Think Like a Reader

Write leads for your press release target audience

Move from event to impact

Screenwriter Nora Ephron long remembered the first day of her high school journalism class.

Ephron’s teacher announced the first assignment: to write the lead for a story to appear in the student newspaper.… Read the full article

Write to and about your reader

High-performing companies are 60% more likely to communicate from the audience perspective.

— Welch and Ambjorn

88% of average organizations write about themselves instead of about the audience.

… Read the full article

The difference between features and benefits?

Benefits are verbs; features are nouns

Remember Verb, the superhero on “Schoolhouse Rock”? He was great because he could do so many things.

His theme song went like this:

I get my thing in action (Verb!)

… Read the full article

And … action! Benefits vs features copywriting

Write in verbs, not other parts of speech

Talk about painting a picture. In City of Bohane, Kevin Barry brings the titular town to life in sentences like this:

“Amputee walnut sellers
croaked their prices
from tragic blankets
on the scarred tile floors …”

And:

“The tottering old chimneys were stacked in great deranged happiness
against the morning sky.”

… Read the full article

Catch a reader: Features and benefits examples

Focus on the reader’s needs

If you were giving away a Hawaiian vacation to people who signed up for your webinar, which would you lead with?… Read the full article

Ask the right questions in the interview

Having trouble finding reader benefits? Maybe you need to ask different questions.

Ask your subject matter experts:

What happens if our customers buy this product or service?

… Read the full article

Features vs. benefits: Avoid fake benefits

No ‘Pat yourself on the back for choosing us’

“Clean your face,” demands a hotel soap wrapper. No, YOU clean YOUR face! I want to respond.… Read the full article

Sell benefits, not features, in lists

Make benefits lists parallel, verb-based

When Mr. Wylie’s Writing Tips had a hip replacement recently, he had to take a break from grocery shopping. I went searching for my new BFF, an online grocery delivery service.… Read the full article

Make it F-A-B: features, advantages, benefits

Reach readers, potential customers by leading with the benefits

I once reviewed an article for a company’s sales force with the headline:

Extraordinary customer experience: Be a customer advocate.

… Read the full article

To reach readers, avoid writing in the first person

Stop We-We-ing on the reader

It feels so good to talk about ourselves.

Talking about yourself activates the same pleasure centers in the brain as food, money or sex, according to Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir and her colleague Jason Mitchell, whose research on the topic was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.… Read the full article

Think Like a Reader

Move from event to impact

Write to and about your reader

High-performing companies are 60% more likely to communicate from the audience perspective.

— Welch and Ambjorn

88% of average organizations write about themselves instead of about the audience.

Benefits are verbs; features are nouns

I get my thing in action (Verb!)

Write in verbs, not other parts of speech

“Amputee walnut sellers croaked their prices from tragic blankets on the scarred tile floors …”

“The tottering old chimneys were stacked in great deranged happiness against the morning sky.”

Focus on the reader’s needs

Ask the right questions in the interview

Ask your subject matter experts:

No ‘Pat yourself on the back for choosing us’

Make benefits lists parallel, verb-based

Reach readers, potential customers by leading with the benefits

Extraordinary customer experience: Be a customer advocate.

Stop We-We-ing on the reader

Free writing tips

“Amputee walnut sellers
croaked their prices
from tragic blankets
on the scarred tile floors …”

“The tottering old chimneys were stacked in great deranged happiness
against the morning sky.”