Think Like a Reader

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.

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

How to find feature, benefit

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

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

How to write in first person: Don’t

Avoid Institutional Narcissism

Richard Roll, an economics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, studies narcissism in CEOs. Turns out the more narcissistic executives are, the more likely they are to overrate their skills and make bad business moves.… Read the full article

Stories: better than sex?

Give readers a shot of the love drug, oxytocin

We knew stories were more effective than charts, tables, graphs and simple assertions at helping readers remember what they’ve read, use the information and make good decisions based on the information.… Read the full article

Think like a reporter

Make your release relevant to the reader

Editors don’t care that “Amalgamated Technologies Has Released the New XYZ-2000 Coated Cable Bushing,” writes Stinson Liles, principal and co-founder at Red Deluxe.… Read the full article