Being NOT BORING is tricky. Here are some basic guidelines. Avoiding boring is a full-time occupation. It helps to understand the high cost of boring.
Lets get started.
1. Ever noticed a company who loves to talk about how good they are, how much they care about their customers, how they sell the very best products?
No body is interested in this self serving tripe. In fact, in this cynical world nobody believes you. And, in fact, the human brain passes it over, because EVERYBODY SAYS IT. If they notice your especially egregious example, well- you really are annoying them.
2. You have to be careful not assume your audience already understands what you are talking about or what you do.
Who else has been aggravated by a technical nerd helping you with a technology problem and they are constantly assuming you know what they know? And they are annoyed when you protest you don’t know what they are talking about?
Well, you would never be this bad, but you really do need to read what you write in an out-of-body experience. You need to get out of your skin and into the skin of your audience.
Ever had to listen to a Chiropractor talk about subluxation while dangling a skeleton in front of the room? This is a perfect case of a strikeout between what might interest the audience and the total tune out for the skeleton story.
You Must Build a Bridge of Understanding.
You have to build a bridge between what someone wants and how your product or service helps them get what they want. Because customers don’t protest when they don’t understand you, they just go somewhere else.
These two examples of boring both fail the WHO CARES? test.
Here is another. Service companies talking about their service plans are a particular source of hilarity. Replace the belts, lubricate the hinges… WHO CARES! You better help me understand why I should care!
Whatever you are talking about – ask yourself WHO CARES?
If you don’t have a clear connection to an explicit human desire, you better get busy bridging the gap- that chasm between what would be compelling to your audience and what you are actually saying.
On an over simplified level, this is the old features VS benefits yarn.
Too bad everybody nods their head yes, when you are talking about tying features to benefits, but it is so easy to get excited about your new products – the super-ionzer air cleaner- the Flambush 4000 with double the speed of the old processor….
Would it make sense to bring in a 3rd party to help break through some bad habits that bore people to tears? Would it help to prevent prospects from wandering off and spending their money elsewhere?
It pays off to have real conversations with customers and see how they describe things, see how they perceive how you add value. It even makes sense to talk to those who got away.
You have to get out of a complacent self-satisfied stupor that you know exactly what people want to hear…
So email or call me with your thoughts or questions. I don’t have all the answers. Compelling writing is hard. It is so easy to fall back to clichés and self aggrandizing speech. And ramble on too long.
Feel free to leave a comment.
