79: One Simple Exercise to Help You Write Better Marketing Content (+ Bonus Tips)
Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.
I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 79.
For today’s episode, I’m going to share with you my #1 absolute favorite marketing strategy that I pull out of my marketing toolbox any time I get stuck with what to write.
This strategy is pretty much fool-proof when it comes to making sure you never get stuck staring at a blank page again.
And then, because I’m a bit of an over-deliverer, I’m also including some of my favorite easy quick marketing writing tips to help you clean up what you’ve written and make it as effective as possible.
I’ve been excited about this episode :).
BUT. Before we get started, a couple of things I wanted to chat about first..
Let’s talk about content. One thing that I hear over and over again is: I can’t figure out what to SAY in my marketing. If that sounds like you, I have an awesome workbook that will walk you through a process for generating A LOT of content ideas that your audience is guaranteed to love. To download that, head to: makinggoodpodcast.com/content.
Second, I invite you to join other values-driven small business owners for inspiration, accountability and lots of business and marketing strategy. That all takes place in the free Facebook community for this podcast, the Good Business Community. The link will be in the show notes, or you can go to makinggoodpodcast.com/community to be redirected.
FINALLY, if you love this podcast, there are a few ways you can help spread the love! First, I’d be so honored for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher to help others find the podcast. And second, take a screenshot while you’re listening and tag me on Instagram @laurentilden -- I would so love to connect with you and cheer you on!
OKAY! Let’s get started with today’s episode… How to Write Better.
Alrighty! It’s time for me to reveal my #1 favorite exercise that helps me write marketing copy that really connects with people.
It is called: KNOW / FEEL / DO.
Basically, before you sit down to write ANYTHING for your business… marketing copy, website copy, a marketing email, a social media post…. Whatever.
Before you sit down and start writing, ask yourself to answer these 3 questions:
What does my ideal customer need to know after reading this?
What does my ideal customer need to feel after reading this?
What does my ideal customer need to do after reading this?
Now. I want to encourage you not to underestimate this exercise because of how simple it seems.
Answering these 3 questions (pen to paper… not just vaguely in your head) will help you move your ideal customer forward in their journey with you.
Let’s dig in a little bit deeper to each of these questions.
First question: What does my ideal customer need to KNOW after reading this?
This question does two things.
First, it takes care of the practical details. This question is really, at its core, a practical step. This is your chance to get super clear on what the goal of this piece of content is, and therefore what does your reader need to know.
For example, if you’re running a sale… you would want to be sure to communicate the timeline of the sale, what the sale applies to, what the coupon code is, any fine print, etc.
If you’re hosting an event, you’d want to be sure to communicate where it is, at what time, how the person can sign up, etc.
If you’re sharing about a product launch, you’d want to share what the product actually is, how people can buy it if they want, when it’s available, etc.
Making this list of practical details to share is super helpful in helping you make sure you don’t leave something important out.
Making a list upfront of what you want to make sure to include can make sure you don’t leave something important out.
The other thing that this question, “what does my ideal customer need to KNOW after reading this” does, is prompts you to tell your ideal customer whatever they need to know in order to CARE about whatever it is you’re sharing.
In other words, this is a place to share about the BENEFITS of your product/sale/event/etc to your ideal customer.
Let’s go back to a couple of the examples I just used to illustrate what I mean here.
If you’re running a sale or doing a product launch, not only would you want your ideal customer to know the practical details about the sale, but you’d want to share with them how making a purchase of whatever you’re selling will benefit them in their lives.
If you’re hosting an event, you’d want to share both the concrete facts about when and where the event takes place, as well as what your ideal customer would learn or experience at the event that would be worth their while.
OKay, so! We have addressed the “KNOW” part of the equation; let’s talk about FEEL.
The second question is: What do I want my ideal customer to FEEL after reading this?
The way we write and communicate can carry a feeling with it.
For example, have you ever gotten a text from someone who said something simple like “OK” or “Got it”, and because of the way it was written you thought they were mad at you?
I used this example in a previous episode but I’ll share it again:
Imagine you just adopted a puppy, and you go to text your friend about it.
Do you say, “Hello, I just adopted a dog.”
No, I think you’d probably communicate it with a lot more excitement and exclamation points and copious photos.
These are two different ways of communicating the same thing -- you got a dog.
This may feel a little woo woo to some of you, but I hope you’ll give it a shot.
When we write, we have the power to convey an emotion. It could be excitement! It could be a sense of calm. It could be encouragement.
The point of this question in the exercise is to challenge you to think about what emotion you want to convey to your audience, and really lean into that as you create your content.
I want to make a side not here:
I personally believe that we shouldn’t take this power to convey emotion lightly. A lot of traditional marketers will tell you that a great way to approach marketing to your customer is to stir up pain in them… to “agitate” a pain point. Remind them about how much they’re struggling with something so that you can then present your product as a solution. I want to very strongly encourage you NOT to do this. NOT to intentionally create negative emotions in people in order to sell to them. We can market effectively WITHOUT resorting to emotional manipulation and I know that my listeners will be on board with this!
OKAY! Let’s move on to the third, and in my opinion, the most important of these 3 questions: What do I want my ideal customer to DO as a result of reading this?
The final part of this exercise is getting crystal clear on what you want your ideal customer to DO after they’re done reading.
You may have heard of the marketing term Call to Action, or CTA.
A Call to Action is exactly what it sounds like -- it’s when you define clearly what you are asking your reader or audience member to do next.
Just about every piece of content you produce should have a “call to action” with it, usually toward the end.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that Calls to Action START with a verb -- an action word.
Here are some examples:
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Here are a couple of “best practices” when it comes to the Call to Action:
First, make it as EASY as possible. As much as we can avoid asking our reader to have to think too hard or to do something more than click a couple of buttons -- they are way way way less likely to do it. So. If you really care about the person taking the action, make it as easy as you possibly can.
Second, Calls to Action really work best when there’s only ONE. For example, if you have an Instagram post that’s full of great, educational content, you might want to encourage the person to take action, and I encourage this! But as much as possible... keep it to just one. Don’t tel them to Comment below, save it for later, and then share it with 3 friends. That’s just…. Too much. IF you simply say “Save this for later”, your audience will be much more likely to comply.
So, there you have it! My favorite marketing exercise to help you come up with what to say when you’re feeling stuck.
There are a few reasons that this exercise works so well.
The most important reason is that it really forces us to sit down and get intentional. Not word vomiting everything we know and could possibly say about a topic… but really thinking about our audience and asking ourselves those 3 critical questions:
What does my ideal customer need to know?
What does my ideal customer need to feel?
What does my ideal customer need to do?
I’ve said this before, and I think I’ll say this again… but intention is probably the single most powerful force in everything we do in our businesses. When we get intentional about how we spend our limited time, we’re acknowledging: HEY! There’s a whole lot I *could* be doing or saying or writing right now, but I’m going to focus on what I think will make the biggest impact.
SO! I hope that you will consider using the KNOW / FEEL / DO exercise th next time you KNOW you have a piece of marketing content to write but you just don’t know where to start.
I mentioned I like to over-deliver, so! I have also rounded up a few of my other favorite marketing writing tips.
These could each have their own episodes (and maybe they will), but here’s a top line summary of my other favorite marketing writing tips:
Be YOU. You should be able to read anything you’ve written out loud to a friend, and they should be able to tell you that it sounds like YOU. The more personality you can include, the more personal touches, the more phrases that you say, the better.
Get VISUAL. The best writing paints a picture in your reader’s mind. For example, instead of telling you about iced coffee, I might describe the tiny bougie cans of cold brew that Kate gets special ordered from the midwest…. Even though she lives in one of the coffee capitols of the world. Or I could tell you about how I take my coffee very-much-not-black (in fact heavy-on-the-milk), and that it is usually very, very lukewarm by the time I finally get to it.
Start with a BANG. We’re exposed to so so so much content every day, and we’ve gotten to be EXPERTS and sifting through things that don’t interest us. You want to make sure what you write stands out in a sea of words, and the best way to do that is to invest the effort into writing a headline that will catch attention.
Make it scannable. One of my favorite writing tips actually has very little to do with writing… and that’s to remember that white space is your friend. Unless you wrote a literal book, nobody wants to read a book on their iPhone. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, and bullet points, and don’t be afraid to space things out.
Edit with a heavy hand. The secret to great writing is very well summed up in Strunk & White’s classic writing book, The Elements of Style: “eliminate needless words.” Anything that doesn’t need to be there… remove. Any word that is unnecessarily long or complicated, replace it. In marketing, simpler is better.
Alright! That’s what I have for you today. You can find all the notes from this episode at makinggoodpodcast.com/79.
Did you learn something from this episode? I would SO LOVE to hear from you.
Writing is one of my great loves, so if you’d like more episodes about writing, let me know! I’d love the feedback.
Take a screenshot of this episode in your podcast player and tag me on Instagram @laurentilden. Extra credit, leave a review. It would so make my day.
A couple things I think you might love before I sign off:
First, I have an awesome guide to creating great marketing content and coming up with new ideas. Download it (FREE) at: makinggoodpodcast.com/content.
Second, there’s a Facebook community of amazing other small business owners and great content just for the group that I would love for you to join. makinggoodpodcast.com/community.
Thank you for being here, and for focusing on making a difference with your small business!
Talk to you next time.