3 Ways to Sharpen Up your Marketing Messaging

Let’s face it, we’re not all a closet William Shakespeares or Christina Rosetti, and when we’re putting together our marketing messaging, it can all seem a little flat – more like a list of features than a compelling story. But with just a few tweaks, you can really liven up your message to engage your audience.

1: Focus on benefits, not features

A feature is what something is, a benefit is what something does. And if you’re trying to make an impact, you want more of the latter and fewer of the former:

"Our new laptop model contains a 10th generation Intel™ i9 processor and 32 GB of RAM."
"Our new laptop model contains the latest technology so that you want do what you want, when you want, without delay."

2: Shorten your sentences

We don’t have the concentration to read long sentences on screen – there’s too much else going on, and if we’ve got email notifications, social media, colleagues, WhatsApp messages and so on popping up, and we know that we’ve got to get on with our work, then too many long sentences in an email will make us switch off a long time before we’ve finished absorbing your valuable content.

And BREATHE!

Whereas you might be able to create long sentences, that doesn’t mean you have to. As my driving instructor used to say, the speed limit is a limit, not a target! Make them shorter. And make them punchy. And, by the way, it’s OK to begin a sentence with “and” from time to time.

3: Liven up your vocabulary

There are words which sound fine when we’re talking and can put vocal emphasis on them. And there are words which engage readers. The problem is, we write some marketing copy, read it back in our heads, and we think it sounds good. Why? Because we know where to put the emphasis. But for our readers, they sound boring.

But it doesn’t work like that for others. So my challenge for you, is that next time you write something which needs to be compelling, read it back over and underline every adjective and verb. Then, go to an online thesaurus and find better words to convey your meaning. Let’s try that exercise on the paragraph above:

“There are words which sound agreeable when we’re talking and can accentuate them with our voices. The problem is, we compose our marketing copy, echo it back, and it sounds incredible. Why? Because we know where to accentuate. But for our readers, they sound stodgy and stale.”

Do something for me… take a look back at the last engaging paragraph you wrote and find your dullest words. Then use the comments to share a more captivating alternative you could have used.

Location: Oxford, UK

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