The 7 writing tips for promotional content will help you to target your audience better.
You must know them, colleagues, to whom you ask what their weekend was like, only answering that it was fun. It may be because they are busy, they do not like you and want to walk on quickly, but usually, something else is going on. There may also be colleagues who tell you in detail after asking the same question - which you do not want to know at all - what they have done and in what way.
I was on Saturday morning on the green grass of 3 inches with striped socks and shoes with studs while being in my green shorts with ten other team members and I faced 11 other men, one of whom…. You know them. You run away quickly before you have to hear until the end of the afternoon what color laces each of the soccer players had.
One person gives you a container concept that you cannot use because you have no background. You don't know how nice the weekend was and why the weekend was fun. Nice is a hollow concept. But the second person gives you so much information without saying what it's about that it's tough to listen and keep your attention.
Container concepts can be very useful. Certainly, if you have to answer an annoying journalist in politics. "How did the difficult discussion with the coalition go?" "Peacefully and steadily", answers the politician. After all, it would not be politically correct to go into the content, and content can raise new, unpleasant questions.
Details are sometimes useful
Details can also be very useful. For example, if you want to know the way or if you want to know how to assemble that IKEA cabinet while some screws and nuts are missing again.
When promoting products, they are both incredibly useless. Nobody buys a product if you don't get further than: "This is a nice product". And if you have to go through 4 pages of details before you understand what you can do with the product or what the product is about, you will have few customers left. Certainly when it comes to selling online.
Superlatives are horrible
I was once ‘forced’ to work with someone who seemed to have invented the word superlatives. A superlative is a reinforcement of a word by putting one or more enlarged words in front of it. His weekend wasn't just fun. No, his weekend was mega, super, exuberant, incredibly, amazingly fun. He also wrote his own brochure texts and product offers. That, therefore, served more often as wrapping paper than they contributed to the sales results.
7 Writing tips for promotional content
There is no golden rule about how to write good promotional content. It depends on the product or service, brand, and target group. But there are several rules of the game that you can use to make your text effective in what you want to achieve.
1. Define your focus target groups
Of course, you want everyone to purchase your product or service. The more people buy, the better. Your focus target group is the target group that you want to know for sure that they are purchasing your offer. The rest is then included as a bonus.
If Dolce Gabbana focused on the disadvantaged areas of New York, I could assure you that the brand would no longer exist within a few months. Make a choice.
2. Formulate a question from the target group
When I ask how your weekend was, and you say "Nice", you might actually answer the question: "What feeling did you get from your weekend?" If you do not know the real question of your potential customer or reader, you cannot give a good answer. When you promote a product, consider what the actual customer's question is. Filter the main question and sub-questions.
Main question examples
Where can I find a cheap microwave?
How do I find a stylish and reliable microwave?
With which I assure myself of a reasonable price and quality ratio when purchasing a microwave?
All three answers require a different commercial text.
3. Speak the language of the target group
Every target group has its language. It is not so much about courtesy forms, but about which sentence structure and words you use. In the market, you praise fish in other words than a Ferrari seller uses in his showroom.
Of course, it is wise to stay true to your brand values.
4. No container concepts and not too many details.
This very neet nice car is fun to drive and looks nice says nothing. See above. This sewing machine with chromed legs of 23.2 inches, which are made in a factory in Paris, after which they are placed in a white delivery van with a license plate… You get it. Find the golden mean between container concepts and details.
5. Do not praise yourself too much and try never to break down the competition
We are so wonderful that we are better than good and that is why we are the best. Or we are better because the competitor is so bad. In both cases, you miss a chance to take your potential customer or reader with them as to why they should purchase your offer.
Dyson vacuum cleaners do not have vacuum cleaner bags. It saves you costs and improves suction. Dot! That's how you say it. Clean and simple.
6. SEO, SEO, and again SEO
If your text is not SEO-optimized it can not rank on Google, and you will miss out on free visitors. Everyone knows it, but not everyone does it yet. That is a missed opportunity — shame on you.
7. Layering in answers
If you know who your target audience is, and you know the main question, and you have gone through all the other steps above, answer the most important side-questions that your reader or potential buyer may have.
For example: "Does it take more or less energy with a Dyson vacuum cleaner to vacuum without a vacuum cleaner bag?"
