Marketing has a bad name in some industries. Many people associate marketing with, at best, stretching the truth, at worst, as lies. From this perspective, marketing tempts us by false promises to buy products and services that we don’t need and that don’t live up to their expectations.

Sticking to stereotypes, technical writers, on the other hand, are pure and far removed from such marketing hype and puffery. They present information in an unbiased manner and have no time for marketing departments whom they think are superficial and shallow.

Unfortunately there are far too many examples of poorly written marketing material that perpetuate this myth. Just cruise a few technology sites on the internet and you’ll find that many tell you they are ‘leading edge providers’ who provide ‘innovative solutions’. Such jargon substitutes for meaningful content.

So marketing gets a bad name and technical writers forget that marketing is a necessary part of the whole process of communicating with customers. Marketing is not just about selling more product and services, it is also about building and maintaining your brand in the marketplace.

Your technical writing can help build or maintain that reputation, with satisfied customers becoming repeat customers and recommending your products and services to others. Word-of-mouth recommendation—known in marketing jargon as ‘viral marketing’—is one of the most powerful forms of marketing.

How marketing oriented your writing is depends on your purpose and the audience, but whenever you’re writing for customers or potential customers, your words are the bridge between them and your product or service.

You are marketing your company and its brand.

Three elements of persuasive writing
Three elements of persuasive writing are:

• Objectivity. Be objective and specific and support what you say with evidence, such as facts, statistics or testimonials.
• Credibility. People will believe you much more readily if they think you are credible. You can establish your credibility through various means, such as your personal qualifications and experience, your company reputation, your branding, testimonials and writing simply and well. The Stanford University study on website credibility, 2002, found that although people said they valued things like privacy statements, in reality they judged sites initially by how they looked, including font size and colour.
• Emotional appeal. We form our opinions on the basis of facts, intuition and prejudice. You can’t do much about prejudice, but you can convince people with facts and if you’re credible, you’ll appeal to their intuition as well. Especially if someone they know has had a good experience with your product or service.

Example of good writing
It’s always easy to find bad examples of writing, so I thought I’d start with an example that I think works — an online catalogue that consistently writes well about mundane, ordinary products.

The writing is simple and clear and you get all the information you need to make an informed purchasing decision. The words and design work well together, the site’s easy to navigate and is updated frequently.

‘Recharge your batteries faster!

The Power Depot saves you time and money ... batteries recharge in as little as 2 hours!

Are you constantly buying batteries, yet never have fresh ones when you need them? Power Depot can put new life into AA and AAA NiMH or Ni-Cad rechargeable batteries in just 2-4 hours! It charges two or four batteries at a time, and shuts off automatically (after 15 hours) for overcharge protection. Each Power Depot kit includes the charger, household and car adapters, and four AA rechargeable batteries. UL listed. 4-3/4"x3-1/8.’

http://www.solutionscatalog.com

Writing techniques to engage with the product

Have main messages upfront
We’re all bombarded with so much information that it’s increasingly important to capture people’s attention and get the message across at the beginning in simple, clear language. Journalists have always known this and in theory, we know it applies to web writing. In practice it’s often forgotten.

Take the following article from a technology website. I’ve kept it anonymous as burying key messages is such a common failure in writing for the web.

Heading: ‘Granting the solution to mobility challenges’

The headline doesn’t give much information, so you read on to the next paragraph.

‘Universities around the world have come to rely on technology as a powerful and indispensable tool in their role as educators, researchers and teachers, within our communities.’

So? That’s waffle.

It’s only if you read the next paragraph that you start to learn what the article is about:

‘Now, X company is helping universities throughout Asia Pacific further embrace the use of mobile technologies through an innovative grant program that provides funding to assist selected universities positively transform their teaching and learning environments.

But the real point of the story doesn’t occur till the next paragraph when we learn that X company has give US$1million in grants to seven Asia Pacific universities for the development of mobile technology solutions. This is the first time that these grants have been awarded in Asia Pacific.

Surely this is the main point and should’ve come first.

Be precise and specific
Persuasive writing is precise and specific. If a gadget goes fast, say how fast it goes. If you offer a guarantee, spell out the details of the guarantee.

Examples of vague writing:

A financial institution’s website says in an opening paragraph that an account offers ‘bonus free transactions’.

Read further down and you find out that they offer 40 free transactions a month. Why not say so at the beginning?

‘XX offers the perfect solution—you can save time and money and concentrate on your business.’

This is on a par with ‘leading providers’ and ‘innovative solutions’—you learn absolutely nothing about how you can save time and money.

Would the following statements chosen at random from websites tempt you?

• ‘Our solutions add value at each step in the chain.’
• ‘With global insight, supported by unmatched knowledge of the local environment.
• ’‘As a specialist in these products, we are able to offer our clients a high value added service based on an in depth knowledge in our chosen product.

Use jargon with caution and provide a context
Jargon has its uses. Every discipline has its jargon. It’s a shorthand way of communicating with people who speak the same language. Sometimes it’s appropriate, but if you’re also writing for the world, as you are when you write for the web, then it doesn’t work.

It’s often not only jargon that’s the problem, but also the lack of context. Many websites fail to provide a big picture overview to orient readers to their specialised topic.

Take the following paragraph from a home page that may make sense to someone who knows about bio-technology, but fails to engage a general audience.

‘Cato (not real name) is commercialising the Cato System to enter the critical segment of the pathology testing market. The Cato System will be a point of care, critical care pathology system, comprising an instrument and an associated series of test specific use disposables.’

Write about benefits and features
Writing about benefits rather than features is based on the principle that customers and clients want to know ‘what’s in it for them’. An old, but still effective way of writing about benefits is FAB:
• Feature
• Advantage
• Benefit

Some marketers include an extra benefit, called the ‘emotional benefit’ or the ‘benefit of the benefit’.

Marketing is sometimes guilty of overdoing benefits at the expense of features. Often consumers want to know about the features as they already know the benefits. So use your commonsense.

So what?
Read your work over and ask ‘so what?’

Most of us are sceptical if we think someone is trying to persuade us to buy or do something. Address this ‘so what?’ factor in your writing.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also wish to read:

How to write a winning business proposal
How to write direct marketing mail
How to write a marketing plan
Persuasive writing tips
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