Reminder: Message Strategy is a principled approach to what you say and how you say it — in order to achieve a goal. There are 4 principles: Customer-centric, clear, compelling, and controlled. AKA the 4 Cs. AKA The 4 things that make a message work™.
A compelling message is one that stops and moves. How can it do both? Well obviously you want to move people to action. But you have to get their attention first.
A compelling message is one that stops and moves.
Take an ad, for example. The first job of an ad is not to communicate anything. It’s to stop the viewer. Get them to cease the scrolling. Interrupt the page-flipping. Let off the fast-forward. Because if you don’t stop them, then nothing else matters, right? Your message never has a prayer if it doesn’t get seen.
The first job of an ad is not to communicate anything. It’s to stop the viewer.
Let’s look at a classic example.
The Volkswagen Lemon ad is one of the all-time greats, one of the most famous ads in history. (I’m proud to say I own a tearsheet of it.) Observe the simple stopping power of this design. The pronounced hierarchy. The shocking claim. What company would disparage their own product? Really, they’re saying their car is no good? It’s totally unexpected, right? I’ve gotta read this, see what this is about. And when I do, it tells me a story that makes a point.
So, storytelling, right? Not a new idea, but very powerful. This ad is irresistible, unforgettable, and a timeless example of compelling.
Definitions of compelling:
Merriam-Webster:
Webster:
Dictionary.com:
Let me channel my inner Mississippi here: If it ain’t compelling, it ain’t gonna work. Plain and simple.
But let’s break it down. A compelling message gets noticed. It sets your brand apart. It creates a connection between you and your audience. It gets remembered. And maybe, just maybe, it gets shared. (Because everybody wants to go viral, haha.)
Potentially, a compelling message does all the work of the AIDA model. That is, it leads the audience through successive stages of Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. As your sales reps will tell you, that’s a funnel. (AIDA is the original funnel, going back to 1910 or before. You should know your AIDA history.)
A compelling message:
Here’s another fine example of a compelling message.
The color. The cuss word. The type treatment. This is an ad that stands out. Job 1? Done. Even more so, it connects with its audience emotionally. You get me. I appreciate you. Powerful.
One of the most powerful ways to make your messaging compelling is to express it as an idea. As you may know, advertising is all about “the big idea.” Or, as we say in the biz, the “concept.” My entire copywriting career was a constant pursuit of the killer concept.
What makes something an idea? How do you know when you have a “concept”? Some creative directors say “I’ll know it when I see it.” Funny, but frustrating. Let’s see if we can do better. Following is what the American Heritage Dictionary (my ol’ fave) says.
Idea:
Concept:
And here’s what I say: In marcomm, a concept is a creative expression of meaning beyond mere facts. It provokes (thoughts, feelings), stokes (imagination, action), and sometimes, jokes.
(Just don’t go too far with your concept, or else you might obscure meaning. Creative that does so is undisciplined, and allows compelling to become the enemy of clear.)
A concept provokes, stokes, and sometimes, jokes.
Consider my definition of Message Strategy: A principled approach to what you say and how you say it. An idea or concept is largely the “how you say it” part. Not the raw information, but the style, manner, or form by which you convey that information.
The previous two examples demonstrate this:
| Concept | Not a concept |
|---|---|
| “Lemon” | “Volkswagen has extremely attentive quality control.” |
| “PMS f*cking sucks.” | “FLO fixes hormonal acne, mood swings, cramps & bloating.” |
Get it? You can see more examples of concepts in my portfolio.
Okay, enough about that. Beyond the concept — even if one does not exist — there are compelling techniques. Like, feature images. Write verby. Appeal to emotions. Tell stories. And where appropriate, employ Robert Cialdini’s principles of influence (more on these later).
If your business model is hurting for a point of difference (for example, you’re a distributor of commodities), these techniques can actually help distinguish you from your competition.
Storytelling in particular has had a lot of buzz. And it deserves it. I’ll spare you a speech on the power of stories. You can find plenty on that. But I do want to say this: I fear that to some degree storytelling has been misunderstood (at best) and co-opted (at worst). I base this on personal experience. When this year’s new marketing initiative is “we’ve got to tell our story” — and yet the “story” is the same old value proposition as last year, somebody doesn’t get it. What is a story? You knew the answer when you were little. It starts “once upon a time.” A story is a thing that happened.
Here’s an example of storytelling:
Notice this breaks the rule of making your message about the audience. The power of story outweighs that (although I would suggest a stronger headline).
Stories are gold. You have to mine for them. The best way to dig them up: Conduct one-on-one interviews.
Stories are gold. You have to mine for them.
To make a message compelling:
From a writing standpoint, you want to be verby. Verbs are where the action is. You want a healthy number of verbs, few adjectives, and very few adverbs.
I once worked with a gal named Katie Price, a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Phenomenally talented. She taught me to think of writing like managing a budget. You have a fixed number of dollars in the bank to spend on words. Nouns and verbs are cheap. Adjectives cost more. And adverbs are really, really expensive. So you have no choice but to limit them.
I think of it this way: Adverbs and adjectives are helping words. Meaning they exist to prop up a word that isn’t strong enough to stand on its own. Your goal should be to use strong words that don’t need crutches. If a noun needs an adjective, maybe you need a different noun. An adverb, God forbid, modifies a verb, or worse, it modifies an adjective which modifies a noun or verb. Which means an adverb is sometimes a helper of a helper. That’s some serious weakness going on. Again, you need stronger words, and that takes some extra effort. Either that, or you’re trying way too hard to intensify what you’re saying. You may be exaggerating, in fact. Which creates credibility problems. People can smell it when you stretch it. My own little rule: If it ends in -ly, it sounds like a lie.
People can smell it when you stretch it.
(Okay, I know there’s at least one of you out there who’s gonna go through this piece and count all the adverbs just to show me up. Come at me, bro.)
Anyway, for strength, you want that active voice, not passive (is, am, are, was, were). And marketing adores the imperative mood (a direct command, with the understood you as the subject; it’s the staple of CTAs).
If you’ve got facts to support your argument, present them. If you’ve got stories, tell them. If you’ve got features, translate them to benefits.
And keep in mind the incredible work of Dr. Robert Cialdini, who gives us these principles of persuasion:
Verbal ways to be compelling:
Most of your stopping power comes in the form of contrast from your message’s environment. If there’s a white page full of black type, the overall effect is a large gray area. You pop a color illustration in there, and you’ve got eyeballs. If the environment is cluttered, create an open area, roomy, with lots of white space. You get the idea.
You know what visual hierarchy is — things arranged in size order. To arrest attention, use a pronounced hierarchy. You do this by exaggerating the gap between the biggest element and all the others. This creates a sense of drama. And we all love drama. Admit it. It’s irresistible.
This campaign we did for Regus is a good example. Notice the dramatic difference in the space allotted for the headline and the relative size of all the other elements. Flipping through an airline magazine, you’re not going to miss this. That’s stopping power. Also, notice how the words reflect the feelings of the target audience. That’s emotional appeal.
Of course, if you can depict or demonstrate a product advantage, you should totally do so. Or use a side-by-side comparison. As they say, seeing is believing.
Visual ways to be compelling:
Absolutely. Most of the above are explicit ways. But there are also esoteric ways. And there are exceptions. More on this in a future blog post.
A message that’s dull is the enemy of compelling. Dull messages are easy to ignore and have no effect. It’s easy and common to miss opportunities. Is your messaging dull?
Want to learn more about making your message compelling? Check out these standout works.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
Your input can help me refine the principles of Message Strategy, so I can better help others.
Being compelling is a big part of what makes a message effective. Do you agree or disagree with these assertions? Hit me with your cheers and challenges.
Ready to prove or disprove the compelling principle? Send me some examples.
Are you creating sales playbooks? An ad campaign? A tagline? How would you rate your own messaging in terms of being compelling?
Need to ensure adoption of your sales program, new product offering, or company strategy? Let’s talk.
