Speak Directly to Them
In the world of creative writing most in the literary world hold second person perspective up in disgust as something you should almost never, ever bother with. Oh sure, you have those rare successful second person perspective stories that get well known, but when compared to the rest of the writing world, these are rare things.
For those who don’t know, second person perspective deals with saying the word you a lot. You’re talking to the reader, usually with the idea of the person reading being the main character instead. This is the entire framework for the story that you are the main character and the writing is speaking directly to you. As I’m sure many will have noticed, I’m writing in it right now, and most marketing articles you see will probably be written in it too.
I won’t bother going into the details of why those literary types hate this style of writing so much, but I will say that for the marketing world, second person perspective should be your best friend instead of your enemy.
If you intend to print brochures or write anything of any length you need to consider using second person perspective for any kind of marketing you get done.
The reason why this type of writing works so much better for marketing is because you need to connect your message with your customers. Marketing is about telling them why your product is going to be best for them. You have to find a way to make them see themselves using your product or your service in their everyday life if you want them to consider buying anything.
The customer is the star of your marketing and the only person that matters to you. Everything is geared towards them and how things will help them out. This is the main thrust of your marketing, and that’s why it helps to talk directly to them.
The reason why I mentioned using this when you print brochures is because this is one of the times when you’ll be writing more than a few key sentences. To keep a person reading you need to connect it heavily to them.
The better you know your customers the easier this naturally becomes, too. If you can write about who they are and what problems they have in their lives, and then follow that up by saying how your product can specifically help them out, you’ll go a long way towards getting their interest.
Don’t let the literary world’s aversion to second person perspective stop you from making good use of this style for your work. You might not be writing high art, but you will certainly be writing something that can help keep your business remain strong, and bring those customers in. Really, isn’t that the real indicator of what makes marketing work?