How to Write a Marketing Message using Compelling Sound Bites

A well-crafted marketing message should be made up of “sound bites” that emotionally connect and move people into action. Emotionally compelling sound bites are a critical tool for building a charismatic personal brand and for writing marketing materials that turn prospects into paying customers!

by Ellen Looyen
Personal Branding and Marketing Strategist

Ellen Looyen

A "sound bite" is a way to string words together that will connect your marketing message to both sides of your prospect’s brain.

The words that you use to describe what you do and the benefits your product or service deliver, need to connect first to the emotional right side of the brain…to leave people with a positive feeling. Then their left-brain needs to justify and rationalize that good feeling, by believing in the promise of a tangible benefit and guaranteed results, before a sale can happen.

The right-brain thinks in pictures and is always in the present moment. That’s why using emotionally compelling sound bites (for brand-building, writing marketing materials and for use in sales presentations) is so effective.

The left-brain, on the other hand, wants tangible results and benefits because it thinks linearly. Your left-brain is always asking “what in it for me”; and it’s all about the past and future. The left-brain carefully categorizes and organizes all information and associates it with our past, or projects info into the future.

So the sound bites you use for writing your marketing materials need to first grab someone’s emotional attention; and then they need to justify the claim, logically, in order to back it up, so the left-brain is also satisfied that it’s actually getting a tangible result.

Describe what’s in it for your clients…

For a sound bite to work, it must do double duty—connect emotionally first, and later it must make logical sense and answer (in a very tangible and beneficial way): what’s in it for your client.

You can compose sound bites for your marketing materials with:

? a fascinating phrase
? an interesting fact
? an anecdote of human-interest
? using emotionally charged language

The first step to creating your own sound bites is to think about what you want your clients to do, think, or know.

Take a moment to answer the following questions.

? What do people need to know?
? How can I help them?
? What action do I want people to take?

Here are some examples from clients of mine, using some of the above suggestions:

? A Professional Organizer said: “80% of the paper you keep is never referred to again.”

? A Management Consultant, who specializes in team building and organizational development, said: “How you make others feel, is the most important factor in the quality of your relationships.”

? A Financial Planner said: “It’s never too early or too late to develop a customized plan for accumulating wealth.”

? A Nutritionist said: “I will help you show hungry who’s boss.”

? A Landscape Architect said: “Landscaping is the only investment that’s guaranteed to grow.”

? A Marketing Consultant said: “Not spending money on marketing is like stopping your watch to save time.”

Here are some more tips for writing compelling Sound Bites, followed by a real-life example:

1. Angle your message to the kinds of people you want to attract…

“We have a customized workout plan for busy people who can’t find the time to exercise.”

2. Demonstrate how you can solve their problem…

“Cosmetic dentistry doesn’t have to be expensive—it can be as simple as whitening and shaping.”

3. Ask a gripping question, for which you have the answer…

“Are your people driving your business where you need it to go?”

4. De-bunk a commonly held belief/myth…

“Working with a professional image consultant is not about buying all new expensive clothes…it’s about how you put your look together with what you already have.”

5. Connect emotionally first, and logically later…

“Experience the self-empowerment of being a published author…I’ll show you how, with my easy, step-by-step writing process.”

The hardest thing about writing marketing materials is creating emotionally compelling sound bites. Hopefully, I’ve given you several good starters…so grab your laptop and fill in some of the phrases and questions from above. Even if you can’t create a professional marketing message, hopefully, you will, at the very least, get an enhanced sense of your own value and have a few more ways to communicate it out into the world.