Scott's Blog - Page 64 of 65 - Scott Flood Writing

FEATURING BENEFITS

October 20, 2009 by Scott Flood

Recommendations to emphasize benefits rather then features when communicating are so old that I think they may date back to cavemen. Still, some marketers don’t understand the difference, so they miss out on an opportunity to connect more powerfully with their audiences.

Simply put, a feature is some aspect of your product or service. A benefit is what makes it a good or useful thing. If a bank tells you that they have 24-hour ATM access, they’re calling attention to a feature. If an automaker mentions stability control, that’s a feature.

IT’S NOT DUMBING DOWN

October 15, 2009 by Scott Flood

Imagine what would happen if the average math professor found himself lecturing to kindergartners. His words about chaos theory would fly over the group’s heads and the room would revert to real chaos. Now put one of your company’s engineers across the table from one of your product’s end-users. The gulf isn’t nearly as wide as that between our professor and the tots, but it might as well be.

One of the most challenging tasks facing those who create marketing materials is putting them in language that’s right for the reader. That doesn’t necessarily mean dumbing them down; it means that information should be presented at a level and in words that are comfortable for the audience.

OF LANGUAGE SPEAKING YOU ARE?

October 8, 2009 by Scott Flood

No matter how much money a company invests in its advertising and marketing efforts, no matter how hard they try to create and promote a compelling brand, and no matter what they do to get your business, they often lose sight of the fact that their reputation hinges on every employee or representative who has contact with customers and prospects.

Why then do so many companies put people who are unable to communicate clearly in these frontline roles? Whether it’s someone at the counter who can’t deliver a coherent answer to a customer question, or “Bill,” the highly accented voice that tells you he is really sorry you are having this problem, and then offers advice you can’t understand, these poor choices forever tarnish your impression of the organization behind them.

ARE YOU BEING SERVED – OR SERVICED?

October 6, 2009 by Scott Flood

I’ve often written about the tendency to use bigger words when smaller ones are actually more communicative. I blame it on a desire to sound more educated and impressive (and I think it goes back to those papers we wrote in high school and college, when we tried to mask our failure to read the assignment by digging deep into the thesaurus).

One common mistake is to substitute the word “service” for its close cousin “serve.” Instead of saying “we serve our customers with a smile,” we see “we service our customers with a smile.” Rather than “thanks for the opportunity to serve you,” it’s “thanks for the opportunity to service you.” In place of “we served 10,000 customers last year,” we get “we serviced 10,000 customers last year.” No big deal, you say?

IT’S ESPECIALLY VERY UNIQUE

October 1, 2009 by Scott Flood

Are you unique? That’s good. Are you very unique? That’s not so good.

No, I’m not suggesting that individuality is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing. A very powerful thing. And the word “unique” should be a very powerful word. Unfortunately, it’s misused so often that it is losing its power. Maybe even its uniqueness.

FORTUNATELY, MY RAISINS LACKED WINGS

September 29, 2009 by Scott Flood

(I’ll take a break from advice and counsel today, and tackle something lighter.)

My son attends Purdue University, and he shared his frustration with the massive swarms of gnat-like insects that have descended upon the campus in recent days. The infestation is so great that the Indianapolis Star covered it, describing how the sheer millions of tiny soybean aphids had even disrupted marching band practice.

It reminded me of my own freshmen year in the land of the St. Joe Pumas, about a half-hour north of Purdue. For some reason, Halleck Center, the student union building, had become infested with more houseflies than I’d seen before (or since). I’m not just suggesting that there were a lot of them; it was more in the realm of a Biblical plague. And since we dined in Halleck, it was a cause of some concern.

IT’S YOUR PROBLEM, NOT THEIRS

September 24, 2009 by Scott Flood

Every now and then, I’ll get a request from a client to write something that clarifies some existing instructions or procedures. When I ask the reason for the clarification, I’m nearly always told that the customers or other audience just doesn’t get it. They just don’t understand. They aren’t acting the way we want them to act, or following the steps in the order we prefer.

My job then becomes crafting magic words that will transform these miscreants into conformists. And it’s nearly always a waste of time.

ESCHEWING OBFUSCATION

September 22, 2009 by Scott Flood

Wisdom shows up in the oddest places sometimes. While visiting the Society of Physics Students lounge at Purdue with my son, I pointed to a phrase someone had tacked on the wall, and told Joe that it was one of my favorite expressions. The sign said “Eschew Obfuscation.”

Okay, I realize that a lot of people reading this are now getting ready to click over to TMZ or something that’s not quite as painful, but eschewing obfuscation isn’t complicated. In more common terms, it means the same thing as the time-honored “keep it simple, stupid.”

JIST PLANE REDICULOUS

September 17, 2009 by Scott Flood

In a recent post, I poked a little fun at people whose complete trust of spellcheckers occasionally puts them in awkward positions, such as inadvertently apologizing for their lack of bladder control (sorry for the incontinence!).

Then there are those who don’t seem to notice that spellcheckers exist. Am I the only one who has noticed that the most common Internet spelling of “ridiculous” is “rediculous”? That “probably” has become “prolly” online? “Frustrated” has people “flusterated”? If you follow any online forums, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

WHY, I EXCLAIM! AND EXCLAIM!

September 15, 2009 by Scott Flood

A writer friend once opined that everyone should be allotted a set number of exclamation points at birth, and once they’ve used up their share, they’re done. Can’t use any more. I think that makes far more sense than any recent piece of legislation I’ve seen.