"Very knowledgeable, easy to communicate with, very proactive. I can't think of anything you could improve; everything went very well."
Tod Schiff
Field Applications Engineer
Analog Devices
TechPromo, September 2007
Marketing Newsletter For Technology Promotion
Finding A Theme To Start The Story
Themes. Focusing on what your audience values highly may seem obvious. But if the writing wanders around, you'll never attract anyone's attention.
When I was in grade school, we learned to construct each paragraph around a topic sentence. That's a bit extreme when you're writing the way you talk. But every marketing or PR piece needs a central message to build a story around.
They aren't that hard to find, either. Your audience will tell you what they need. The best way to ask them is in an interview.
Ask Them What They Want
A digital image software company needed an online copy update for their flagship product, a digital presentation program. The company's based in Germany, so they have no native speakers to write for their largest market. I asked for introductions to five of their best customers, plus their contact information. I also asked to chat with their customer support expert.
Why did I do this? The company's customer choices told me who their target audience was. The customers told me why they purchased the product, and what they used most. The support expert gave me another view of what features were hardest to use, and what customers wanted in the next generation product.
I used the program to make my own show first. That's the best way to understand the product and ask questions as a peer. You'll get respect, and much better answers.
And the questions? I asked open-ended ones like "What does your audience do when they see your presentation? Jump up and down, applaud ecstatically, buy a zillion photographs or CDs? What do you want them to do?"
I followed with "Which features are burning, 'gottta have it' things for you?"
And "What makes the program a snap to use?"
The answers told me the key was quick and easy show creation, with smooth transitions and music synchronized exactly to particular slides in the show. The high visual quality in a little desktop application amazed them too.
Picture The Huge Benefit
So I stressed the speed and ease of using the program with subheads like Grab The Audience With Your Story - Right Now, and kept that idea going throughout the copy:
"Emotions. Tap a desire deeply enough, and your audience will follow you anywhere. One strong photograph may do it - a young mother's love for a newborn child, woolly bison butting heads in the buffalo grass, egrets feeding hungry offspring in a nest. But a series of pictures tells your story best. Slowly move downy young birds pacing into an image of the long-legged parent they're following, add explosive music to the pictures of snow geese erupting into the dawn sky, and your story wakes up and breathes.
Does creating a show have to be a time-consuming chore? Do you need to master complicated software or pay a lot for expensive editing to tell your story? Serious photographers struggled with this one for years. One of them finally did something about it. The result is FotoMagico.
FotoMagico smashes the barriers between you and your audience. Create smooth, seamless transitions between pictures with a click. Drag and drop your favorite music in perfect sync with the pictures. Give your audience a show they'll remember longer than any Hollywood blockbuster."
Find Testimonial Gems
And customers gave me testimonial quotes in their answers. (Always ask permission to take quotes from an interview.) Marketing studies show the persuasive power of testimonials, far beyond anything else.
Write An Interesting Story
Using the audience's biggest need as your theme is where you start. But it's not enough. The copy needs to tell a compelling story, in unpredictable language that supports the theme.
No one was ever bored into buying. But they perk up when you solve their biggest problems with the pictures you draw in their heads:
"FotoMagico shows incredible detail in your live show, any way you present it - with an HDTV screen or high-resolution projector. FotoMagico renders the show in real time, beaming every possible pixel from the photograph to the screen. Your show hits your audience like a freight train and leaves the same lasting impression, even if you use a VGA projector or create a DVD."
How Many And How Long?
How many customers should you interview? And how long should each one take? It depends on the product. If it has a very specific use, the target audience will be very focused. You could do it with one or two interviews. If the product has several applications, you'll need to talk to more.
At the start of any interview I tell the subject it'll take 10 minutes to put a boundary on the time. I always prepare enough open-ended questions to more than fill the time. Open ended questions need more than a yes/no answer, and result in much more information. But usually, well-chosen customers are enthusiastic enough to run that 10 minutes into 20 or 30.
Get It And Keep Going
Knowing when you have the theme from an interview is an art form. Sometimes you'll feel it when the customer gives you something strong. When that happens, finish asking the rest of your questions before stopping. Other times, you'll need to go over the answers later to find the nuggets. In both cases, you'll have a lot more than you can use.
But that's good - in the recording studio or on paper, you always want lots of material to choose from. The key is making that choice, the thing the customer must have, and building a compelling promotion around it.
Mark Bohrer is a technology writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work has appeared in EDN, Portable Design, Electronic Design, and Elektronik i Norden. He's also written technical advertising copy for agencies and Fortune 500 companies. Mark is a 25-year veteran of Silicon Valley. Visit www.precision-copywriting.com to download his free report, Technical Articles For Leads And Sales: Nine Ingredients to Grab Your Customers.