A lot of marketers miss a critical step when writing marketing copy – and this ‘missing ingredient’ can help your marketing copy resonate with your target audience.
The missing ingredient is the answer to the simple question, ‘why should our target audience care?’
I first heard this concept called ‘the Reason Why.’ This is often missing from marketing, because businesses can sometimes forget to connect the dots for their potential clients. Internally, the reason a law firm markets their practice is to make more money. When we launch marketing to that end, we forget to answer the question from the other side.
Your audience is subconsciously asking, “why should I care?” all the time. We train our brains to scan for important information, and when we don’t understand why a topic is important, we move on. But, marketers can add ‘reason why’ to their marketing and make their message important to their reader.
Let’s look at this concept with two examples. First, let’s imagine a law firm donates a thousand dollars to a local high school track team. Here are two ways the law firm could talk about their contribution:
“We are thrilled to announce that our law firm donated $1000 to Liberty High School’s track team for the 2024 spring season. With this donation, we are helping the local high school team nurture young talent and promote healthy lifestyles.”
The above copy covers all the important details, but it lacks impact. Why should anyone outside the high school and the law firm care about this donation? Here’s how we can improve this marketing with just a few sentences.
“Last year, the Liberty HS track team had to cut twelve athletes from their program because of budget issues. Because of lack of funding, twelve students had to put away their dreams for a 2023 season. Our law firm deeply values local sports, so we took initiative and donated $1000 to our local high school to purchase needed equipment. We hope this donation will help the team expand and to let as many athletes participate as possible, helping to nurture young talent and promote healthy lifestyles.”
The adding ‘reason why’ can take the marketing copy from easy-to-forget to an important message that has the potential to stick with the reader. To develop this marketing copy, you need to do the following:
- Identify The Why: Ask why your marketing is, or should be, important to the reader.
- Spell Out the Stakes: Make sure you connect the dots for your target audience. The simplest way to add this to your marketing copy is using the formula, “If we don’t do X, then this might happen.”
- What Will Change: When you identify a problem in your marketing copy, offer a solution. If your free ebook can help car accident victims avoid a major mistake and save them money, then detail that in your marketing copy.
- Details, Details, Details: Whenever you can, use details or examples in your marketing. If you can’t use real stories, invent hypothetical scenarios to help illustrate your point.
Incorporating ‘reason why’ into your marketing copy can make a big difference in how your target audience responds. By answering their subconscious question of “why should I care?” you can make a stronger connection and persuade them to take action.
So next time you’re writing marketing copy, don’t forget to include the ‘reason why’ – it could be the missing ingredient that helps your message stand out and resonate with your target audience.