Writing is at the heart of good communication.
Think about your job. You are probably writing all the time. You’ve possibly stopped writing to read this.
Press releases, crisis media management statements, emails, social media posts, marketing material, pitches, website content and internal communication articles are just some components of the comms pro’s job description.
All require words that captivate, compel, motivate, convince and inspire.
This is why the next Media First masterclass, which is exclusively for members of The Media Team Academy, focuses on helping you improve your writing skills.
The session will be led by Jackie Barrie, a professional writer since the 1980s, who also mentors young copywriters and delivers some of our business writing skills training courses.
Ahead of the session – and to give you more idea of what it will cover – Jackie shared with me one technique you can use now to ensure your readers care about what you have to say.
It is called ‘bottom-up’ writing, and it focuses on using ‘you’ and ‘your’ in your copy.
“I call using ‘you’ and ‘your’ bottom-up copywriting,” Jackie said.
“And the more you use them, the more interesting your writing will be to your reader.”
How does it work?
“In the diagram, we have you and the message you want to get across,” Jackie said.
“That message probably includes words like ‘I’, ‘our’, ‘we’, ‘us’, and the company name. This is what I call top-down copywriting. It is written from the company’s point of view.
“Your task is to get your message into the other person’s brain. The problem is they already have something in their brain.
“It is the thought of ‘what’s in it for me?’ (WIIFM).
“The only two words that answer the question are ‘you’ and ‘your’.”
So, how often should you use ‘you’ and ‘your’ in your writing?
Jackie said: “If you want a ratio of how often you should use bottom-up language compared to top-down, I think it should be at least 2:1. But it is not an exact science.
“The most important thing is to have all the ‘you’ and ‘your’ language at the top of your message. And the company-focused language at the bottom.
“A way to assess this is to take a piece of your writing and colour code it. So, you might mark everything that you recognise as top-down in red. And anything where you have used ‘you’ or ‘your’ in green.
“You will then get an instant snapshot of your writing style. You are aiming to get all the green in the top half or top two-thirds of your document because no one cares what you do until they know what you can do for them.
“That makes people seem very selfish and self-absorbed. But they are thinking ‘what’s in it for me?’. And your writing needs to answer that question, especially at the top, to hook them in and ensure they carry on reading.
“It is the difference between saying ‘we offer five different data storage drives’ compared to ‘you can choose from five different storage drives’. It is just a switch of perspective. You are putting yourself in the reader’s shoes. And it is powerful.”
Can you use this bottom-up technique in all forms of business writing?
Jackie thinks so.
“You cannot overuse the word ‘you’. It communicates directly with the reader’s brain, and they don’t notice it.
“The only way you could overuse it is if you were doing something like a job advert and it was all demands - ‘you must do this’, ‘you must have that’.
“Like all writing, your starting point has to be the reader. And using ‘you’ and ‘your’ is one of the easiest and main ways to do that.”
Having spent most of my working life either receiving or writing press releases, I was fascinated by how the technique could improve them.
Jackie said: “Well, with press releases, it is slightly different because you are doing a one-to-many communication rather than a one-to-one communication.
“But the point to remember is that people read it one at a time. So, you might be writing it in the hope thousands or millions of people will read it. But they will be sitting in their chair, in front of their device, reading it on their own, one at a time. So, the word ‘you’ is singular, not plural. And that might be how you switch it for some of those messages.
“The other thing with a press release is that you are probably writing it in a more neutral way. So, you might say ‘here is what we do for clients’ rather than ‘here is what we do for you’. But even that would be a top-down expression.”
While on the subject of press releases, we’ve all seen and maybe written ones that include quotes along the lines of “we are excited to announce that…”.
I was curious to hear what Jackie made of those.
“No one cares how excited you are,” she said.
“If you want to get across excitement to your readers, you need to write in an exciting way. And for that, you take a lesson from novelists. They wouldn’t write ‘he was angry’. They would say, ‘he stormed into the room shouting and smashed all the ornaments off the mantlepiece’.
“It is all about show, don’t tell.
“But in all writing, I would tend to avoid adjectives because they are just empty fluff. You see them everywhere. But it doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do.”
But let’s get back to bottom-up language. Could it be used in crisis media management responses? Or do organisations need to go back to using ‘we’ in these situations?
“Let’s say a banking system has gone down, and people can’t access their accounts,” Jackie said.
“They will want to know why they can't get to their money and make transfers and payments.
“You need to recognise that, be honest and open, and say, ‘we know this has been causing you problems’.
“Then you can say, ‘we are doing everything we can, and we will let you know as soon as it is fixed’.
“You can see there I am using some ‘we’ language – you don’t need to banish it altogether. But you need to use it intelligently and in the right way.”
As well as exploring bottom-up writing in more detail during the masterclass, Jackie will cover:
- A copywriting formula you can use to structure all your business writing
- Why and how to attract attention with your headline
- Ways to generate desire in your reader
- How to prompt them to take the action you want them to take
The business writing skills masterclass takes place on Thursday 26 May at 11am. If you are a member of The Media Team Academy, check your inbox for the invite.
If you’re not a member then you cant can’t get access. But we can sort that easily – so just drop us a line at hello@mediafirst.co.uk or give us a call on 0118 9180530 and ask to speak to someone about signing up to The Media Team Academy.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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