy ways to instantly improve your marketing

Question: what's the quickest, easiest, cheapest way to improve your marketing?

Answer: I'll tell you once you've read a bit more. 

OK, I'll tell you now, in case you haven't already guessed from the words above?

Words are powerful things, and cost absolutely nothing.


Choose the right words on your website, in your phone conversations, on social media, in any kind of promotional activity and you'll instantly add power to your marketing. 

Many people tell me they're 'not good at writing'. But they never tell me they're not good at speaking. Writing is just making a note of the words you'd like to speak. If you really think you're terrible at writing (few people really are), try using the dictate mode in Word or on your phone. 

I'll offer a few tips to help improve your writing in a moment. First, let's consider what I've written above as there a few tips in there. 

Question: what's the quickest, easiest, cheapest way to improve your marketing? 
Tip: use a question to which the answer is likely to be 'yes' as a headline and to encourage people to read more. Don't overdo it though!
Tip: Trigger words like 'quick, easy, cheap' grab attention. Think about the words you could use to grab attention among the visitors you want to reach. Everyone's trigger words will be different. They might include words like 'peace', 'child-friendly'... What are yours? 

Answer: I'll tell you once you've read a bit more. 
Tip: Short sentences are more powerful than long ones
Tip: You can use words to engage people and get them to pay attention. If you directly ask people to do something, often they will

More writing tips: 

1. Before you start to write anything, think: what is your key message for that piece of writing? What one thing do you need to get across? Start from that point. 

2. Just write. Write rubbish, write the wrong words, but keep writing. Any writer will tell you that they almost always write more than one draft. Write, refine, write, refine. Once you've started to write, the words will flow. Once you've written them, you can decide which words really matter. 

3. Keep it short. Shorter sentences have more impact. Which are the most important words? Keep them, then look at how you can cut down everything else you've written. 

4. Get rid of over-used, meaningless words. These bland expressions should be banned from your marketing: 

• Something for Everyone - 'Something': who even knows what that's meant to be? 'Everyone' not appealing. People want to feel special. This expression in just lazy and unappealing
• So much to see and do - you mean there's so much you can't be bothered to tell me anything? No one ever typed 'so much to see and do' in a search box, so this certainly won't help your search engine rankings. 
• Unique. Is it really? Are you sure? Explain how, then it will be more convincing. Remember - unique isn't always good!
• Diverse - what do you really mean? Diverse is just confusing. It's not specific enough. Be clearer, and say what you actually mean. 

5. Be memorable. I know that the points listed under no 4 sound bossy. I also know that over the next few weeks I'll bump into readers who will tell me they're stopped using those words and that they've remembered what I've said. You also need to find a way to be memorable and distinctive. 

6. Use the words and style that get the most attention. Which would make you book?:
 
“All our bedrooms are individually designed and have en-suite facilities” or “You’ll be able to relax and unwind in one of our comfortable bedrooms".
 
'You' is much more powerful than 'we'. Turn sentences round to make them stronger. 

7. Remember FAB. FAB stands for Features, Advantages, Benefits. Features tell, benefits sell. Most people write more about the features than the benefits. That's the wrong way round! Let's take the example of a play area. 

Features: adventure playground, maze etc. Features are the components of the product or service. 
 
Advantages: making this product/service better than another. E.g. safety award for playground, novel design
 
Benefits: what the features and advantages actually mean for the person buying or using the service or product.

If we were trying to promote this play area to a stressed parent we might write something like: 'sit and relax for a few moments while your children use some of their surplus energy on xx, enjoying the aaa, bbb, ccc. 

8. And another thing. Remember those rules you learnt at school? Don't start a sentence with And or But? Every sentence needs a verb? You're allowed to break the rules. No one will arrest you. And breaking the rules can be really effective and attention-grabbing. But you knew that anyway!

I'll be back with some more writing tips in another post soon. 

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