This text is the second in a three-part collection on differentiating your content material by expressing your self with verve and colour.
Within the first piece, I coated the way to infuse your advertising content material with delicate humor.
On this piece, we’ll have a look at 3 ways to energy up and differentiate your content material through the use of recent, detailed language:
- The seasoning approach.
- The least-obvious approach.
- The food-sex approach.
First up is the seasoning approach.
1. Differentiate your advertising content material with seasoning
To distinguish your advertising content material, season it with colour and taste simply as you’d season your … [+]
In line with Oxford Languages, seasoning is “salt, herbs, or spices added to meals to boost the flavour.”
To season meals, you start with one thing naked and bland, like broccoli, rooster, or pasta, after which add taste to make it scrumptious.
The identical is true for advertising content material, particularly business-to-business content material as a result of it’s typically dry and bland.
Right here’s an instance of the seasoning approach utilizing bullet factors I would embody on my LinkedIn profile.
First, the tasteless model—simply the info; observe that you would be able to write bland variations rapidly:
- Content material editor
- Former accountant
- Born in Philly, now in western North Carolina
The seasoned model:
- Content material editor; message and which means maker
- Degreed quantity cruncher; former accountant
- Native of Philadelphia, the Metropolis of Brotherly Love, now in Hendersonville, the Metropolis of 4 Seasons
Season bland, boring advertising content material with ramped-up, detailed language.
You should utilize this method in most types of advertising content material, together with product descriptions, touchdown pages, emails, and web sites.
Allbirds: An instance of the seasoning approach
Allbirds, the eco-friendly footwear and attire firm, does an exquisite job with seasoned language on its web site.
- On the Allbirds dwelling web page, this nugget stands out:
“Summer season journeys want tremendous packable sneakers. We’ve acquired your 10,000 steps coated, simple.”
- Its partner page highlights a design collaboration with candy language:
“We partnered with London-based designer Olivia Rubin to reimagine the Riser via sorbet-colored glasses. With hints of colour and delicate bursts of happiness—it’s like a superb temper you’ll be able to lace up and put on.”
Are you able to think about the less-interesting, less-differentiating variations of that replicate?
- House web page: Our sneakers are simple to pack for summer time journeys.
- Companion web page: We partnered with London-based designer Olivia Rubin to reimagine the Riser. (Interval. Full cease.)
The purpose right here is to not stress about what you wish to talk. Simply write one thing, something, down rapidly.
If inspiration feels distant, simply write something, even when it is boring and bland. You may come again … [+]
Then, after giving your mind an opportunity to make connections and which means, return and season the draft.
2. Differentiate your advertising content material by together with the least-obvious
One other approach for differentiating your content material and expressing your self with aptitude is to share the least-obvious issues about your self or your model.
Take your skilled bio, for example. Most individuals embody particulars about their work and expertise. If you would like your bio to face out, share what others don’t.
In my case, I may share that:
- My mom was born in Germany.
- I’m fascinated by early images.
- I’d love to bounce like John Travolta in “Saturday Night time Fever.”
- I’m a deltiologist—I collect postcards.
Differentiate your advertising content material and entice your supreme prospects by sharing the least-obvious … [+]
These info could not enchantment to you, however they are going to enchantment to some individuals—and people individuals could also be my supreme prospects.
Ben & Jerry’s: An instance of the least-obvious approach
Ben & Jerry’s makes use of the least-obvious approach on its About page, sharing how the corporate began after finishing a $5 mail-order course in 1978.
“With a $5 correspondence course in ice cream-making from Penn State and a $12,000 funding ($4,000 of it borrowed), Ben and Jerry open their first ice cream scoop store in a renovated gasoline station in Burlington, Vermont.”
The little-known fac that the founders began the corporate after taking a mail-order course appeals to me as a result of I really like mail and dreamed of taking many correspondence programs again within the day.
The least-obvious approach is without doubt one of the secrets and techniques to my success as a advertising author
Utilizing the least-obvious approach is without doubt one of the secrets and techniques of my success as a advertising author. When writing and modifying for patrons, I at all times dig deep, searching for glimmers of gold—distinctive, non-obvious info—to degree up the content material and make it stand out.
Now you need to use the approach as nicely.
3. Differentiate your advertising content material with meals intercourse
I guess you’re intrigued by the title of this method.
Actually, I name it the “make brains listen” approach. I modified the title to “meals intercourse” to make your mind listen.
Did it work?
Did I tickle your reticular activating system through the use of the phrase “meals intercourse”?
If that’s the case, it’s as a result of I tickled your reticular activating system (RAS), an inside mechanism in your thoughts that consistently scans your surroundings for issues of curiosity to you.
Your RAS is accountable for the phenomena that happen whenever you:
- Purchase a brand new automobile after which out of the blue discover that automobile far and wide.
- Wish to drop some pounds and consistently discover match people.
- Really feel famished and are lured by luscious smells on the truthful.
However the RAS can be accountable for noticing the unusual in on a regular basis conditions, which is why the food-sex approach is especially nice for headlines and whenever you wish to cease readers of their tracks or make them do a double-take.
Listed below are a number of phrases and statements that may set off somebody’s RAS and make brains listen:
- Candlelit brawl
- Chunk the bagel
- Curse in disguise
- Give him the chilly toe
The food-sex approach is nice for stopping readers of their tracks and making them do a double-take.
Business Insider is nice at utilizing it. Have a look at a few of these current headlines:
- Cease going close to bison! 2 vacationers have been gored in nationwide parks in every week and officers are urging individuals to remain away.
- New York Gen Zs are going wild for a stew that’s been brewing for a month. Wait till they discover out about Bangkok’s 50-year-old soup.
- Llamas don’t drink a lot water. Meta’s new AI model is rattling thirsty.
This thirsty llama is a scroll stopper in a headline for example of the “make brains pay … [+]
Would these unusual headlines seize your consideration? They did mine.
Developing subsequent…
Within the closing article on this collection, coming quickly, we’ll dive into the third thought for differentiating your content material: By infusing it with the very best of your self and your model.