Writing to 10th Graders

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Over the weekend I had a conversation about marketing and writing with my mother.  A client of mine had written a scholarly paper and wanted to use it as the basis for an ebook.  The intent with the ebook was to get people to sign up for a mailing list (they would receive a free copy) and to establish credibility with the content contained within the ebook.  Although I am an avid reader, it took me a full day to read the paper.  It was very scholarly and a bit heavy in terms of leisure reading material.

I was telling my mother about the paper and how it would need to be reworked and written to speak to the layman and more specifically the intended audience.  I thought there was great information contained within the paper, but it was a difficult read just for fun.  My mother mentioned that “back when she was in school,” she had learned in a communications class, to write as if you were writing to a 10th grader.  The thought behind this was that at that level it was simple enough for everyone to grasp the meaning of the content without being too simple and insulting.

I don’t know if this specific concept is still being taught, but I must have been absent the day that was discussed when I was in college.  It was new to me, but a very good way to think about it and one of the tips I will be giving my client for rewriting the paper.  Another tip I plan to give is to write to the audience instead of at them.  I saw a marked difference in my own blog engagement when I stopped writing as if I were being graded.  For me, writing the way I speak and as if I am holding a conversation (albeit one sided) has worked wonders.

The client’s intended audience is not looking for a scholarly read.  They are just regular every day people with busy lives.  The information may be helpful to them, but they will not be interested in reading a research paper.

Do you have any tips for presenting a scholarly/research or scientific document to the layman?

 

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Playing with My Emotions: The Emotional Sell

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Piggy backing on what I wrote about earlier this week with “It Takes More to Keep Our Attention,” emotions are one way that marketers use as gateway into our pockets and hearts.  J  I know it works on me, so I will assume it works on others as well.

Make me mad and I want to fight and lead the charge.

Make me cry and I want to donate or help.  The meaning in the message will stick with me more.

Make me laugh and you make me want to check you out and know more.

Extreme emotions, extreme times because advertisers, marketers and PR representatives have to go above and beyond to reach consumers.

Do emotional marketing tactics work on you?

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It Takes More to Keep Our Attention

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Advances in technology and industry have made it harder to please people.  We are a society that is often distracted, busy, impatient and easily bored.  Look at how children stay entertained or at least what is manufactured and marketed to keep them entertained.  A long, long time ago, just a rock, forked twig and a rubber band could keep a kid entertained.  Then came hula hoops, toy cars (plastic and wooden), bikes and video games.  Video games are what brought kids inside and they too have evolved from a yellow blob that eats ghosts to interactive dances and internet connectivity to play with friends.

Connectivity through the internet has allowed us to consume what we want, when we want and how we want it.  If your favorite show is coming on too late; you DVR it or catch it later OnDemand or on HULU.  If you don’t want to see what your friend is posting about; you can delete, block or hide them and their posts.  Don’t want to see ads on your favorite game or app; you can pay a premium to make them disappear.  As a consumer, it seems like we have more choices that allow us to dodge and avoid advertisers; while at the same time being bombarded by them.

It is becoming harder and harder for advertisers to find ways to reach consumers.  Trends do not seem to stay trends for long.  The advertising world is moving just as quickly as technology.  Just as soon as a strategy works and is the “it thing” to do, “it” changes.  I think it is because of the connectivity and far reach of the internet.  An idea can spread a lot more quickly than it could back when print advertisements and media placements were the primary methods.  At that time, you were limited by the readership/viewership and frequency of a publication.  Today, you can post something online and potentially reach thousands in a few hours.

Consumers are also more savvy and adept and recognizing veiled sales attempts, pr stunts, and other marketing methods.  Partially because the word has spread, thanks in part to the internet…and Reddit.  So marketers are left with brainstorming and coming up with new and inventive ways to wow, shock, and reach consumers.  I’ve noticed more brands are trying to use humorous/wacky concepts or trying to appeal to a more diverse group of people. Check out the example ads below:

What are your thoughts on why it is getting harder to reach consumers?

Why I Love Marketing

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I had a conversation with my brother over the weekend about why we love marketing.  He graduated with a degree in marketing and we talked about some of the reasons why he wanted to get into the field.  As a designer, I was instantly thrust into the field the minute I landed my first job out of college and it lead to me later pursuing a MBA in Marketing.  Marketing fascinates us.  It is truly fascinating to see how wording a message slightly differently or changing a color scheme can have a significant impact on sales or any other measured result.  Marketing, plain and simple, is manipulation and can be used in any aspect of life.  It is manipulation to get a desired result.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not in love with marketing because I like manipulating people, but because I am fascinated by human behavior.  When I was a kid I used to people watch while I quietly waited for my mom to finish running her errands.  I liked to watch the way people interacted, the different tones in voices, facial expressions and body language cues to spin stories in my head about those people and their lives.  As an adult, I am curious as to what makes people respond and act in certain ways to various stimuli.  I analyze myself all of the time to figure out why I am upset about something, or enamored by it.

Marketing takes all of this information and combines the necessary stimuli to get the needed result.  It is a powerful tool that like a superhero with special powers, can be used for good or for evil.  Evil would be selling you a knowingly defective or harmful product for the pure sake of making money.  It can be used for benevolent good by helping a charity create awareness and the means to enact change.  It can be used to help you land a job or a significant other – both of those could be for bad or for good.

Once I entered the world of marketing, I never looked at anything the same.  Sometimes I feel a bit paranoid because I feel that I can see the marketing behind almost everything that is presented to me.  I follow the marketing trends of different brands almost in the same way a stock analyst follows stocks or a groupie follows a band.  Well, maybe not quite that bad.  I am constantly saying, “Oh, I see what they are doing and where they are going with that.  Pretty smart!”  I guess in some ways the people watching I did as a kid, morphed into brand marketing watching.

Marketing is like a secret super power that in the wrong hands can be a weapon of destruction.  In the right hands, it can be a powerful tool for good or just keep a roof over your head.  That juxtaposition fascinates me!

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Learning to Appreciate Feedback & Negative Criticisms

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While I pride myself on being thick skinned enough to not allow negative criticism or feedback to get me down, sometimes it does.  As a designer, I learned way back in art school that art is subjective.  Not everyone will like it, especially professors.  My design professors were very hard on us during critique.  They often told us of their own art school critique horror stories and told us that they were being hard on us out of love.  It would prepare us for the real world, and it did.  In the beginning of my career and before I learned how to read client’s, some of my artwork was rejected by managers, creative directors and clients.  I learned to brush it off and get back to work to create something that would appeal to them.  I learned that it was not about what I liked, but what the end-client or consumer liked.

In a lot of ways, negative critiques made me a better designer because it made me think beyond myself.

As a full-time freelancing creative, I have had to learn how to do the same thing with negative feedback or critiques that were not related directly to design.  At first, someone being negative about the way I ran my business, my marketing strategies or the business processes I had, would rub me the wrong way.  It made me bristle on the inside, while I smiled on the outside.  I wanted to stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and say, “la, la, la, la, la, I can’t hear you!”

Because it is for the most part, just me as the business owner; the designer; the marketer; and the project manager, a lot of my processes, marketing strategies and the way I run the business are based around my own needs.  The majority of the negative feedback I have received related to the business, has been unsolicited and from people not very qualified to give advice.  However, I have received some feedback that I really needed to listen to in order to find a balance between what my own needs were and that of my audience/clients.  The world does not revolve around me and neither does my business.

Listening to negative feedback and knowing how to filter out what is noise and what is something that truly needs to be addressed can be a challenge.  However, I think it is necessary to learn and achieve growth.  If you visit here frequently, you may notice that I often pose questions and solicit feedback.  It is because I really want to know, learn and grow from the knowledge and feedback I receive from others.  I think it makes me a better business person.

It is not always easy to hear, but you can’t grow if you don’t listen.

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