Writing Marketing Content for Different Generations

Who do you want to convince and persuade through your marketing content? Your target audience may fall into a particular industry, skill set, activity or need -- but it may also correspond to a particular generation. The American experience has varied greatly from one generation to the next, with each generation molded by its own cultural biases and social circumstances. This means that you may need to tailor your marketing message and writing style to make its maximum impact on a specific age demographic. Even if your target market spans multiple generations, you need to know how to aim the right content at each of them. Let's take a look at how you might write market content for each of the following recognized generations.

Traditionalists

Traditionalists, members of the age group born before world War II, are sometimes called "Silents" because they did their jobs silently and uncomplainingly. Loyalty, commitment, honesty, and consistency mean a great deal to Traditionalists. Growing up in the Depression taught them the value of a dollar, so they'll hold onto their money unless they have a really sound reason to do otherwise. If you aim your products and services at retirees, chances are that you're addressing many Traditionalists. While these folks do make use of online platforms, they're also very open to more traditional marketing channels such as direct mail and flyers.

Baby Boomers

Baby Boomers are the Traditionalists' children, representing the postwar population boom that gave us the first generation of TV-watching kids. As you might expect, television (and its advertising) still makes an impact on this generation. Baby Boomers grew up experiencing a unique combination of cultural stability and political instability -- Howdy Doody and Father Knows Best vs. the Cold War and "duck and cover" nuclear drills. Many of them turned on social norms when they became young adults in the 1960s, developing a degree of skepticism that compels them to try before they buy. These prospective customers must be won over with free offers, money-back guarantees, and loyalty programs. The majority of them use both the Internet and some form of social media, but their social media use is more about personal connections than shopping or professional gain.

Generation X

Generation X-ers were born between 1965 and 1980. Although they gained the nickname "Slackers" somewhere along the way, this title refers more to their values than to their work ethic. Generation X is the adaptable generation, with its willingness to change jobs, careers, and locations in the pursuit of a healthy work/life balance. Aiming your marketing message along these lines can help you get and hold these individuals' attention. X-ers were the first generation of adults to make heavy use of the World Wide Web, so the Internet has always felt like home to them. Hone your website content and work your Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media channels hard to land this fish.

Generation Y

Generation Y members are also called "Millennials," since they were born between 1980 and 2000. This generation is the first one born into a truly Web-savvy world in which blogs, YouTube, and other channels serve as primary sources of information. Their life in the virtual world, with its endless possibilities, fuels their desire to shape their own lives with as much flexibility and diversity as possible. You may find that they respond to marketing content that emphasizes diversity and optimism, taking a global approach rather than a more localized focus. Millennials are also used to easy access, interaction and teamwork, so emphasize these points as well. It goes without saying that the digital realm is the place to target this generation.

The most recent generation, Generation Z, is still in its formative years. If you're marketing to children and teenagers, bear in mind that this age group is obsessed with technology -- and watch them carefully to see how today's trends produce tomorrow's crop of consumers.

These categories are kind of arbitrary, of course. Still, thinking along generational lines can help you craft your marketing content to specific age groups more accurately and effectively. Give it a try -- and contact a professional marketing copywriter if you need help saying the right things to the right generation!

Which "Person" Sells Best? Choosing the Right Pronouns for Your Marketing Content

"Which person should I be? Am I 'I' or 'we?' Or should we be 'they?' And are my clients 'you' or 'them?'"

No, this isn't a transcript from a nuthouse. I have this kind of conversation with clients all the time. It's actually a very sensible and important conversation, too, because we're discussing what kind of "person" works best for which situations.

By "person," I mean grammatical person, in the sense of first-person, second-person, or third-person pronouns. We use these pronouns a zillion times a day in everyday writing and speech, usually without giving them a second thought, and yet these simple little words contain tremendous power. 

Pronouns shift perception. You can make me, your reader, see you as an individual, as a team, or as a large, impersonal corporation by merely swapping out a word. You can address me directly or have me see things through your eyes. Powerful gadgets, pronouns. But with great power comes great responsibility, and all pronouns are not created equal depending on the task you want them to perform in your marketing content. That's when I get into mind-bending conversations with my clients about "we," "I," and "they." So which person makes the strongest impact? It depends:

• First person singular: First person allows you to present yourself as an individual. If you're a sole proprietor serving as a trusted advisor for your clients, talking them directly as "I" can build trust and open an imaginary (and later, hopefully, real) dialogue between you and your reader. Many small businesses live or die by their owner's image and personality, using "I" as a powerful tool for getting that image across.
• First person plural: A.k.a. the "Royal We." If you're speaking for a team, "we" presents a collective image of that team. Companies of any size can use "we" to give the impression of a unified group effort dedicated to fulfilling the customer's needs. Even sole proprietors sometimes describe themselves as "we" or "us" to puff themselves up a bit, because in some professions being the only guy at the helm makes you look non-competitive or unsuccessful. Small businesses may shift between "I" and "we" to speak as the boss occasionally while still giving the impression of teamwork.
• Third person: In some cases a larger company, or a small company that wants to appear large, can opt for more formality by referring to the company employees as "they," with formal bio blurbs describing individuals in terms of "he" or "she." This works well for items such as a bio or mission statement in a fancy-pants panel program or formal business plan. It can also make for a person in a relatively sober-minded profession such as medicine or law. But I've warned clients against it on occasion, because it also puts up a kind of wall between writer and reader instead of creating the comforting bond some businesses need to establish.
• Second person: "You." Talking from the reader's perspective shows that you understand their feelings and needs -- and remember, from their point of view it's all about them anyway. "You" enables readers to imagine about how the product or service impacts their quality of life. "You can have it all! Change your life today!" Et cetera.

Once you've know what impression you want to make in your readers, you'll know which "person" to use for different marketing pieces and audiences. But if you're still feeling uncertain, you always make use of one other person -- a professional copywriter!

Beyond Copywriting: The Key Players on Your Marketing Team

In my many years as a freelance copywriter in Austin and San Antonio, I've received plenty of requests to write for clients who didn't have all their marketing ducks in a row. They knew they needed top-quality marketing content from an experienced copywriter, but they hadn't engaged the other members of their marketing team. It's pretty hard to write content that will integrate flawlessly with an imaginary website or non-existent visual design, or without any clue what the most important keywords will be, or without knowing how the content will be implemented across multiple marketing channels. That's why I urge clients to gather their entire go-to team of marketing professionals before commissioning marketing content. Let's look at some of the key players you'll want to include in your lineup.

The Copywriter

Your copywriter serves as your written content resource. The right words make an enormous difference in persuading your target audience of your message as quickly and efficiently as possible. Since Google's algorithm has made relevant, professional-sounding content a top priority in recent years, the days of simple "keyword stuffing" are long gone -- you actually have to tell your story, and tell it well. That's a job for a professional. Your copywriter can also contribute to the conceptual stage of your marketing campaign through creative brainstorming, or make fixes to any existing content that just doesn't get the job done.

The Graphic Designer

What your copywriter is to your words, your graphic designer is to your pictures. The graphic designer is the architect of your brand's look. From creating original logos and determining your company color scheme to crafting individual marketing pieces, this artist understands how images influence potential buyers. Look for a graphic designer who feels equally at home in both print and digital media, since these two forms make their own specific visual demands.

The Web Designer/Developer

Web designers create the appearance and layout of your website and its various pages, working in collaboration with graphic designers as needed. Effective web design not only makes your website look compelling and professional; it also ensures a good user experience to improve retention and conversion. The web developer takes those designs and codes them expertly into the site, using state-of--the-art programming languages. When hiring these professionals, make sure they'll grant you some degree of user customization and administrative access to it. You don't want to be "locked out" of your own website if you ever happen to lose the people who put it together.

The SEO Expert

Search engine optimization makes the online marketing world go round. SEO strategies and tactics can take a variety of forms, from the sensible, elegant use of keywords in your written content (organic SEO) to the "under-the-hood" SEO achieved through meta-tags and other subtle website features. Some website providers include SEO among their services, while some SEO experts double as web design/development professionals.

The Social Media Coordinator

Today's marketing campaigns must embrace not only traditional print and website activities but the wide world of social media as well. Unfortunately, there are so many social media channels to choose from that you could easily spend most of your waking hours keeping track of them all. It's all too easy to neglect one important channel in favor of another, or to upload content in such a haphazard manner that your audience can't follow you easily. Your social media coordinator can focus on this activity exclusively, making sure that the right content is going onto the right channel at the right time.

The Printer

Print marketing is alive and well -- and most businesses need some form of it just as much as they need its digital equivalent. It's great to have close ties to a professional printing company that can make any kind of print marketing materials you might need, from 3D signage to event banners and vehicle wraps. A fully-equipped printer offers both traditional offset printing and advanced digital printing options. Some also have on-site graphic designers, thus filling two spots on your go-to marketing team roster while ensuring visual consistency across all your print marketing pieces.

The Marketing Strategist

The marketing strategist has the most important job of all: designing your company's marketing plan and supervising that plan's implementation. This expert is the first professional you want to talk to. Your marketing strategist can help you understand exactly who your audience is, where that audience tends to hang out, and what kinds of messaging that audience tends to respond to. A well-connected marketing strategist may even be able to find the other members of your marketing team for you, giving each of them their marching orders and coordinating their activities.

So there you have it -- the key players in your quest for brilliant marketing. Go get 'em!

3 Rebranding Steps You Need to Consider

Are you thinking about reinventing your brand? Maybe your current brand has some negative stigma attached to it. Maybe it seems outdated in an ever-changing marketplace. Maybe it no longer reflects your values, focus, and offerings. Rebranding can make a great deal of sense for recharging and repurposing your business -- but simply slapping a new name or logo onto your current marketing efforts isn't going to get you where you need to go. Here are four important steps in any rebranding process that you need to think about.

1. Creating a New Identity (Without Torching the Old One)

While it might be wise to totally invent yourself if your brand has gone totally toxic, in most cases it makes sense to build on whatever name recognition you've achieved in the past. That's why you so often see announcements like "X company is now Y company!" You probably want to make a graceful transition to your new brand that leverages whatever positive power your old brand still possesses. At the same time, you want don't want to convey a sense that nothing meaningful has changed. Your marketing content should emphasize the new advantages, capabilities, and benefits included in this brand change so your target market will get excited about it and want to know more.

Just don't fall into the trap of bad-mouthing your previous brand; "We got this and that wrong, but we're better now." Honesty is good, but you don't want your audience thinking, "Yeah, guys, but you used to be all enthused about the old version, so why should I trust this new pitch?"

2. Rewriting Your Website

If you were rebranding a "brick-and-mortar" business's identity from top to bottom, you would no doubt remodel your stores so shoppers would experience that new identity as they browse. Well, the same goes for your virtual storefront. Your website will be entrusted with the task of presenting your new products or services, telling the story behind your new brand, and guiding visitors through the sales funnel until they're in a position to be converted into buyers.

Resist the temptation to do a patch job on your website content. By the time you've finished massaging individual bits of text to fit the new brand message, you'll be grumbling obscenities and wishing you'd just started over with a fresh new approach. You might even spend less time, money and effort by beginning with a clean slate.

3. Broadcasting the "New You" Through Social Media

Now that you've built your new brand, along with a new website to back it up, how do you let the world know that you're better than ever? In this day and age, of course you'll need to take to social media -- but don't reinvent the wheel. Remodel and rename your existing social media channels, instead of simply opening new ones, so you can carry all your existing followers with you in this transition. Fill up those channels with as many "Coming Soon" announcements, special offers, and interactive conversations as you can to get the buzz focused on your re-branding.

Don't hinge your social media success on little Tweets and Facebook one-liners. Blog your head off (with multi-channel links to and from the articles) to elaborate on all your exciting changes and keep building that wealth of relevant content Google seems to love.

These rebranding steps may sound intimidating, but you don't have to take them alone. In addition to hiring a professional copywriter for your new brand content, make use of graphic designers, digital marketing agencies, and marketing strategists to help you brand yourself for the better!

The Most Important Question in Copywriting: "What's in It for Me?"

I don't have the world's longest attention span. When I receive a direct-mail piece or an email blast, however, I tend to skim over the veneer of cleverness and the endless lists of what a product does or how many years the company has served Satisfied Customers Just Like Me. I cut to the chase -- and as far as I'm concerned, the chase ends with the answer to one simple question: "What's in it for me?"

I've rewritten countless websites and print marketing campaigns for clients who simply took too long to get to that crucial question, or in some cases never got to it at all amidst the personal trumpet blowing and back patting. It's wonderful to take pride in your work, your track record in your industry or dominance of that industry. And yes, you do have to explain the features of your products or services sooner or later. But that's not what we, the prospective buyers, are looking for. We're interested in how you will improve your lives by solving a specific problem, and the longer you take to get around to that little detail, the less chance you have of avoiding a one-way trip to the circular file. 

You've heard it a million times: Push the benefits, not the features. While I wouldn't suggest dumping the features, I would recommend allowing the benefits to leap-frog over them to grab your audience's attention from the git-go. One simple way to do this is by playing the "What If" game right from the beginning -- an arresting opening statement that dares us to dream. "What if you could guarantee your family's financial security for life, starting today?" "Imagine getting the best night's sleep you ever had -- every night!" Determine what your ideal clients' ideal outcome would be, get them excited by making them envision that ideal outcome, and then offer it to them. Closed sale.

If you feel the need to paint even more of a picture for your prospects, or to remind them of the problem that needs solving, you can lead off with a pain statement. If you offer a more efficient lawn mower, for instance, make your reader picture another hot, horrible summer battling that broken-down behemoth in the garage, laying out money for frequent repairs, et cetera. THEN flip the emotional state with a "What If" that describes the fast, effortless mowing experience possible with your super-reliable new MegaCut 3000. Our hero!

Whatever approach you use, make those benefits leap off the page so your readers don't have to search for them. If you need a reminder, put a drawing or photo of a typical customer up on your wall with a caption underneath it reading, "WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?" If your answer to that question is compelling enough, we will keep reading -- and we will buy.

Honest Copywriting: Accentuate the Positive -- but Don't Eliminate the Negative

Fans of Futurama will remember Professor Farnsworth hobbling into the room and proclaiming "Good news, everybody!" before informing the Planet Express team that were going to go deliver toxic waste or some other lovely task. To this day, I hear that voice in my head when I hear or read suspiciously optimistic announcements. For instance, my apartment management company recently posted a cheerful little note on my door, to the effect of, "Good news! [Can't you just hear him? Me too.] Our complex has arranged to install fiber-optic cable for all buildings. This will provide our tenants with faster online speeds than ever before!" The announcement then goes to make an oblique mention of certain construction activities that may require our patience and cooperation....

Yes, it's nice to be getting speedier Internet service. But us non-technical types are bound to wonder how much digging and installing will have to be performed, what sort of glitches may occur during installation, and whether this project will even be completed while many of the current tenants are still living here. These are all legitimate questions -- but hey, speedier Internet!

I applaud this example of putting one's best foot forward. Let's face it, there are upsides and downsides to just about any transition, venture, product, or service. In your marketing content, you obviously want to push the positive and downplay the negative. But it really is possible to offer too much of a good thing.

Your target audience may be understandably skeptical if you offer the greatest thing since sliced bread with absolutely no qualifications whatsoever. For instance, if you read an ad for a used car which includes nothing but positivity, your first question is likely to be "What's wrong with it?" What are you not being told? By contrast, a used-car ad that includes little qualifiers such as "Some minor hail damage but mechanically perfect" explains why the vehicle's price is so good, reassures you that it will get you from Point A to Point B, prepares you to encounter some imperfections, and adds a touch of transparency that encourages trust.

Providing a balanced, detailed, honest mix of content can actually help you nip specific objections in the bud. Let's say your prospective buyer reads about the efficiency of your new ultra-lightweight vacuum cleaner and is about to scoff, "I'll bet it can't handle ground-in dirt or deep pile." Fortunately, you've already added an FAQ section or a little disclaimer in your content saying, "This lightweight vacuum cleaner is specifically designed for light jobs, reducing the need to lug your heavy vacuum cleaner around." You've now clarified that your little cleaner isn't meant to be a full-time replacement for that 40-pound monster, just a welcome relief for casual cleaning applications.

A little self-effacement can work in your favor. "We may not be your ideal solution, but we'd happy to discuss your needs and tell you what we can do for you." "No weight loss plan is effort-free or equally effective for everybody, but if you're serious about shedding the pounds, this system could be just what you need." "Are we the right dental clinic for your needs? We can't answer that question for you. There's only one way to find out -- visit us." Tempering your promises and admitting your limitations doesn't just present an honest picture; it also presents you as an honest brand.

By all means, give your clients the good news first, wrap it up in a pretty bow, and let enthusiasm carry the day. Just remember that first-time buyers become repeat buyers only when their initial expectations are met. If you want to build customer relationships, make sure your marketing content sets a trustworthy tone.

Selling Is Educating (and Vice Versa)

Are you a teacher? If you're in sales (and who isn't, really, when you think about it), then the answer is yes.

Think of it this way: Would you buy something -- anything -- when you didn't know what it was, what it was for, or how it could benefit you? If so, then you've probably purchased enough swamp land over the years to start your own mosquito ranch. Most of us would just stare blankly at the item in question, and then redirect our attention to something more recognizably useful. Your business has to educate its prospective customers on its products and services, and that's where skillful, focused, specific content marketing comes in.

Writers know that "doing" verbs (runs, creates, proves, energizes) make more of an impact than "being" verbs (am, are, is, has). Well, that goes for marketing content as well. Joe Client cares less about what a thing is than what that thing does. Specifically, he wants to know what it does for him. This is just another way of thinking about the tired old rule, "Push the benefits, not the features," but it works. When you shift your marketing focus from "What It Is" to "What It Does," the product's attractiveness suddenly leaps out at the average person who couldn't care less about its technical specifications. 

One of my favorite examples of this is the blogging I did for a company that specialized in metric screws, bolts and other fasteners. Fascinating stuff, right? But as I learned more about the various fasteners, I began to see that they each had different (and interesting) real-world applications:

• Building a boat? You'll want zinc-tipped or silicon bronze screws for corrosion resistance. 
• Preparing a commercial construction project? You need a ready source for sturdy bolts and rivets in a wide range of sizes. 
• Assembling electronic components? Let's talk about non-conductive fasteners. 

Et cetera. So I created a series of blog articles along those lines, conjuring up images of construction crews enjoying greater productivity, manufacturing floors purring away productively, boat enthusiasts enjoying summer on the lake and so on. Now we had something exciting to talk about -- the bottom-line benefits of purchasing those metric fasteners.

As you can see, educating your customer involves more than just throwing a bunch of numbers at them. Unless that person understands how those numbers translate into benefits, you're wasting your time. Instead, focus on explaining how your product or service solves a specific need. That's educating to sell -- so make your curriculum compelling (with the aid of a professional copywriter), and aim for a graduating class of A-plus clients!