TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
IMO, I agree with your post but I think you've got it backwards insofar as the order of the points you hit. I believe you should start by giving the potential customer the rundown on the benefits that can be provided by the ThingMaster 2000(tm). Especially if the reader is a business/finance type.
If you start with a suit by telling him the product will save his company 50k per quarter, he'll be likely to read on, wondering how the !$ -at- # you're going to save him so much money. That's when you tell him your product has a telepathic interface. If he is interested enough to wonder if it could be true, he'll ask his tech people to give him an opinion. But if he doesn't know an interface from the intarwebs and doesn't care, if you start by telling him about the product features he may turn off at that moment and not get far enough to be told about the benefits. You can start by bragging about features if the reader is a tech type, and maybe he'll be interested enough to continue to read about benefits.
Proper audience identification at the start of the project is important, even in marketing writing.
Admittedly this is an opinion only - your mileage may vary.
--- On Tue, 5/5/09, jlshaeffer -at- aol -dot- com <jlshaeffer -at- aol -dot- com> wrote:
From: jlshaeffer -at- aol -dot- com <jlshaeffer -at- aol -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Shazam! You're a marketing writer!
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 2:14 PM
1. The benefits are what make it exciting to your audience. The story is about solving their problems and increasing their wealth.
2. The mantra I learned was Feature > Function > Benefit. Never mention a feature or its function without pinning down its benefit to the audience (What's in it for ME?)
3. Be annoyingly obvious about the benefit. Do not assume that the audience will connect the dots for you.
4. . As for:
"Trade-Mangler IV users enjoy direct connectivity via the S.W.I.F.T network and
I.S.O protocol to custodian banks."
There's no benefit to be seen there.
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
