In marketing and copywriting, we often operate under the assumption that people are willing to read our content after sufficient persuasion. Although a good hook is essential, it may not be enough to keep certain audiences from continuing – some people just don’t enjoy reading. Whether due to a mental block, an overly stressful day or simply because they find words to be a turn off, getting through to these people is no easy feat. How are we supposed to appeal to such audiences when the medium is the problem?
Short of a making telephone call, a video or a conversation in person, the written word is often all that we have to work with… but before we give up on these people, there are a few tricks that we can try to make our material more entertaining and easier to read. Interested? Then read on for more Wordsmith-approved tips!
Establish a point of reference for facts and figures
There are many reasons as to why someone would dislike reading.
Their usual reading environment is often the culprit.
For example, if someone has to deal with statistics and values a lot (like an accountant), we can assume their reading environment is likely dryer than the Sahara Desert. Anyone who has to spend all day immersed in figures and reports would understandably be apprehensive against reading something similar when they are off work.
The same can be said for people who have difficulty visualising statistics and measurements – if we said that “40 square miles of rainforests are lost per day,” would you know how much that was? It certainly sounds like a lot, but the measurement and magnitude of a square mile could also be foreign to some people… so if we were trying to emphasise how significant that amount was, this would be lost to such readers.
Instead of using figures by themselves, Neil Taylor, the author of Brilliant Business Writing: How to Inspire, Engage and Persuade Through Words, recommends including a unit of reference that most people would understand – like in the United States, a certain number of football fields is a common way to reference large sizes of land, as many would have some concept of a football field’s size due to the popularity of the sport.
This trick can also be applied when you are trying to give a report. Let’s say we work at a telecommunications and mobile services provider and we need to tell our boss how much data our users have spent streaming YouTube over the past week. The unimaginative might say “100 terabytes”, but how much is that exactly?
Assuming 500 hours of HD video goes into a terabyte, that’s 50,000 hours of videos streamed in the past week – which is equivalent to sitting on the computer watching videos for 2083.33 days straight.
“The trick of translating numbers into something more tangible (or at least imaginable) can also make statistics more personal,” explains Taylor. “If you say ten percent of the population is likely to die of a particular ailment, it will have a certain impact on your reader… but if you say that one in ten people dies from it, it will have [even] more impact. Suddenly, we’re not talking about numerical figures, but the figures of people we can imagine before our eyes.”
He then points to a very common copywriting trick used by charities, hospitals and anti-smoking campaigns:
“Think of ten people you know. Picture them, lined up in front of you. One of them is going to die.”
When dealing with somber and serious subject matter, personalising the content is a good way to command attention… but some would also argue that getting too personal (like the example above) to be an underhanded and manipulative tactic. Another problem with this is that people have gotten desensitised due to how frequently marketers do this – so we recommend against getting too personal unless you absolutely need to emphasise something.
Give life to your copy via literary devices
Although conciseness and getting our points across clearly are always a priority, it doesn’t mean that we have to set aside storytelling. Literary devices are very handy for when we want to coat our content with a bit of creativity while keeping the copy tight.
Similes and metaphors are the most common and effective ways to describe a scenario. Both being methods of comparison, a simile uses “as” or “like” to compare one thing to another, whereas a metaphor is more direct and uses “is” (or some variation of to be) in the comparison. Here’s an example:
· Normal: The new blend of vitamins in this juice will energise your day.
· Simile: Be as energised as a gazelle with the new blend of vitamins in this juice.
· Metaphor: Be the morning gazelle with the new blend of vitamins in this juice.
“Using these techniques makes our writing more vivid. It also makes it more memorable,” writes Taylor. “I’ve consistently found that people remember metaphors I’ve used better than other things I’ve written. Just like the area the size of a football pitch, it’s because you put a picture in their head, so they don’t only have the words you used to go on.”
The wonderful thing about similes and metaphors is that you have many many options to pick from when deciding on what to use as a comparison. From animals and politicians to musical instruments and sci-fi fiction, anything is fair game as long as the comparison makes sense (and not so obscure or niche that only a small percentage of people would get it).
We’ve previously covered a bunch of different literary techniques as well, see if you can apply them into your writing!
Little extras
To give your copy even more of a boost, use the following tricks alongside the ones suggested by Taylor:
· Always write in the active voice – it projects confidence and audiences can instantly feel hesitant about you and your material if you aren’t certain about what you are selling.
· Avoid rambling – it’s one thing to be detailed, but you don’t need to methodically list out everything there is to say. Make a list of your points and then identify which are major and minor features (for example, a major feature of our juice would be the revamping of the included vitamins and where the fruits are sourced from, whereas a minor feature would be environmentally friendly packaging) – if you have a lot of minor features, save them for your website.
· Challenge thought with rhetorical questions – regular sentences and statements get your point across, but for audiences who need a bit of a push to get their minds going, getting conversions and engagement can be a struggle. A question, on the other hand, is like a cheeky challenge to your readers. Assuming the challenge is something they can do, it’ll make them feel good about themselves afterwards (even more so if there’s a reward or benefit involved).
Some people just don’t get a kick out of reading, but what we can do is to make the process less tedious and more exciting to read – a net positive for all audiences if you think about it. If you are still unsure how to make your content more approachable, Wordsmith is just a phone call away!