Marketing Without the 3 Worst F’s
I thought about coining the term “F-less Marketing,” but that leaves out a whole lot of appropriate (and not-so-appropriate-but-cheeky) options.
Plenty of articles detail valuable F’s in marketing strategy: focus, feedback, funnels, familiarity, features – the alliterative parade goes on.
But let’s take a look at three common F-ing tactics that, while not necessarily always bad, have way more dynamic counterparts to use.
#1: Fabricating Desire
Wise marketers more experienced than me have honed in on this key: effective copy amplifies existing desire rather than trying to frenzy it out of the blue.
Fabricating desire is mostly a problem because it’s inefficient. It’s also a tiresome contributor to cycles of excess, waste, and ad overload.
Instead, what existing needs can you find through market research to build from? And crucially, what can you then bring into your audience’s field of awareness that other providers aren’t capitalizing on? The combination of foundational desire + new benefits is responsible and efficient.
#2: Filler
A close cousin to fluff, which most copywriters cut mercilessly after their shitty first draft (to borrow the term from Saint Anne Lamott), filler doesn’t have to be words.
It can also be white space
like this
that people use
to create suspense
and demand scrolling.
And it can be effective,
poetic, even –
(I mean, a good line break
is enough to break your heart) –
but this style is used so frequently
it gets a little old,
and maybe we need some new tricks.
Filler also sneaks in as endless testimonials with little substance, keyword stuffing, and prizing word count over value for SEO.
The best antidote? There’s no easy way around it: find new ways to create value and curiosity for your audience. I detail ideas for email specifically in this post, but here are others:
Judiciously choose testimonials that highlight different strengths of your service or product, rather than piling them all on because more seems better. Give us a concise, well-rounded case for why you’re magic.
Create connective tissue among pieces of your presence without redundancy. What can you add to your blog that’s connected to what you’re doing on social media, but not a mere repetition of it? Give your audience organic reasons to seek out everything you create.
#3: Fear-mongering
Fun to say but terrible to behold, fear-mongering is a potent persuasive tool. Even dramatically appealing to scarcity, though – an effective method to get customers to BUY NOW – is tiring.
It can rear an inner rebel to be told, over and over, THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE, and if you miss out, SO HELP YOU, life as you know it will crumble. Scarcity is typically on the more innocent end of fear-based tactics, but it’s rarely the best route.
A strategy to apply instead is targeting people’s curiosity about change but hesitance about the next step. Rather than sparking fear, reduce it by giving your audience an easy framework and letting them know you understand change and decision-making are hard – and you’re the most conscientious partner on the path forward.
Trade fear for thoughtful storytelling, helping them see how much more abundant and secure life can be with you.
Brilliant copy that rewards curiosity while scaffolding a process is less common than fear-based methods – and, let’s be real, it can be more work for copywriters – but it’s a whole lot more vibrant, and even fun.
And that’s an F word we like, right?
So, two questions for you: where am I wrong and what have I missed? I’d love to hear.
