Writing to change behaviour
Communicators have a large role to play in changing our behaviour. For example, we would not be nearly as aware of the dangers of sunbathing or speeding without regular campaigns. Issues such as climate change and obesity have become difficult ones to tackle. How can you write in such a way as to make people want to change their behaviour, particularly if there is a financial cost to changing?
A website worth looking at is http://www.cbsm.com
Dr Doug McKenzie-Mohr is a pioneer in community-based social marketing and his work draws on social psychology at the community level.
On his website, you can download his free e-book, browse a number of case studies and read articles on how to target specific behavioural changes (e.g. encouraging people to install low-flow shower heads). Each article looks at:
* why the behavioural change is important (e.g. low-flow shower heads reduce water consumption, enhance energy efficiency and lower CO2 emissions)
* what is known about the perceived barriers to change
* the most effective programs to date that foster the behavioural change.
The colleague, who told me about this website, attended a workshop where Dr McKenzie-Mohr told the following anecdote. Forest vegetation in a park was being damaged by people wandering off the pathway. Signs asking people to stay off the vegetation made no difference. Research identified that people were trampling the vegetation to take photos, so the sign was replaced with a new one stating that the best place to take photos in the park was a short way ahead. Problem solved.
If only all change were so easy!
You can download Dr McKenzie-Mohr’s free book at http://www.cbsm.com/public/images/FosteringSustainableBehavior.pdf
Labels: business writing, changing behaviour, persuasive communication
Writing your own marketing material
Many of us have to write our own marketing material whether or not we enjoy writing. Often we’re so busy thinking about what we want to say that we lose sight of our audience. Even experienced writers can fall into this trap.
The problem with writing marketing material for ourselves is that we tend to waffle before we get to the point. Sam Leader, director and editor of Flying Solo, says that having edited some 600 articles for Flying Solo, she has “to get rid of an average of two or three warm-up paras time and time again”.
So how can we avoid this? I suggest you clarify your thoughts before you start writing by asking yourselves questions using PACKO: purpose, audience, context, key messages and outcome.
PurposeWhy are you writing this document? What do you want to achieve?
You may want to provide information, make a recommendation to solve a problem or persuade your readers to buy your products or services. Sometimes you may have more than one purpose.
Understanding your purpose helps determine the structure of your writing. For example, if you’re writing an informative piece, you can often get straight to the point without much preamble. You simply record your information in order of importance to the reader.
If you want to persuade your readers, you may need to spend more time setting the scene to demonstrate that you understand their situation. The challenge is to write from their point of view, not yours.
Audience/sHaving established what you want to achieve, think about your audience/s. What do you know about them? Are your writing for single or multiple audiences?
The more you tailor your writing to suit your readers, the more powerful it will be. As Cicero said:
If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words.
ContextI never used to think about context, but I have become increasingly aware that many writers make assumptions about their readers’ knowledge when writing marketing material. Explaining the context or background may not always be relevant, but if you think about it, you’ll know whether or not you need to explain your terms or include some background information.
For example, at the end of 2008, the media covered how Bernard Madoff lost his clients a lot of money through a Ponzi scheme. Many newspapers did not explain what a Ponzi scheme is, leaving readers to guess or look up the information. (According to Wikipedia: “It’s a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors out of the money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit.”)
Key messagesWhat are your key messages?
You must be able to articulate your key messages in clear statements that even a 12-year-old can understand.
This sounds common sense, but it’s amazing how many highly intelligent writers don’t make their key messages clear. I think it’s sometimes because they think they’re obvious. Professor Chip Heath of Stanford University calls this the “curse of knowledge”.
Outcome/sHow do you want your readers to respond? This question relates back to purpose, but thinking about it separately reminds you to check your details.
For example, a friend of mine, who owns a restaurant, sends a wonderful chatty email to customers. A recent email was as interesting as usual, but she’d forgotten to include the restaurant’s phone number. Had she thought: “bookings, bookings, bookings”, the phone number would have been prominently displayed.
So before you start writing marketing material next time, just pause for a moment and ask yourself the PACKO questions.
This article first appeared on www.flyingsolo.com.au
Labels: business writing, marketing, writing
The art of storytelling in business
A colleague was lamenting the lack of storytelling training in the business world. Thinking there must be some experts in this field, I googled and came up with Australian-born Steve Denning, author of several books including
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling.Steve believes storytelling in business can be used for a variety of purposes, such as igniting organisational change, innovation and building community.
Storytelling is often a one-way process, with a storyteller and a listener. In the business world, Steve says business leaders need to see storytelling as a two-way process: as well as telling a good story, they must anticipate how the audience will respond, and interact with them. He defines this as ‘narrative intelligence’.
Steve describes different types of stories, such as ‘springboard’ stories that enable an audience to understand how an organisation or community may change; anti-stories, which undermine original stories, such as office gossip; and accounts, such as the reckoning of a financial matter.
In the first chapter of his latest book, which you can download online, he says the three key steps in the language of leadership are getting the audience’s attention, eliciting desire for a different future, and reinforcing with reasons.
www.stevedenning.com
Storytelling in marketingIn a blog posting, Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and All Marketers are Liars, itemises some of the ingredients of great stories:
• Great stories are true and trusted.
• Great stories make a promise. They promise fun, safety or a shortcut.
• Great stories are subtle. The fewer details a marketer spells out, the more powerful the story.
• Great stories happen fast.
• Great stories appeal to our senses.
• Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone. The most effective stories match the world view of a tiny audience that spreads the story.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html
A storyAll this theory needs a story, so here’s a little story about testing assumptions.
The creators of Sesame Street assumed you couldn’t mix fantasy with reality, so originally there were no Muppets in the street scenes.
When they tested the show with children just before it went live, they found the children were bored with the street scenes. That’s when Big Bird, Oscar, the Grouch and Snuffleupagus were born.
Source: Malcolm Gladwell,
The Tipping Point
Colourful metaphors
A Factorial reader sent me some metaphors from NSW Year 12 essays. I thought you might enjoy them.
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature prime beef.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
McBride fell 12 storeys, hitting the pavement like a supermarket bag filled with vegetable soup.
Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
You can read more of these metaphors at http://www.esau.com.au/forums/thread/245763
Labels: business writing, metaphors
Look and feel of Web 2.0 websites
Design and layout are an increasing part of a writer's role. The way our words look on a page influences whether or not someone wants to read what we've written. Sometimes, as with websites, most of us need the help of a designer. But as with our financial affairs, even though design may not be our area of expertise, we need to keep up with the latest trends.
I was shocked into thinking about the latest look and feel of websites when my online programmer told me my website looked old. "About three years old," he added. After a bit of spluttering, I had to admit that in web terms, three years is old. So I started to research what gives a website a Web 2.0 look and feel. (Web 2.0 websites make greater use of interactive tools such as wikis and blogs.)
During my research, one of the things that stood out most was the way colours in modern websites have much more depth.
I came across an excellent article on Web 2.0 websites at
http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-2.0-design-style-guide.cfmThis article, which I highly recommend, states that some of the qualities of Web 2.0 websites are:
If you want to see some of these principles in action, go to Barack Obama's site at http://www.barackobama.com/
Labels: Web 2.0, web design, writing websites
Euro English
A reader of my e-newsletter, sent me this joke (old, but still funny) about a five-year plan to phase in EuroEnglish.
In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. Also, the hard 'c' will be dropped in favor of the 'k'. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter. The 'C' kan have two lines drawn through it and be used for the new EURO kurrensy symbol.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with the 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful, and they should go away.
By the 4th yer, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.
ZE DREM VIL FINALI KUM TRU!!
Labels: business writing, Euro English
Sticky ideas are concrete, simple and use stories
In an excellent interview in
The McKinsey Quarterly, Professor Chip Heath states that sticky ideas must be simple, concrete and use stories.
Chip Heath says simplicity is the hardest concept to grasp. He gives the example of a non-profit organisation having eight core values when research has shown that even a few good choices can paralyse people and prevent them from making a decision. He says Bill Clinton had only one guiding message in his presidential campaign: 'It's the economy, stupid'.
As well as being simple, messages have to be concrete. He says: 'Take an abstract message like "Maximise stakeholder value". What should one of your employees do tomorrow to make that happen?'
Far better to use a story. Chip Heath gives the example of a FedEx employee who couldn't open a pickup box on his route as he'd left the key behind in the office. His deadline was tight and so he unbolted the whole box with a wrench — he knew he could open the box back in the office.
Chip Heath goes on to say messages are often abstract because of the 'curse of knowledge'. When we know a lot, it's hard for us to imagine what it's like not to have that knowledge.
So if you want your message to stick, make sure your ideas share the properties of sticky ideas — simplicity, concreteness and stories.
I recommend that you read the whole interview at
http://tinyurl.com/29ycr2 and subscribe to The McKinsey Quarterly at
www.mckinseyquarterly.com.
Labels: business writing, concrete, simple, sticky ideas, stories
