The purpose of the Center for Interactive Advertising is to advance knowledge and understanding of advertising and other persuasive communication which involves “mutual action” on the part of senders and receivers of those messages by pursuing a research agenda to examine critical issues related to interactive advertising, computer-mediated communication and electronic commerce.

Yeah, well, for an advertising outfit… I’m sold!

But seriously, if you write like that, you’ll never sell anyone on anything. Your readers’ eyes will glaze over and they’ll go on to read something else. We readers don’t have time, attention, or mental energy to spend on dense gobbledygook like that. If you write like that, punch up your style.

-TimK

-TimK

A couple months ago, John Carlton posted on his blog an entry entitled “Free. Guaranteed!” When you’re giving away something, or when you’re making a guarantee, don’t just use the words “free” and “guaranteed.” Using these words does not by itself conjure a magic incantation that will make people buy. These words have been so overused, in fact, that customers are rightly skeptical whenever they see them in an ad headline.

Rather, demonstrate. Or in John Carlton’s parlance, prove it.

… “free” doesn’t mean it’s actually free of strings. It’s free when you buy this. Free when you’ve saved up enough coupons. Free as long as you meet these requirements.

Same with “guarantee.” I see this a LOT when I critique copy for rookies — the word gets tacked onto the end of the headline, followed by an exclamation mark. As if the pure power of the word is so staggering, they’re risking the wrath of God just writing it down like that.

But they seldom explain what the guarantee is. And so it is meaningless bragging… much like that uncle who gets drunk at family gatherings and starts yelling to make his point during an argument.

Yelling is not being bold and convincing. It’s just yelling.

He goes on describing how to make real in the prospect’s mind the promise that “guarantee” represents. Once you do that, then and only then will it become real. And only then will it become a selling point. Otherwise, you’re just being preachy.

People are actually quite tolerant, readers of fiction and non-fiction as well as advertising prospects. They don’t care so much what the conditions of “free” are, as long as they understand them, as long as they feel they’re not being swindled. True, some will pass on your offer if the conditions are not to their liking. Similarly, some readers will pass on your story if the genre or other details are not to their liking. But as long as you bring to life for them the thing you’re trying to describe, they’ll accept without question a lot of the logic you use to get there. That’s the power of “Show; don’t tell.”

-TimK

-TimK

What’s Steve’s secret? Well, he continues to tweak his site and its content, of course, but there’s more to it than that. There’s something in Steve’s blog that draws readers. Now, his is a personal development blog, and everyone wants to develop personally. Self-help is big business. But there are other self-help resources out there. What is Steve doing differently than all those others?

He’s telling a story. More than that, he’s being the story. What you read about on his blog is his own personal journey of self-development. There are no magic formulas. He doesn’t make wild promises. Just hard truth that he himself has lived and is living.

We can talk about theory all we want. We can talk about our own opinions. We can argue over theology and philosophy and morality and ethics. We can devise great plans. And all of this pales to one simple story: yours. When you tell your story, no one can argue with you. What are they going to do? Say that didn’t actually happen to you? And they usually won’t want to. Rather, they’ll thank you that you shared, and they’ll be happy to be your friend.

-TimK