Recommended listening for this piece: The Way You Look Tonight featuring Maynard Ferguson*
Do you find that your response rates are falling off in your email newsletters? Are your readers abandoning your carefully crafted web pages in just a few seconds? What about all the in-depth information you’ve careful crafted? Isn’t that what they said they wanted when you surveyed them?
Sure they did, but sometime you need to hit hard and fast. Throw in a change-up pitch, followed by a fast ball.
In jazz terms, a “burner” is a fast or up-tempo rendition of a song – usually VERY fast and lively, best when applied unexpectedly to a traditionally slow tune. Fast, lively, energetic – all good things when applied to your writing, too.
- In-depth is great, so is exhaustive detail, but sometimes your readers will appreciate something snappy, driving, and fresh.
- You want to convince your readers of something? Don’t drown them in detail. Give them a little taste, entice them with the possibilities.
- Who said product literature had to be boring? Who wants web sites that are only long lists of specs? Who couldn’t use a little expresso every now and then. Make mine a doppio con panna.
- And what’s better for a call to action and a sense of urgency that good old fashioned, Jack Webb style, “Just the facts, ma’am”?
- When your email blast and newsletters aren’t working, throw in a burner, a short, sweet offer, and just that. Only that. Make it sing. Make it impossible to resist. It’s not a good deal. It’s a GREAT deal.
You can always follow up with a ballad – the long slow story, and they’ll be ready for it. But you’ve got to catch their attention. You’ve got to get them moving.
Here’s a nice, snappy example from technology evangelist Guy Kawaski, and it gets bonus points for containing the magic word “Free”. It’s a burner. Kawaski gets right to the point, then gets you to click thru for the meat of the subject – which is, by the way, a very interesting panel discussion.
Communicating is about tempo. So try something a little up-tempo and see what happens!
*The suggested album track is from one of my favorite jazz albums. Look for it from the Verve Jazz Masters Collection, filled with some great hard bop, including “King’s Riff” and “Love me or Leave Me.” I need to dig out the old vinyl LP – it has a few more tracks than are offered online.
