{"id":1913,"date":"2018-06-14T10:38:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T14:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=1913"},"modified":"2018-06-12T20:09:41","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T00:09:41","slug":"marketing-rhetoric-writing-and-mr-rogers-a-primer-of-sorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2018\/06\/marketing-rhetoric-writing-and-mr-rogers-a-primer-of-sorts\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing, Rhetoric, Writing, and Mr. Rogers (a primer, of sorts)"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">One of the best examples that I&#8217;ve ever seen of psychology, copywriting, and kindness all wrapped together <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OAI7HDdcWm\">https:\/\/t.co\/OAI7HDdcWm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ramit Sethi (@ramit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ramit\/status\/1005828966861754369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">This is a tremendous example of practical rhetoric: understanding an audience deeply and meeting them where they are\u2014without assumptions or bias\u2014so you can guide their thinking in a way that\u2019s a win for everyone. If there was ever an example of &#8220;white-hat marketing,&#8221; then this is it:\u00a0<em>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/archive\/2018\/06\/mr-rogers-neighborhood-talking-to-kids\/562352\/\">Mr. Rogers Had a Simple Set of Rules for Talking to Children<\/a>&#8221;\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ol>\n<li><span class=\"s1\">\u201cState the idea you wish to express as clearly as possible, and in terms preschoolers can understand.\u201d Example:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>It is dangerous to play in the street.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase in a positive manner,\u201d as in\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>It is good to play where it is safe.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase the idea, bearing in mind that preschoolers cannot yet make subtle distinctions and need to be redirected to authorities they trust.\u201d As in, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Ask your parents where it is safe to play.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase your idea to eliminate all elements that could be considered prescriptive, directive, or instructive.\u201d In the example, that\u2019d mean getting rid of \u201cask\u201d:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Your parents will tell you where it is safe to play.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase any element that suggests certainty.\u201d That\u2019d be \u201cwill\u201d:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Your parents can tell you where it is safe to play.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase your idea to eliminate any element that may not apply to all children.\u201d Not all children know their parents, so:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cAdd a simple motivational idea that gives preschoolers a reason to follow your advice.\u201d Perhaps:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is good to listen to them.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase your new statement, repeating the first step.\u201d \u201cGood\u201d represents a value judgment, so:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cRephrase your idea a \ufb01nal time, relating it to some phase of development a preschooler can understand.\u201d Maybe:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them, and listening is an important part of growing.<\/i><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I write and have written all sorts of things (DIY books and essays and textbooks and book reviews and reference articles and newspaper stories and business columns and fiction and <em>blah, blah, blah<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0For the last decade\u00a0most of my money has come from\u00a0writing marketing copy.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re covering your bills that way, then you quickly learn the\u00a0First Noble Truth\u00a0of Marketing:<br \/>\n<center><em><strong>You need to meet people where they are<\/strong>.<\/em><\/center><br \/>\nYou cannot &#8220;create demand,&#8221; only meet it.\u00a0 You cannot &#8220;educate customers,&#8221; only furnish names for things they already feel in their hearts. Everyone is busy and distractible.\u00a0 Everyone hates ads and hates marketing.\u00a0They have absolutely no desire to bother figuring you out; you need to figure them out and talk to them where they are.<\/p>\n<p>And once you grok that First Noble Truth, you instantly understand the Second Noble Truth of Marketing:<br \/>\n<center><em><strong>All writing\u2014every article, every story, every poem, every email\u2014is marketing; no one has the desire\u00a0to squander their energy\u00a0figuring you out.\u00a0You must meet them where they are.<\/strong><\/em><\/center><br \/>\nAnd once you meet them, you can take them where you two need to go together.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>FYI: Once I began to grok those Noble Truths, it got a helluva lot easier to write stories that sell and sell the stories I write:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\nYer damn straight it is!  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/achievementUNLOCKED?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#achievementUNLOCKED<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/X01t5Op8Xb\">pic.twitter.com\/X01t5Op8Xb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Erik Nelson (@SquiDaveo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SquiDaveo\/status\/1006288260669366279?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 11, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best examples that I&#8217;ve ever seen of psychology, copywriting, and kindness all wrapped together https:\/\/t.co\/OAI7HDdcWm \u2014 Ramit Sethi (@ramit) June 10, 2018 This is a tremendous example of practical rhetoric: understanding an audience deeply and meeting them where they are\u2014without assumptions or bias\u2014so you can guide their thinking in a way that\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2018\/06\/marketing-rhetoric-writing-and-mr-rogers-a-primer-of-sorts\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Marketing, Rhetoric, Writing, and Mr. Rogers (a primer, of sorts)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11],"tags":[319,55,59,318,316,317,25,320],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1913"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}