LECTURE NOTES WEEK 9:

PROMOTIONAL WRITING

BMC 1154 / COM 60704 Media Writing
Promotional Writing
Writing that:
Promotes
Sells
Persuades
Educates

Promotes, sells, educates and persuades what?
Good image / branding / values
Products / services
Information / events


Examples
Sales letters / donation letters
Newsletters
Brochures / leaflets / flyers / catalogues on
events, on sales, on products
PR press releases
Web content for a particular organisation / product
/ brand
Company profiles / branding documents
Advertisements

AID(C)A

FEATURES VS BENEFITS VS VALUES
SOME CONCEPTS
Mission of Writing to Promote
The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so
that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it;
then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then
to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe
it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of
success, it is a successful advertisement. - E. St. Elmo Lewis

AI(C)DA is an acronym that extends what Lewis said
above. It is a concept commonly used in marketing,
promotion and advertising to describe the objectives a
piece of promotional writing needs to achieve in its target
prospects/audience.
AI(C)DA
A - Attention

I - Interest

C - Credibility /
Conviction


D - Desire


A - Action


attracts prospects attention

stimulates interest for them to
read on

conveys a strong selling
message, with credible
support

connects with the right
prospects and offer them a
benefit

leads to decision-making or
achieving of objective



Features vs Benefits vs Values
Product = actual product / service / company / brand

Product features describe the product and what it does.

Product benefits how do these features become benefits to
the consumer?
2-in-1 toothpaste-mouthwash Cleaner teeth and breath all at
once.
A convenient diet drink An easy way to lose weight.
A super tire A safer ride
Youth mobile library easy access to books, reading pleasure,
knowledge etc.
Determining the product features / benefits/
values
Factors that influence purchase behaviour:
Why do people buy this type of product?
Feature = size, shape, ingredients, colour, weight etc.
Benefit = durable (batteries), healthy (drink), anti-(dandruff
shampoo), long-lasting (fragrance), clean (skin) etc.
Value = beauty, image, pride, trend etc.

Think about:
Advantages of your product/company/brand
Unique Selling Points (USP)
A unique combination of factors


Using the Laddering Process
Every product we use relates in some way to values that are
important to use.
This relationship may not be very obviously linked. To help determine
the product benefit, we can use:

The Laddering Process

Positive self image

Glossy hair

Special formulation

Shampoo

Highest values
Lowest product
The Laddering Process (cont)
Tip:
Ask WHY IS THE FEATURE/BENEFIT IMPORTANT?
The answer will generally move you up the ladder.

Look for unique strengths.
Find the most meaningful feature.
Keep looking.
Dont discount the fact that there may be more than one place on the
Ladder.
This means you can have unique combinations of features,
benefits or values that may be powerful to the consumer.

2.2 The Laddering Process (cont)
So.a product feature leads to a product benefit which leads
to a consumer benefit which leads to a consumer value.

Both product benefit or consumer benefit can be the basis of
your strategy for your promotional writing.

The lower the ladder you are, the more product-specific your
message and the more you differentiate your product (super-
flouride toothpaste, air-pillow shoes, intelligent massage chair, fun
youth camp, mountain biking adventure group etc.)

The higher the ladder you are, the more you are dealing with
whats important in a consumers life and the more generic
your benefit (health, image, contentment, camaraderie,
friendship).


Principles of Good Promotional Writing
Be Accurate
Theres nothing more damaging than bloated claims,
inaccurate information, exaggerations or outright lies.
Be sure of your facts. Double, triple check.
Everything you write should be accurate and true.
Avoid hype do not promise something you/the
organisation cannot deliver.
Always check that quotations are approved for publication.

Be Appealing
Consider the positive or negative influence (intentional or
unintentional) that your copy may have on your target
audience.

Test its appeal, ideally on a sample of your target audience,
before you commit to publishing especially materials that
could reach the general public.
Did they understand the message as you intended?
Did the copy have the desired effect?
Did it offend unintentionally?

Be Benefit-focused
Focus on the benefits instead of the form and functionality.

Communicate what a particular proposition, product or
service:
can do for your readers
how it will benefit them
what they will be able to achieve with it
What they could lose without it
Be Concise
Readers tend to scan and skim a piece of text initially.

Most only return for a more in-depth read if their interest is
captured.
Use short sentences and statements to engage your readers
without putting them off with too much to digest too soon.
Remove any words that are superfluous/extraneous.
Write just right.
Be Direct
Your message should be direct and to the point in order to
be credible and effective.

Beating around the bush and writing long preambles with no
particular intent can only add to the confusion of your
readers and turn them away.
Use strong, simple messages that say what they mean.
Use uncluttered language to prevent misunderstandings.
Avoid colloquial words, clichs or overly formal language.
Use first and second person (you, we) to sound less
distant.

Be Purposeful
Write with your objective in mind. At all times.
Make your intentions clear right from the start.
Present the salient or most important points first.
Repeat the important points if necessary this can be
product name, call to action, specific benefits.
Present details later or in supplementary materials.


Be Persuasive
Allow your words to persuade your readers to feel that you
understand their wants and needs and that what you are
promoting/selling relates to them.

To persuade means to get your reader to do what you wish
them to do
buy / try / use your solution
take action / take the first step
believe in / support you (or your cause)
change their minds
reinforce their thinking, etc.
Make your writing: (1) stimulating and (2) empathetic.

Be Structured
Good writing depends largely on good structure and
organisation of your points.
This means coherency (do not go out of topic) and cohesion
(points arranged in logical order).
Put key messages at the beginning.
Content should run in a logical order.
Would changing the order of the content improve
comprehension and/or the flow?
What about adding subheadings to aid navigation (of
points) and/or understanding?
Do I need transition words to help?

Be Targeted
Always keep your target audience/readers in mind.
Try to get inside the readers head and appeal directly in a
way that takes account of their specific needs, desires,
preferences, interests and tastes.
How?
Know their age, gender, education and social background,
likes, dislikes, interests and hobbies, urban or rural etc.
In other words, research on their demographics and
psychographics.

One final principle
Use the good language to fix your message in your readers
mind.

Paint a picture through effective writing appeal to the
senses.
Use the right words to convey your message most effective
have a strong vocabulary bank.
Convey the right image with the right tone - sound
enthusiastic, professional, business-like etc. depending on
who/what you are promoting.
Write well, write evocatively, write creatively.
Most importantly write grammatically.


Preparing to Write
Know Your Audience
The first step to getting it right is understanding your audience.
How much does your target audience already know? Avoid
repeating content provided before.
Can you tell your audience something new? New
information? New results? New events? If yes, do so.
What are your target audiences needs? Focus on the
benefits.
What do you want them to do as a result of reading your
material? Buy before? Hurry and join? Get free gift? How to
be a member? Include a call for action. And make it clear.
What will have the most appeal to obtain the desired
response? Consider different appeals for different types of
audience/readers.
Purpose and Proposition
Define a clear brief to focus your thinking and sharpen your
writing. Whats the objective you wish to achieve with this
piece of writing? Appeal? Inform? Sell? Reinforce? Share?
Promote?

What do you want it to achieve? What are your main
messages?
Focus on the top three or four main messages.

What are the features, benefits, values in other words, the
selling points that you can harness on?
Present one or more unique selling propositions (USP) to
set your company / product apart from others.

Content and Structure
Consider carefully what your reader wants to know and the
most logical order for the information.
First, create an outline:
Compile all the raw information.
Sieve through and select the items most relevant and
important to your target audience.
Put in order the points to connect them into a clearly
reasoned pitch/argument.


Content and Structure (continued)
A sample outline structure:
Include an introductory short paragraph which contains the
benefit statements or summary of the key messages in the
document.
Use short paragraphs or bullet points to present the main
messages in the order of importance and relevance i.e. most
important first.
Use short subheadings to highlight subject changes and help the
reader navigate his or her way through the text.
Close with a final call to action line or paragraph.
Dont forget to add the relevant contact details.
If writing a sales letter, use a postscript (p.s.) to re-state your
main message. P.s.'s always get read (an average of 7 times
more than body copy).

You know the drill but do you do it
consciously?
Writing Well Language Use
Here we go again
Use good language this means correct grammar, sentence
structure, spelling and punctuation. Please.

Use inclusive language remember these? Details in previous
notes on writing skills.

Use engaging language active vs passive voice; precise
choice of words; avoid jargon, cliches & pompous language;
writing creatively etc. We have gone through these in detail
before.

Use the right tone and voice professional? Friendly? Target
your audience and the objective of your article.

EDIT. EDIT. EDIT.
Next week
Writing for the web