Imagine if you had
to condense your message to a dozen words — or only four or five.
That's not a hypothetical exercise.
It's daily reality for writers engaging in marketing and promotions.
That fact struck home as I checked the
email account my wife and I reserve for offers from various
companies.
In their subject line, each company had
to distill its core message to a single, easily understood phrase.
Based on that handful of words, potential customers would decide
whether to see more -- or hit delete.
A few samples from one day's screen:
If you matched the target demographic,
which of these would you click?
Now consider your own marketing –
whether emails to the people on your list or the titles and opening
sentences of your blog posts. The brutal reality of attraction or
dismissal applies to our work as authors.
People bombarded with messages won't
keep reading until they finally come to the meat of yours. If your
purpose isn't immediately clear – or it doesn't connect – you've
lost that potential sale.
Few of us enjoy
marketing – for good reason. Done well, it ranks among the most
demanding writing we'll ever do. But it's also the most important.
To connect with
busy, distracted readers, don't stick with the first words that come
to mind. Craft your opening words with care: keeping an eye to your
target audience, your central message, and how it connects with them. Otherwise, you likely won't connect.
