Write Your Own Marketing Materials, Part 1: 5 Style Tips From A Pro

If you’re a marketing executive with a small budget and a big need for sales letters, web content and more, you may be looking at writing them yourself. How tough can it be? When you were in school you got A’s in your English courses, right? Mostly A’s, anyway.

Before you launch in, though, consider these points: A direct mail letter is not the same as a book report. A web page isn’t an essay. And your teachers were paid to read your work.

You might need some professional tricks to make this work. Let me give you a handful right here. Follow these rules and you just might make the grade.

Start with your audience’s needs

You’ve heard the clichés. “People don’t buy drill bits – they buy holes.” “Don’t tell me about your grass seed – tell me about my lawn.” Your first job as a writer is to articulate the benefits you offer or the problems you solve.

“Low mortgage rates” tells about you. “It’s easier than ever to own your own home” talks about your customer.

Verbs are your best friends

Which of these groups of bullet points would you rather read?

• Higher ROI
• Faster inventory turns
• More cross-selling

• Raise ROI
• Turn inventories faster
• Cross-sell on every sale

It’s a small difference, but it adds up. Look for opportunities to energize everything you write by using verbs at every opportunity.

Remember what your teacher told you about active sentence constructions

Passive sentences read this: “Inventories are counted automatically as sales accrue.”

Active sentences go like this: “StockPro automatically counts inventories as you sell.”

Write active sentences. Remember those verbs, above? Put them to work.

Two words: short paragraphs

If you can’t say what you want to say in three lines of a Word document, your idea is too complicated. Break it down.

Short paragraphs reduce the amount of grey space on the page and push the reader to the call to action at the end.

Sleep on it, then revise

Good writing comes from being unwilling to settle. When you read it a few days later, do you still like it? Be willing to throw stuff out and start over. It happens! And it’s good.

Write using the points above and you’ll be surprised how good your work can be. This applies not just to marketing pieces, but to emails and other materials as well.

Congratulations in advance, and welcome to the copywriter’s club!

The author is a New Hampshire copywriter specializing in business-to-business advertising, brochures, websites, direct mail and other media. See examples of Patrick Gillam’s work at itellyousell.com.