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Apply the “No Kidding / Who Cares Rule” To Your Marketing Copy
by Scott Greggory

For the rest of the day, try this exercise: listen closely to radio and TV spots. If you haven't already, you'll soon discover that most advertising, especially local advertising, tends to be very good at pointing out the incredibly obvious, and not so good at giving you a real reason to do business with the advertiser.

"Come on down to Joe Blow Ford, where we have a great selection of new and used cars!"

Gee, you don't say? A car dealer with lots of cars to sell. You don't see that every day.

"Here at Joe Blow Carpeting and Tile, we have floor coverings for every room in your home."

Wow! A carpet store that sells different types of floor covering. What will they think of next?

When preparing any type of marketing copy, I'm constantly applying my "No Kidding! Who Cares?" rule, from the concept phase to the proofing of the finished script. I try to think about the listener or the reader - my audience - then ask myself, "Is any phrase or sentence I've written so obvious that a person's response to it would be a sarcastic "No kidding?" Then I ask myself, "Will my audience care about what I've written? Does it mean something to them? Does it provide them with some type of value? Does it give them a reason to keep reading or listening?"

Here's an example. While compiling copy points for an On Hold Messaging script, a client sent me this e-mail:

"Please mention our company's latest award. Something like this..."

And her sample copy followed:

"Thank you for calling the Smith Company. We're pleased to announce that we've won the Silver Service Award for the third time in four years. We'd like to give our great staff a pat on the back."

Now, I certainly understand the client's pride in winning a major award and her eagerness to have people hear about it, but the copy she wrote would have offered no benefit to the listener. Not to be mean, but the copy was self-congratulatory and, frankly, pointless. Unless the news of the award can be turned into information that provides some value to the company's callers - the message's audience - what's the point of mentioning it?

While discussing the idea with the client, I asked, "What does that award symbolize? Why would your customers or prospects on hold be interested in it? And why is knowing about this award valuable to them?" Once I had the answers to those questions and a few others, I wrote this copy:

"The Silver Service Award is our industry's highest compliment. It's given annually to the company with the best year-to-date record of customer service in 24 measurable categories. If you're considering new vendors, you should know that The Smith Company has won the Silver Service Award three of the last four years. No other company has ever done that. The Silver Service Award: proof of our intense commitment to your satisfaction."

That copy acknowledges The Smith Company's win, but it also gives prospective clients even more reason to consider The Smith Company as a vendor. It provides, not an empty promise, but an important clue, substantiated by a major industry award, as to how the prospect will be treated if they do business with The Smith Company.

Writing copy that provides value to your intended audience can be difficult and time consuming, granted. But if your marketing message is to stand out among the crowd and ring true with prospective customers, it needs to do more than underscore the obvious. It needs to give your audience a reason to seek you out and do business with you. Applying the "No Kidding! Who Cares?" rule to your marketing copy will help.

Copyright by BusinessVoice, Inc. To republish or redistribute this or any content on this website, please contact Scott Greggory at scottg@businessvoice.com.