Crafting an Effective Message

• 5/28/2015
• Industry News
• Victoria Moore

Do you have a story or message you want to share with a targeted audience? Here at Largemouth, we understand the importance of being champion content strategists for our clients.

Based on a few recent articles, we’ve pulled together a step-by-step guide of tips and best practices for creating such persuasive, interesting and innovative messages that meet clients’ needs and work to engage targeted audiences.

The Headline – PR Daily lays out the importance of crafting the perfect headline for your content. Whether it’s a pitch or contributed editorial article, the headline should entice the reader to keep reading. You can do this by following these simple steps:

• Make a logical connection, not a witty remark
  • Create a headline that complements your content and piques interest; avoid using a headline just because it’s clever
• Make it short enough to tweet, but long enough to get the point across
• Don’t be shy, share your ideas
  • Bounce headline ideas off of coworkers, friends or anyone that will provide honest feedback
• There is no shame in going back to the drawing board
  • If you’re story is not receiving the attention you desire, rework the headline

The Message – PR Daily also provides insight into what makes a message stick. From writing social media content to developing news releases, the below tips will help you get your point across:

• Lather, rinse and repeat
  • Don’t be afraid to repeat your argument or point to the audience; this will help make an impact in your audience’s memory
• Act natural
  • Avoid “fancy words” that aren’t used in day-to-day language
    • Ex. “solid slate barrier access controls” vs. “doorknobs”
  • Try to eliminate “mumblespeak” from your messages
    • Ex. “physical transformation to optimize the sensory experience” vs.“hospital’s new emergency department”
• Always, always remember the audience
  • Include why your message matters for the audience; this is what will bring audience members in and keep them reading

Audience Engagement – Finally, Ad Week discusses the importance of providing visual content in order to achieve greater audience engagement. The following suggestions are examples of how to make your content more captivating:

• Who doesn’t love a picture?
  • Providing graphics that represent data or visual support is key to showing, instead of telling, readers why they are investing time in your content
• Always bring something to the party
  • Offer a tangible deliverable
    • Ex. If you read this blog post, your messages will receive more attention and therefore, will be more effective.
• What’s next?
  • Give your audience something to do once they are finished reading your content
    • Ex. Follow us on social media, share the article and use a hashtag, visit a website, go to an event

By following these steps PR professionals can better develop content that is more clear, concise and relevant so that clients’ messages prove to be as effective as possible.