Thoughts on Marketing…

Copywriting – marketing with words – has dozens of rules. The more teachers you listen to, the more rules you’ll hear. In fact, trying to remember all of them could turn your brain to mush and keep you from ever writing another word.

But there’s one rule that every single teacher and guru stresses and repeats – and yet I see it broken every day. I’m tempted to say that it is the #1 most frequently broken rule of all, but since the other rules don’t jump out and hit you in the eyes like this one, I could be wrong.

This rule is vital to any business communication – be it a prospecting letter, a fund raising appeal, or even a letter to a client or customer you now have. Interestingly enough, it is one of only two specific pieces of information I still remember from my 4 years in college.

Since condemnation and accusing people of not paying attention isn’t kind or considerate, I’ve been trying to unearth the reason why so many disregard this rule.

When you set out to sell your services or your product, you think that the message is about your services or your product. And when you set out to raise money for your cause, you think the message is about your need.

And so, you are very tempted to begin your letter with one of these words or phrases:
• I
• We
• Our company
• Our organization

And that is the rule: “Never, ever, ever, begin a business letter with I, we, or our.”

Why not?

Because doing so is the fastest way to get that letter headed to the round file before the reader gets past the first line.

The cold, hard truth is, your prospects don’t care about you. They care about what benefit they’ll get from taking the time to read your message. Even when you’re raising money for a cause, they care more about how they’re going to feel when they support you than they do about the cause itself.

So, when your first sentence doesn’t grab them with something about them, their interest fades quickly. If the next sentence is also about you… you’ve pretty much invited them to quit reading your letter and go on to something more interesting.

You can talk about yourself later in the letter – you’ll probably have to. But even then, the “rule” is to keep those words to a minimum. Try very hard to use a form of “you” 3 times more often than any form of “I.”

If you aren’t sure, turn on your find feature and count. Then if your ratios are off, go back and turn those sentences around. It takes extra effort, but that time and effort will pay off in the response your letters will generate.

So remember this: It isn’t about you. Ever. It is always about your prospect and the benefit he or she will gain from reading your letter and acting upon it.