Show-Don't-Tell Marketing: enhance your marketing communications by using "picture-words"

"Show, don't tell!"
Yes, that annoying piece of feedback you received from your your 6th grade English teacher in creative writing class is as important for marketers to practice as it is for writers of fiction.

Let’s illustrate the point by looking at the following tag lines:

• "Use Lowenstein’s fertilizer and ensure the health & vitality of your lawn!"
• "Use Lowenstein’s fertilizer – it’ll make your lawn so green, so thick, and so soft you’ll ditch your bed and sleep outside on your grass!"

So how do these two tag lines differ? (Other than the 1 sentence vs. 2 sentence thing)

Unlike tag line 2, you can’t see tag line 1 in your mind’s eye. T1 uses non-visual, conceptual words like "health" and "vitality". T2 goes the visual route. It paints a picture in your head - you sleeping on a plush bed of the greenest grass.

Tag line 2 brings the benefits of Lowenstein’s fertilizer to life. Tag line 1 requires that YOU bring it to life, which requires mental energy – a non-starter for today’s consumers.

An easy tool for improving your sales & marketing copy

Step 1 - Assess
Take your sales copy, email campaign, landing page or what have you, and ask:

• Do the words paint a picture in my mind? How vivid is that picture?
• Does the picture clearly express the core benefit of my product? (Why paint a beautiful picture that doesn’t help sell your product?)

Step 2 - Identify
Identify the conceptual/abstract words in your copy – those words that don't paint clear pictures in your head.

Step 3 - Improve
Take the list of conceptual words you identified in Step 2 and do either of the following:

• Replace these conceptual words with visual counterparts
• Add visual words to your copy that bring your conceptual words to life. For example, if you're using the word "healthy", you can add visual words like "32-inch waistline", "glowing, beautiful skin", "well-sculpted muscles", etc.

In closing... whether your 6th grade English teacher had strong coffee breath, a grating voice, or a curious way of holding his chalk, when he shouted those three little words, “Show, Don’t Tell!” he was speaking the Marketing Gospel. Heed his words. Because if the consumer can't see the benefits he'll receive from your product, the consumer won't buy it. Amen.