Here’s the 3rd of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!
Hey You!
Hey You!
3. Write From “Me” to “You”
I have a shocking revelation for you: Your future customers don’t care about you.
That’s right. I said it. I’ll say it again.
They don’t care about you.
Why, then, is so much of our marketing material all about us?
When we put it so bluntly as this, it seems so obvious. But somehow we get stupid when it’s time to create the ad, write the e-mail, or put the content together for the website. And we make a massive blunder: we make it all about us.
Your audience only cares about themselves. They’re incredibly selfish. But who can blame them? They’re busy. They have things to think about. Stuff to do. If you don’t answer the question right off the bat:
What’s in it for me?
…you’ll lose ’em faster than a 2-year-old watching C-SPAN.
So… one way you do it is talk to them about them. Put a picture of your best customer in front of you (a person, not a company) and write to them as if he or she were the only human being on the planet.
This means you use a lot of words like
- you,
- your, and
- yours,
and not much of
- we,
- us,
- ours,
- they,
- them, or
- theirs.
What About Writing in the 3rd Person?
If there’s a faster way to put an audience to sleep, I’m not sure what it is. So… just for the record: don’t do it.
Now of course there are exceptions to every rule. But remember: effective marketing is about starting or cultivating a relationship. This happens one person at a time. It happens one-on-one with your marketing–whether you’re speaking to an enormous crowd or sitting across your prospect’s desk. You would never talk about your company or yourself in the 3rd person while face to face, would you?
This might seem like a subtle nuance. But I guarantee you that if you keep in mind the end goal (the relationship) and you intentionally incorporate the “me to you” approach, you will get significantly better response.
Up next in this series: “So What?!” Subscribe right now so you’ll get it first!