1. Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

2. WTF? Don’t cause your readers, users, browsers, existing customers or potential clients to do this. You will lose them and you won’t even know. Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

3. Re-code Your Thinking SHIFT PERSPECTIVE DEFINE AUDIENCE UNDERSTAND FEATURES v. BENEFITS Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

4. Shift Perspective Too Close Too Far Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

5. Start Here Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

6. Get to Street Level Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

7. Think Like a Customer What keeps them up at night? What problem can your product or service solve? What distinguishes your product/service from competitors? Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

8. Define Your Audience Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

9. Eh. http://www.philips.co.uk Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

10. Blah, blah, blah. http://www.aveillant.com Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

11. Nice. http://usertify.com Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

12. Does everything right. http :// www.automatic.co m Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

13. Features Tell. Benefits Sell  Benefits show “What’s in it for me?”  Benefits appeal to emotion.  Benefits allow prospects to imagine themselves using your product or service.  “Benefit” by definition is something of value or usefulness.  Benefits speak to customers on their terms – not yours.  Benefits connect the dots.  Benefits help people recognize themselves and they perk up. Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

14. Understand Benefits v Features Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

15. Features, features, features Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

16. “Effortless” is powerful Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

17. Benefits for two distinct audiences Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

18. Check for Readability  http://www.read-able.com/ http://www.read-able.com/  Awesome post from Raven Tools on readability measures: http://raventools.com/blog/ultimate-list-of-online-content- readability-tests/ http://raventools.com/blog/ultimate-list-of-online-content- readability-tests/  At a 7 th -8 th grade level content will capture 80 % of U.S. adults. Many resources suggest 6 th grade level is better.  Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease, 1-100 (100 is harder)  SMOG test may stand for “Simple Measure of Gobbledygook” and uses a formula that involves words with 3 or more syllables and the square root of something. Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

19. But my customers/clients /are smart. Of course they are. But ask yourself: Do they read websites or marketing materials for fun? How hard do I want to make them work? What is wrong with making content easier to understand? Do you want to impress them or get them to buy your stuff? Won’t they love me more if I make it easy for them? Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

20. Techniques Glossaries Examples Problems Solved/Case Studies Crowd Source Leverage early adopters to spread the word Short User Reviews Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle

21. Content Connects the Dots Copyright 2013 Content that Connects and Pamela Coyle